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SignsXM Launches with Out-of-the-Box Lumpy Mail

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BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

CustomXM added a new division, SignsXM. It wanted to find a unique way to announce its new offerings which included all types of wide format printing, including banners, signage, wall graphics, vehicle graphics and more. CustomXM also wanted to use a cross media, multi-channel approach that would drive results and illustrate CustomXM’s marketing capabilities.

The SignsXM Awesome Banner Thingy Campaign: Complete with personalized box, envelope, personalized mini-banner and a fun-to-follow instruction sheet below. The inside of the box lid had a QR code that led to a fun video

 

RESULTS

CustomXM created a unique, dimensional mail piece that included a personalized mini-banner for all recipients. CustomXM encouraged recipients of their “Awesome Banner Thingys” to post photos on Instagram, which would qualify them for entry into a prize drawing.

420 pieces were mailed to prospects and current clients of CustomXM. Over 12% of recipients responded and completed the online survey. Additionally, over 13% of the recipients posted photos of their Awesome Banner Thingys on  Instagram accounts. Many of these respondents were a different subset than those that responded to the online survey.

The campaign received quite a bit of social media buzz and accolades from local ad agencies. It immediately led to meetings and opportunities for signage and direct mail proposals for clients and prospects. Many of these opportunities led to new business within the first three weeks of the campaign.

This campaign also received national recognition by receiving two Bennys awarded by the Print Industries of America during their Premier Print Awards, an international print competition.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The targeted audience was current clients and prospects of CustomXM.

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE

At CustomXM, they like to market themselves a little differently. They like to use the marketing tools they are constantly advocating, and they like to have a little fun. They accomplished all this and more with their “Awesome Banner Thingy” campaign.

Recently, CustomXM added wide format services to their offerings. They even created a separate division, SignsXM. But they felt that it wouldn’t be enough just to tell folks about these new services, it would be better to show them. And have them show others.

To engage its target audience, CustomXM developed a dimensional mailer – an 8” x 8” x 1.25” box complete with a personalized label informing recipients that a “surprise” was inside. Inside the box was the following:

  • A personalized envelope and note card introducing the new division and services.
  • An instruction sheet showing recipients how to put together their own Awesome Banner Thingy
  • A QR Code that linked to a video explaining how to construct the Awesome Banner Thingy
  • The actual Awesome Banner Thingy which was a 3.25” x 7.5” vinyl banner, personalized with the recipient’s name, complete with a grommet and very tiny banner stand.

To encourage responses recipients were given two opportunities to participate in a prize contest

  • By visiting their personalized website and completing a survey
  • By sharing a photo of their Awesome Banner Thingy on Instagram
box_campaign_INSTAshots

Above:  photos posted by Box Thingy recipients. Recipients were asked to post photos of their banner-thingys on Instagram with the hashtag #thinkitsignit. The Instagramers were entered into 3 different sets of drawings for prizes and winners were announced via Instagram videos.

 

REASONS FOR SUCCESS

The main reason for success was a clever design and personalized promotion.

 

Article courtesy of W. Caslon & Company, 2015, PODi.org

Garver Quarterly Newsletter

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Garver produces a quarterly newsletter, IQ (Infrastructure Quarterly), for its clients and prospects. In response to increasing production costs and providing customers and prospects with more interactive content, Garver created an online version of their newsletter. A multi-touch campaign incorporating print and email was developed to announce the new IQ digital edition to readers. It drove recipients to a personalized URL where they were asked to complete an online survey determining the delivery preferences (print or digital) of recipients and to find out which topic areas interested readers the most. Garver achieved a 12% response rate. They also discovered 78.3% of the readership was interested in receiving the new digital version.garver_newsletter2

 

Dixie Cafe increases customer database

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Dixie Café is a restaurant chain with 23 locations throughout the mid-south and corporate offices in Little Rock, Arkansas. The chain promotes an image of a “down-home” family style restaurant with a southern theme. Their demographic is family centric with a large percentage of senior citizens.Dixie Cafe was interested in understanding their guests’ habits, including the media and news sources they engaged with. They would use this information to help focus future media campaigns. They also sought to create a customer loyalty campaign by awarding loyal customers with free menu items and coupons.

The solution was to gather valuable “opt-in” data from the customer (name and email address) to create a database for future marketing efforts. Branded cards were distributed by the server with the patrons’ checks.  The card directed the customer to the website with the lure of being eligible for a prize, once there the patron filled out a survey. Upon filling out the information, an email is sent to the customer with a coupon embedded in the email for redemption at the restaurant. Dixie Café also included a coupon on the card itself for patrons who could not access the internet.

“Over the course of this three month program, we added over 2,000 email addresses to our database. Our previous email program only added about 2,500 in two years.” Danny Troillett, Director of Marketing and Guest Relations

 

Arkansas Department of Human Services

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The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) was participating in the  Arkansas Early Childhood Association Conference. Their goal was to introduce “Better Beginnings,” a new Quality Rating Improvement System for childcare providers. They wanted a campaign that would drive conference attendees to the DHS booth, introduce the new childcare rating system and educate attendees about online resources available to assist them in meeting federal standards for childcare providers. They needed to gather valuable data about the attendees’ knowledge and raise awareness of the new regulations through the list of survey questions.

Utilizing CustomXM’s interactive tools, attendees of the conference were given printed cards encouraging them to visit the DHS booth and access a survey via either a unique URL or a QR code. 900 cards were printed and handed out to attendees. 282 people visited the booth and completed the survey, which resulted in a 31.3% response rate from the survey of attendees. DHS learned that there was a great need to educate childcare givers.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette uses pURLS to up subscriptions

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The Arkansas Democrat Gazette is a daily newspaper reaching more than 600,000 people throughout the state. It is the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River.

The newspaper was losing approximately 3,500 subscriptions per month. They were looking for a strategy to encourage these former subscribers to come back to the paper and renew their subscriptions. Their previous efforts at static direct mail were returning less than a 1% success rate.

Utilizing CustomXM’s integrated cross-media campaign tools, postcards with PURLs (Personalized URLs) were sent to a database of dropped subscribers, encouraging them to go to a microsite where they could register for a grand prize and re-subscribe.

The campaign ran for three months. A response was considered someone who renewed their subscription.

  • July 2010 – 1.5% response rate
  • August 2010 – 2.0% response rate
  • September 2010 – 2.0% response rate

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was very happy with results, especially considering the difficult audience that was being targeted – people who had already said “no” to the paper