Direct Mail

I've had the opportunity to work with direct mail for many years now. These projects always present an opportunity to flex the creative muscles by coming up with interestings and effective solutions.

Unfortunately for direct mail, the advent of web technologies brought about a variety of new ways to reach customers. These online tools were in many ways more effective than direct mail and almost always more cost effective. This new media also came at a time when people were really getting tired of direct mail -- consumers because of the amount they received and businesses because of the costs involved.

As the changes continue in both of these areas, marketers struggle to figure out the proper budget allocations for direct mail and online communications. There's quite a bit of new data to support the fact that direct mail is now in some ways more effective than online communications. Ironically, one of the main reasons for this change is the same one that caused direct mail to lose out to online communications... consumers are now inundated with electronic communications and a lot of it is subject to spam filters. The result -- much of these low-cost online communications never even reach the recipient.

The same way online media will never completely replace print, online communications can never completely replace direct mail. Some people will argue that it's simply the older generation clinging to outdated ways, but that's not exactly the case.

Regardless of age and as we spend more time in front of computers during our work week, we naturally begin to avoid them whenever possible. Suddenly the pile of mail waiting for us at home isn't perceived as the nuisance it was just a few short years ago, particularly when there's much less of it waiting for us as companies invest less in that area of advertising. It's basically the supply and demand rule -- more and more online communications make them less desirable to consumers, while less direct mail makes it more appealing.

You'll find that some of the direct mail pieces in this section are cross-referenced with packaging samples. This is because a fair amount of the packaging pieces that I've created for Siemens were also direct mail projects. That hybrid aspect is one of the things that made these projects so interesting and got you thinking about new solutions.