So much of my focus as a planner is at the start of the communications process: is the consumer insight right?  Is the brief right?  Is the concept right?  Is the targeting right? How will we know if it is successful?  But the actual execution of the piece - especially a personalised mailing - can make all the difference. 

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve received two mailings using a very similar creative idea.  The first a Dine Around offer from Amex - every time I use my card to pay for a meal in selected restaurants I will be entered into a prize draw to win a holiday.  A good offer, but the execution let it down: a long, large envelope contained a much smaller folded piece, which it took me a moment to realise was supposed to be a napkin.  It was just a folded piece of card at first glance. 

Around about the same time I received a mailing from The Marketing Society about the annual Scottish dinner.  This was a standard size envelope, but contained a real paper napkin, overprinted with a call to action to book.  Excellent production values - putting the Amex piece to shame. And I wonder if it was that much more expensive to produce?  

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 9:06 am and is filed under Heather's high horse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.