I’ve heard all the statistics.

Direct marketing is like your ugly sister that is incredibly good at knitting. She sure ain’t pretty, but she makes a damn good sweater. When done right, DM has precision targeting, measurability (screw you spell check, that is a word), and an impressive response rate. Although many people discard this medium, lots of consumer act on these offers and make companies all kinds of dough.

To me, it still feels like junk mail. I’m young and don’t receive much of it, so maybe I’m biased. I just know what my parents’ recycle bin looks like every Sunday – full of flyers, print pieces, et al.

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. DM allows for an amazing level of creativity – assuming your client has pretty deep pockets. Here’s an awesome example from Target, who produced this effort for the Candian Sea Turtle Network last year.

Here’s a synopsis from Ads of the World

Free the leatherback’ is a cause driven by the Canadian Sea Turtle Network (CSTN) – a grassroots group based in Nova Scotia, Canada working to help free this critically endangered turtle from commercial fishing gear. CSTN was featured in National Geographic Magazine, so to promote their unique work and their cause, the magazines were sent out, wrapped in fishing net. A personalized, hand-written note was attached to the magazine, informing people of the article and driving them to the Free The Leatherback website. In order to retrieve the note, people had to cut the net to ‘free’ the leatherback article in the magazine. www.freetheleatherback.com

Agency: Target, St. John’s, Newfoundland
CD: Tom Murphy
AD: Bruce Hamilton
Copywriter: Jenny Smith