Colours can be a powerful tool in communicating with customers and eliciting the response you want. Direct marketers measure everything. Not because we enjoy it but because we want to know which combination of data, medium, response mechanism, call to action, lettercopy, and offer will generate the best return. We develop complex test matrices for pilot campaigns, we pore over stats and agonise over the subtlest of nuances between this direct mail copy and that.

However, one variable that is generally out of bounds when it comes to piloting direct mail campaigns is colour. There is often some brand bible gathering dust in a drawer somewhere that strictly prescribes the permitted palette. Direct marketers and designers alike are shackled by the commandments passed down unto us at the dawn of brand by the cardinals of corporate identity.

For long, long ago, the archangel ‘Brand Consultant’ said unto the marketing minions “come up with me into the conference room and I shall pass unto you these stone tablets upon which I have set forth the brand guidelines. So that you mayest learn them, and teach them and obey them.” This is the word of the Brand. Amen.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for consistent branding and a respect for corporate identity but colour is a powerful tool in communicating different messages and your core corporate colours might not always suit every message or elicit the desired response.

If we can personalise direct mail campaigns; tailoring lettercopy, response mechanisms and all of the other variables to individual customer segments than why not colour schemes?

It’s well documented that colours can influence our emotions and behaviour on a very powerful, subconscious level. It’s also known the way we respond to colours is not universal. The response that colours elicit vary based on age, geography, personality and a range of other factors.

Every direct mail campaign does not seek to achieve the same generic result. The desired action or behaviour differs from each direct mail piece to the next. Allowing more flexibility in the aesthetics may open up a whole new world of personalisation possibilities. Understanding how specific customer segments respond to different colour schemes would allow direct marketers to tailor palettes to individual target audiences. The most effective colour combinations would become another data field associated with each customer profile.

I’m not saying we should ditch the brand book altogether but perhaps write them with a bit more flexibility in mind when you get to the chapter entitled ‘Colours’.

Just a thought.

On a related note, I recently discovered this little gem. Kiss Metrics offer some sort of advanced analytics tool but that’s not what I love about them. I love them because they publish beautiful and insightful infographics. Here’s one that kind of ties in with the point I was making above:

I have a sneaky suspicion that you’ll be seeing a lot more of these. I fully intend to lift insightful infographics straight from the pages of kissmetrics.com on a much more regular basis. Is that cheating?

Anyway, with that information in mind, here’s a nice, big, orange call-to-action: Sign up for Directive now. Just click here!

‘Sensual Printing’ is a print enhancement service that allows you to add texture to printed pieces.

Basically, it’s a process that adds lamination at varying depths based on the colours within the piece. Imagine a leopard print with bumps and ridges that correspond to the pattern of the fur or a snakeskin postcard that lets you feel to scales.

The process relies on a new piece of kit that McGowans have recently acquired, the Scodix 1200. You can check out tech specs for this piece of kit here and there’s a video explaining the process below.

We’ve seen a range of finished samples. They look great but to truly appreciate the benefits of ‘sensual printing’you need to feel it to believe it.

They are really luxurious. The process might be a bit pricey for massive mailings but it could be a great way to make your next high value, low volume direct mail campaign really stand out.

Get in touch with McGowans Print and get some samples for yourself. I promise you’ll be impressed.

We’re delighted to welcome our new Business Development Manager, Greg Hogan, to the Dataconversion Direct team.

Greg is an accomplished sales professional with lots of experience and a proven track record. He’s only in the door and he’s already banging in the sales. He’ll be a great asset to the company. Greg joins us from mobile marketing firm, Zamano, and he has an impressive history of achievement.

He’s a real tech-head too. We know this because he’s set up multiple monitors on his desk, he’s constantly flashing fancy gadgets and he even has one of those big, earmuff-style headsets hooked up to his landline – he looks more like an air traffic controller than a sales rep. It’s impressive!

It’s great to have him on board and he is fitting right in. Greg would be delighted to help you with your next data or direct marketing project. Give him a call today on 0818 287 188…

Best of luck, Greg!

In 2010, we set up a Software Development department to address our clients’ web-based data management requirements.

We now manage web projects for a range of clients, and as a result we are expanding our team with the following roles:

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Software Development Project Manager [Contract]

As well as managing a team of developers/programmers, this role involves significant direct contact with our clients. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are therefore essential, combined with strong technical knowledge and understanding of project management principles. Experience of management of web projects would be beneficial.

This is a senior role with exposure to blue chip clients and requires a very experienced project manager.

We are currently looking for a commitment of a minimum of 20 hours per week (contract). However there is also potential for this to be a full time permanent role.

We are flexible regarding location but we would need this person to be available to visit our offices and our clients regularly, most of whom are Dublin based.

Apply for this position..

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Software Developer

We require a software developer with at least 2 years commercial web development experience in .NET and/or LAMP environments. Our ideal candidate will be comfortable in both environments but we are willing to provide training if necessary.

Mandatory skills:

• Knowledge of .Net Framework 3.5+ and specific development experience in C#

AND/OR

• Knowledge of LAMP or similar environment and development of websites in PHP

Desirable skills:

• LINQ and Regular Expressions (bonus)
• Knowledge of Windows 2003/2008 server
• Knowledge of Visual Studio 2008+ including developing User Controls/Web Controls, Web Parts and SMTP.
• Knowledge of SQL Server 2005+ including T-SQL, Stored procedures, functions triggers etc.
• Knowledge of JOOMLA CMS.
• Knowledge of HTML/XHTML, DHTML
• Knowledge of CSS
• The ability to cross browser test for IE6+, Firefox, Chrome and Safari
• Knowledge of XML
• Knowledge of Javascript and JSON
• Knowledge of Ajax control toolkit and jQuery and of the workings of AJAX websites.
• Knowledge of the DOM
• Knowledge of IIS 6+ and DNS
• Knowledge of Google Analytics
• Experience using Photoshop or another image manipulation tool would be a bonus.

This is a full time permanent position.

Apply for this position..

More and more big brands are offering their customers and fans the opportunity to put a personal spin on their favourite products. It’s an ancient concept and the idea of having names and personal messages applied to jewellery, cufflinks, clothing, handkerchiefs and other traditional gifts is familiar to us.

So, it wasn’t a major surprise when Apple began offering an engraving service that allowed customers to personalise their iPods and iPads. Recently though, major FMCG brands have begun to get in on the personalisation act.

Fans of Heineken can design, personalise and order a 6-pack of bespoke bottles via the Heineken website. It costs €17.99 plus €12 delivery so it’s much pricier than simply hitting up the ‘offo’ but it’s a funky idea and they make great gifts for any beer lovers in your life.

Iconic Irish brand Barry’s Tea jumped on the band wagon too. In recent months, they launched a slick Facebook promotion that allowed fans of the brand to personlise images of the product with their own name. So you could show your love for their tea by changing the name on the pack to read ‘Alan’s Tea’ instead of ‘Barry’s Tea’ and then share the resulting image with your Facebook friends.

This was an example of virtual product personalisation but they did run up a few real-world samples and sent them to industry influencers in a bid to promote the campaign and I wouldn’t be too surprised if we see this being offered as a real service by Barry’s in the near future. Not much use if your name happens to be Barry though.

Heinz are the latest big FMCG brand that I have seen tapping into this trend. They are allowing customers to personalise tins of ‘Get Well’ soup and order them for poorly loved ones. This promotion is being run across Facebook too and by all accounts it looks like it’s going well; the brand’s page boasts over 93,000 fans and hundreds of people are talking about it at any one time.

This sort of activity offers big brands a way to form meaningful one-to-one connections with their customers. I imagine, for example, that anyone who orders or receives a personalised 6-pack of Heineken, a can of Heinz ‘Get Well’ soup or a box of their very own personally branded Barry’s Tea will end up being a lot more loyal to the brand than the average customer.

These promotions or services also generate a lot of buzz and positive coverage across the interwebs and by word-of-mouth so they are worthwhile in terms of publicity alone. Finally, given that customers are often willing to pay a premium for these items they can even be self-financing or actually generate additional profit.

This looks like it’s a trend that is set to continue and I wouldn’t be surprised if it explodes in 2012.

If you spot any great product personalisation programmes or if you know of previous ones that I’ve missed, please let me know.

I’d love to hear about them.

I wonder how long it will be before someone takes the initiative and uses their loyalty or CRM data to send out a direct mail campaign containing free, unsolicited, personalised products. That would excite me a lot more than a money-off coupon or BOGOF voucher!

An Post released a new ‘Guide to Postal Rates’ last week. The new rates are effective from 3rd January 2012. You’ll be pleased to hear that it’s largely ‘as you were’. Very few rates have changed and all of the bulk discounts for Direct Mail campaigns have remained untouched.

The only service that has seen increases is the ‘courier’ service that An Post offer and even here, the additional costs are minimal. On average, it’s only about a 1% – 2% increase across all of the various destination and weight categories.

On the plus side, the Publicity Post service from An Post has seen sizeable reductions. Across the board rates for this service have come down by 15% – 20%.

Obviously, An Post are looking to redress the huge gulf between the cost of their leaflet distribution service and the rates you can get from independent doordrop suppliers in urban areas. This is great news if national door drops form a big part of your communications mix.

You can download the new ‘Guide to Postal Rates’ here from the An Post website.

Family, friends, colleagues, clients, suppliers, contacts, even competitors; we all play a part in each other’s stories…

Dataconversion Direct would like to wish you, and all of those around you, a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!

Here’s our Christmas E-card for 2011. You’ll need Flash to enjoy it in all its soppy, nostalgic glory…

Now, if that got you in the mood for some classic Crimbo commercials, here are a few more. OK, they aren’t all strictly festive but they should definitely take you back. Enjoy…

Happy Christmas everybody!

The field of experiential marketing has evolved significantly in recent years. The level of investment in high-quality, high-impact events aimed at showing brands in a good light has sky-rocketed.

Elaborate product launches, entertaining sales events, exciting exhibitions and various other forms of powerful promotional events are all great at drawing crowds, creating favourable media coverage, boosting short-term sales and building positive impressions of the brand.

But there is another dimension of benefit that is oft neglected by organisers. With large numbers of people all in one place and all feeling good about your brand, it’s the perfect opporunity to make a long-term, actionable connection.

I’m always amazed when I attend such events and the organisers have not seized this opportunity to ask me for my contact details. Getting attendees to sign-up for future communications is a simple way to maximise the return on investment in such an event.

Clean, fresh customer data is an invaluable resource to any modern marketer. It will provide you with a way to stay connected to attendees long after the memory of a fantastic event has faded.

So if your planning any future brand events ensure you include data capture as one of your key metrics.

We will be closed for business on the afternoon of Friday 9th December 2011.

We will be having a well-deserved company Christmas lunch on that day and we’ll be shutting up shop from 1.00pm onwards. Don’t worry! We’ll be back at the grind stone from the crack of dawn on Monday 12th December.

This small change to our normal hours of operation will be factored into our schedule so it shouldn’t have any impact on production commitments. If you happen to have a ‘live’ project ongoing at the time, your account manager will contact you directly with emergency contact information. So you’ll still be able to reach us if something really, really, really urgent arises while we are out stuffing our faces.

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. (Just not after 12.00pm on Friday 9th December though – there’ll be no one here)

Happy Christmas!

Successfully leveraging sponsorship is more about great ideas than massive budgets.

Ireland are back on football’s big stage. Last night we booked our place at our first European Championship Finals since 1988; a joyous occasion for football fans nationwide and a major coup for the Boys in Green’s main sponsor, Three.

With a 4-0 lead over Estonia going into last night’s game, the stage was set more for a celebration than a nail-biting clincher. A full-house, a carnival atmosphere and a genius move by Three all helped add to the party.

As the buoyant throngs filed into the AVIVA, each fan was greeted with a simple sheet of paper atop their seat. ‘Green with Pride’ read the strong white font on a green background. This clever little piece of wordplay was accompanied by a big, brash Three logo. You couldn’t help but pick it up.

“each fan was greeted with a simple sheet of paper atop their seat”

When you did, you realised that it was printed on good heavy paper, 200 gsm I’d guess. It was large too, A3 I think. Perfect paper plane building material! This was no accident.

It wasn’t long before whole squadrons of cobbled-together aircraft began sailing down toward the pitch. Few reached the hallowed turf below, with most nose-diving into the crowns of unsuspecting spectators, but a lot of imaginations were captured.

Sure there were a few sneers and tuts from “serious” supporters, the “serious” sort that I didn’t recognise from any previous home games in the qualification campaign, the “serious” fans who didn’t seem to realise that last night was supposed to be a celebration not a contest.

“it wasn’t long before whole squadrons of cobbled-together aircraft began sailing down toward the pitch.”

There may also have been a few raised eyebrows, as righteously indignant types pondered the environmental impact of such a wasteful stunt. (I don’t know if the paper used was 100% recycled or from sustainable sources with FSC or PEFC accreditation). There could even have been a few concerned parents worried that the pointy plans would take someone’s eye out.

I don’t know about any of that. All I know is that it made me smile and I was furtively folding and flattening within seconds. Maybe it’s because I’m still a big kid at heart, maybe football makes us all kids again or maybe it’s because I was 6 when Ireland last qualified for the Euros and that’s probably around the time I made my last paper airplane.

Either way, Three really made a connection. It probably cost very little relative to the massive outlay on the sponsorship deal but this little gem did more to create an affinity to the Three brand in my mind than any shirt logo, pitch-side hoarding or cringey ‘Man of the Match’ presentation.

“it probably cost very little relative to the massive outlay on the sponsorship deal”

Granted it wouldn’t suit every game and I probably would have been among the tutting few had this been a more tense encounter but last night was supposed to be a party.

It worked on a cycnical, world-weary, old codger like me. Imagine the long-lasting memories that were formed in the deep recesses of the many malleable young minds at the game. Success, football, joy, paper airplanes, Three and burgers sold from vans will all gel into a deep-seated warm fuzzy feeling for a generation of footie-loving future mobile phone owners.

Well done Three! I hope this is a sign of things to come. Maybe next time you could use the FAI database to personalise my sheet of paper, so Richard Dunne knows whose plane has landed at his feet. Or give me a QR code that takes me somewhere I can upload a video of my planes majestic descent. Just a cherry or two on top of an otherwise excellent idea.
The bottom line is that you can spend millions on naming rights and sponsorship deals but a great idea that speaks directly to your audience will always outperform them!