Direct Mail Spotlight: Readymade Magazine

January 8, 2009 By Britt Brouse, Associate Editor, Inside Direct Mail

multipage

No matter how much planning goes into a mail campaign, it all comes down to that do-or-die moment when a prospect brings the day's mail into the house and sorts through it. The latest efforts, no matter how well-planned, will either be tossed in the trash or saved, and even then, only some mailings will ever be opened.

"A lot of folks are out there with vouchers, and that's fine and dandy. But there's a lot of the same size mail out there, and bigger tends to stick out when people grab their mail and get it out of their mailbox," says Grover Kirkman, director of creative services for Meredith Publishing Group in Des Moines, Iowa, who worked on the latest ReadyMade magazine mailer.

In a sea of publication vouchers, ReadyMade's acquisition effort greatly improves its chances of being opened by using a colorful 6" x 11-1/2" jumbette format. "Not only is it going to be taller, it's gonna be longer, so if folks stack the mail, it's going to stick out the end. It'll be something you have to deal with," Kirkman explains.

It resembles advertising mail with bright primary colors, a glitzy sticker involvement device, cover thumbnails, and a loud and clear offer of two years free, all on the outer. Inside are a two-page letter, oversized brochure that folds out into a poster, two free how-to gifts, a buckslip, lift note, reply card and BRE (Archive Code #202-713764-0810).

Sent in September to more than 500,000 prospects, the package was a test format of new creative meant to drive the publication's benefits home. "We came at it from the point of view that there are a lot of items out there that'll help you furnish and decorate your home and kind of express your style, but this magazine is really the only one that speaks to you in a way that feeds your need to be creative and individual[istic]," Kirkman says.

The offer itself, for two free years, was successful when tested in previous mailings, and Kirkman thought it was such a great value that it should be mentioned multiple times on the outer and throughout the package. "Something like a three for one deal or two years free, that's a big story, especially today, when value is important to folks," he says. A sticker involvement device with "2 Years Free" helps take the prospect from the outer to the reply card right away. On the back of the reply card is a "good, better, best" graphic reiterating the value of the two years free offer.