Envelope or impact?
I went to a presentation last night by Dylan Taylor the Exec CD of BMF in Sydney.
He spoke about awards and judging award shows. An interesting talk by a very talented man.
Part of his preso focussed on mail as a medium and how he was seeing less and less dimensional mail being produced.
This is something that has troubled me for a while too.
Our inboxes are overloaded with work emails and spam. So email is becoming less and less effective as a direct marketing medium.
I'm hoping this will give rise to a growth in direct mail.
Only one problem - Australia Post.
They are big supporters of the direct marketing industry. As long as your definition of direct is letters or leaflets in standard sized envelopes.
But if you want to do anything out of the ordinary the postal charges are prohibitive to say the least.
Mail a standard DL envelope and it costs around 50c. Mail something the same size but 10mm thick and it could cost up to $5 to mail.
So unless Australia Post come to the party (or you can find a budget delivery company) doing three dimensional ideas through the mail will become a dying art.
Which I think is a damn shame.
posted by Stan Lee at 1:30 am
6 Comments:
That's too bad. Dimensional direct mail is my all-time favorite medium. I had the pleasure of working on some projects for casinos in Las Vegas who don't blink an eye at $35-$50/unit mailed (for as many as 5,000 units). Good times.
Aussie Post is behind the times, did you know that in NZ post is delivered on Saturdays!! No wonder the digital world is overloaded.
Agree, even going from DL to C5 can double the costs for a campaign.
As always Stan, you (and Dylan) make a very good point. It would indeed be fantastic if we could let our creative juices run wild, and open up the dimensional potential of direct mail without any fear of the cost increasing. The problem of course is that simply isn't the way business works.
By the same token, presumably you're unhappy that first class seats on aircraft cost more than economy. OK, on the one hand this is a result of airlines building their profits where they can (which is how business works) but it's also simply a reflection of the fact that the service costs more to provide. I don't know – and indeed don't really want to know – how Australia Post sorts the mail, but I'm pretty certain that it costs more to process a dimensional item than a standard DL. And like the vast majority of businesses, they have little choice but to pass that additional cost down the line.
However, aside from how Australia Post runs their stall, I think there is another business argument that has to come into the equation. You refer solely to cost, rather than cost/benefit. My experience – and by implication, yours too it seems – is that dimensional mail can get a better response, and sometimes a much better response. Once all the numbers have been crunched – and just like the airline, depending on the margin we're able to make from whatever we're selling – it may well be that the dimensional mail business case stacks up well, even with the higher processing costs that Australia Post have passed on.
Thanks for your feedback Stan, we’re always keen to hear views from the industry on how we can do more to support the use of direct mail.
Over the past few years, we’ve increased our focus on new and innovative ideas that encourage the use of direct mail, including a focus on how mail can engage all the senses – have a look at www.auspost.com.au/sensorymail to see some new techniques for enhancing mail with sound, shape, dimension, taste and smell. The Nissan “Take the Wheel” campaign (which won the Australia Post Winged Messenger Award in 2009) is also another great example of mail linking with digital interaction.
We strongly believe that mail can be so much more than just letters in standard sized envelopes, but like all marketing activity, it needs to be fit for purpose. If the size of the prize is great enough to warrant the investment in a highly creative pack, then hopefully your clients will support the creative idea you present to them.
On the cost of mail, our website (www.auspost.com.au) shows that for letter sizes from DL through to B4 from 5mm up to 20mm thick, the costs are:
- up to 125 grams $1.10
- 125-250 grams $1.65
- 250-500 grams $2.75
We’d love to see more dimensional packs created and mailed in Australia, and we know we the skills exist in the industry to make this happen.
Mark Roberts
Manager, Channel Development Unit
Letters Group
Australia Post
Your projects are gorgeous, DL Envelopes are totally rocks. Love the green and orange!
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