The Hive

In the new "Mary Poppins Returns," Emily Blunt sings a lovely song called, "The Place Where Lost Things Go." (It's beautiful. In fact, the entire film is beautiful. Do yourself a holiday favor and see it!)

As agency creatives, the Bs at B Direct have a different fantasy world to cherish. It's called "The Place Where Concepts Go To Die." We're talking about the ones that got away. The concepts that were too risky, too sexy, too sophisticated, or too playful. Basically, the concepts that were too ... well ... too too. Too much.

We remember them fondly. We vow to find another way to use them. But, eventually, we resign ourselves to the fact that no matter how much we loved them, no matter how promising we thought they were, they are dead.

For example, we presented concepts for a 3-dimensional campaign to an identity theft solutions client. We really liked the option they chose (an RFID, theft-proof, wallet with credit card shaped inserts that promoted individual benefits of our client's product).

But, we really loved the idea of sending a glow-in-the-dark zombie apocalypse set.

We have created (hundreds? thousands? countless!) self-mailers for clients ranging from The Boston Globe to IBM to Healthy Pet veterinary clinics. We love self-mailers — they're like postcards on steroids. They can be high impact. They can be highly informative. They can be creatively personalized. They can buy our clients "real estate" in their audience's homes or offices.

The point is ... we have nothing against self-mailers.

We also respect direct mail packages that work hard. Offer? Check. Call to action? Check. Testimonial quote? Check. No matter what format we're designing, we try to accommodate different browsing styles, taking into account where the recipient might — or might not — look first, second, third, or last.

The point is ... we have nothing against including lots of promotional information.

BUT (you knew there was a "but" coming, didn't you?), sometimes a self-mailer isn't the right vehicle for the message, the audience, or the sender. And, sometimes including too much content, without guiding the recipient through it, causes "analysis paralysis." Or, worse, just makes a big mess.

Picture yourself at a dinner party.  You are seated between two people you have never met before.  Both are attractive, intelligent and well-spoken.

The person to your right introduces himself and starts talking ... and talking ... and talking.  He doesn't stop to ask if what he is talking about is of interest to you.  In fact, he doesn't let you get a word in edgewise.  Because he is engaged in his topic, he assumes you are.  When you do manage to ask a question, he either ignores it or rushes through an answer in order to get back to his own monotonous monologue.  You get the sense that there might be something interesting in what he's saying, but he hasn't given you a chance to find out for sure.

Now, the person to your left introduces herself.  She tells you a little about herself but also asks you some questions -- about your family, what you do for a living, where you're from.  She asks if you're interested in something and waits until you affirm that you are before sharing her perspective on it.  She stops talking frequently to allow you to contribute.  She listens attentively and answers your questions.  She actually shifts her train of thought in response to what you've shown interest in.

With which guest would you rather converse?  And with whom would you rather reconnect at a later date?

The problem with so much marketing is that while it may attempt to engage the customer or prospect, it's really taking the role of the first person we've just described.  Even committed direct marketers, professionals who champion the concept of two-way communication, spend most of their time, effort and money talking about their own product or service.  Too often, marketers don't listen.

This week, B Direct attended MTech, the New England Direct Marketing Association's annual Marketing Technology Summit.

As always, the event was very well-attended (practically standing room only). There were informative and inspiring keynotes and general sessions, a number of exhibiting sponsors, a networking lunch. Then, early afternoon, attendees broke into two groups for presentations on channel marketing or video.

The video session was led by two very polished (and very young) Google executives. At least 100 of us learned about new ways to use online YouTube video to drive and track consumer behavior. It was fascinating and the marketing opportunities were exciting.

And, no wonder.

Video is quickly taking over the Internet. In fact, as we learned, by 2020, video will be 82% of consumer web traffic, and by 2021,digital video ad spend will rise to $22.2 billion. So marketers really do need to understand how to use it — and use it well.

Proofreading. It's the bane of many (otherwise talented) copywriters' existence. And, a really crackerjack proofreader is a valuable member of any team.

Last year, we talked about proofreading and offered some helpful tips. (See: http://www.bdirectmktg.com/blog/the-proof-is-in-the-proofreading.)

Now, we want to review some of the common words that are way too commonly misused. This list can help you in two ways. First, hopefully it will clear up any confusion you might have about which version of what word to use when. Second, it's a good idea to doubly proof any section of your copy that uses one of these potentially tricky words.

• Your and you're are not interchangeable. Your is possessive second person. You're is the contraction of the words you and are."Your campaign is so great, you're going to win a lot of industry awards."

• Then and than are two different words. Then means at that time or next. Than is used for comparisons."Then the client told the agency that the results were better than the year before."

We all know not to judge a book by its cover. But, as direct mail marketers, we also have to admit that many (maybe most) people have no problem judging our campaigns by their outer envelopes.

And the walk from the mailbox to the waste basket in most homes takes about twelve seconds.

Some mailers respond to this sad fact by putting everything — and we do mean everything — on the outer envelope. Product, features, benefits, offer, and even call-to-action. Others take a stealth approach and send their solicitation in a completely blank envelope, hoping that the recipient's curiosity will get the better of them and they'll be compelled to open.

One such stealthy campaign arrived the other day.

The 6" x 9.5" white window envelope was completely blank except for postage. It didn't have a printed indicia, but had been metered with non profit postage.

Years ago, we did a 3-dimensional package for a technology company. Our audience was web-based software developers. These geeks (and we say that with affection) lived and breathed, ate, drank and slept online. The client, logically enough, assumed that any responses to our campaign would come in via an electronic channel. He didn't want to spend the money on a mail-back option (a BRC, or in this case, a form that folded into its own BRE).

As direct marketers, we felt strongly that incorporating multiple response options — including a traditional postal one — was the right way to go. We all agreed to a test.

Here's where it got interesting. Not only did a significant percentage of the responses come in via the BRE, but all other response options (phone, email, and microsite) saw a lift when there was a mail option.

We're always reminded of this test and its counterintuitive results when clients or colleagues assume that millennials, a generation raised online, aren't interested in mail.

The USPS's Mail Moments study confirms our opinion that mail matters to this audience. What's really interesting is that in many ways it matters slightly more to the digital generation than to older people.

Remember the song from 1980, "Video Killed the Radio Star?" Some marketers today seem to think that digital killed direct mail.

We disagree.

And — happily — so do most American consumers.

The recent USPS Mail Moments study confimed that people still enjoy receiving mail. Even millennials. In fact, despite the fact that they are digital natives, millennials engage with mail as much or more than non-millennials.

Here are some overall findings across the three demographics surveyed (baby boomers, gen x, and millennials):

At B Direct, we do a lot of digital marketing. But, we still love direct mail. We enjoy working on mail campaigns for our clients, and we enjoy receiving (yes, and critiquing) mail packages from others. Some make us smile. Some make us laugh out loud. And, some make us scratch our heads.

This is one of those.

It's a big postcard from Verizon. A really big postcard: 6" x 10.5". So, it succeeds at direct mail's job one: get noticed. We definitely noticed the postcard.

The art side has a brief message reversed out: 100% thanks. And, then the fios name and checkmark appear below it.

When we flipped the card over, there's a bold message above the address area: Thank you for being phenomenal. On the left side, type announces A personal thank you from a Fios employee. Beneath this is a handwritten (or "handwritten") note:

Some of our clients have very sophisticated content marketing programs. Others need ... well ... a little more convincing.

"But, I'm not a writer," is what we hear most often. Followed soon thereafter by "But, I don't have time."

Starting a blog is easy. Sadly, letting it lapse is easy too.

And, the key to any business blog's success is consistency.

Fortunately, there are no steadfast rules for blogs. There's no minimum wordcount or stylistic structure that has to be observed. A blog isn't like a term paper or an essay for English 101.

No one wants to be treated like a number, right? Of course, right.

Unfortunately, as the medical industry has taken more and more advantage of technology, the person-to-person aspect of a patient and doctor relationship has diminished.

Recognizing this, and — more importantly — recognizing that it isn't what patients want, Lahey Health Primary Care developed a simple but effective self-mailer.

The outside art panel uses a (presumably) stock photo of an older couple enjoying time together. The headline reads:

Accepting new patients. Or as we like to call them, people.

It's Halloween, the holiday of ghosts and ghouls and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It's the only holiday designed to scare people (unless you've been in Times Square on New Year's Eve, of course).

But, there are plenty of scares available the other 364 days of the year — if you work with or for an ad agency. In fact, the next time they decide to reboot the saga of Michael Myers (see the Queen B's recent review here: https://womensvoicesforchange.org/laurie-strodes-revenge-the-new-metoo-version-of-halloween.htm), maybe they should look at our industry for terrifying new plots.

Here are half a dozen examples:

The BlobAn enterprising young marketer is tasked with positioning and promoting an exciting new product — only to realize that the product is virtually impossible to describe in human language. She has recurring nightmares about the words "scalable," "cloud,""enterprise," and "legacy systems."

For a direct marketing agency, we've designed quite a lot of logos. The process is a mix of the aesthetic and the practical. In other words, we think about applications from day one.

We know firsthand, how hard it is to reduce the size of an overcomplicated logo, or to watch a dynamic colorful logo turn into a muddy blur when it needs to be printed in black.

Here are some good ABCs for logo design:

A. Start with way too many ideas. These can be loose sketches or digital renderings. More is more at the beginnning of a logo project. You'll have time to fine-tune later once you've narrowed down the options.

B. Think through the different ways your logo will be used. Make sure it looks as good on a business card as it does on a billboard.

At B Direct, we enjoy getting direct mail.

Really. There's no punchline coming.

We actually get excited when we receive unsolicited direct marketing. And, we enjoy critiquing it even more!

So we were thrilled when one of our favorite production partners, Matt Magnarelli at Q1Media, sent us a package his wife recently received.

The outside of the piece wished Mrs. Magnarelli a personalized "Happy Birthday," while the mail panel teaser advised her to "Open Immediately. Complimentary Gift Cards Enclosed."