Special Report: Less Envelope, More Response
To inspire recipients to open its direct mail packages, Autodesk gave them a glimpse of what’s inside
June 2007
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The campaign was designed to boost awareness and use of Autodesk’s e-Learning resources among subscription customers, primarily engineering designers and architects. E-Learning is a set of online tutorials that helps users improve their proficiency with Autodesk software.
Autodesk historically had communicated with its subscription customers via e-mail but, for the e-Learning initiative, the company wanted a “higher touch,” says Rudiman. “The look and feel were very different from our e-mail communications and I liked the idea of having handouts to share with the team,” she adds.
The poly window proved integral to the e-Learning campaign, helping inspire gatekeepers (in this case, IT administrators) to open the package and to distribute its contents to colleagues. “On the B-to-B side ... moving past the gatekeeper to the key executive is really critical,” stresses Carolyn Goodman, founder and president/managing partner of Goodman Marketing Partners, the direct marketing agency that handled everything from concept and copywriting, to production and fulfillment for the campaign.
To maximize the poly window’s effectiveness, the mailing contents had to be compelling. Following the mailing’s theme—“e-Learning helps productivity soar”—Goodman Marketing Partners designed a paper airplane model to show through the poly window. Also included in the package were four additional paper airplane models for sharing, a letter explaining what e-Learning was and how recipients could use it, as well as a buck slip providing e-Learning access instructions and the titles of available tutorials.
Hollis Brush, production manager for Goodman Marketing Partners, says choosing the right paper for each element was vital. “We explored a number of options in order to make sure we were within our weight limit of postal requirements, while also ensuring that the paper for the outer envelope could handle full ink coverage without any bleed through and that the paper airplane, when assembled, would actually glide through the air easily and support our concept of ‘helping productivity soar’,” she explains.
Also, Goodman Marketing Partners needed to experiment with varying sizes for the poly window to achieve an appropriate balance between visibility and durability. “We had to ... maximize the ‘viewing’ area, but make sure we created enough of an edge to give the envelope substance and hold up through the wear and tear of the USPS,” Brush adds.
The e-Learning campaign was a one-shot mailing distributed internationally, with versions in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. According to Goodman, e-Learning usage prior to the campaign had been extremely low—averaging just a few hundred people a day.
“After we mailed, we had one day where we had 4,000 people log on and use e-Learning lessons,” she says. “We raised the average from a few hundred a day to about 800 a day.”
Based on this success, Goodman Marketing Partners and Autodesk have since carried the poly window envelope over to several other campaigns. “I like the way it looks,” Rudiman says. “It gives recipients a clear and compelling reason to open the envelope.”
Amy Syracuse is a London-based freelance writer.
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