MAD Classics

MAD has recently been involved in producing personalised advertisements in Marketing magazine. In one issue, MAD designed two personalised ads for the inside front and back covers. The ads included the subscriber's name as well as a unique personalised URL that linked the subscriber to their own individually personalised website. According to the client, these ads were the best performing ads they have run.

For more information on this technology click here to download a PDF of The Direct Mail Renaissance white paper.

MAD has been pioneering new creative font technology from Europe and the US. The technologies allow you to creative fonts from anything you can imagine to creatively personalise your messages to customers. And just like in Europe the results have been outstanding. People keep the postcards and messages pinned on their noticeboards and refrigerators.

For more information on this technology click here to download a PDF of The Direct Mail Renaissance white paper.

These are two postcards used to promote The Direct Mail Renaissance events. The first uses people as pixels in the font, while the second uses dandelions.

MAD was hired to launch Triple J nationally around Australia — after a pitch involving over 40 agencies. The launch campaign involved TVC's, illegal street posters, postcards, stickers, concerts, screen savers — and the first e‑mail marketing campaign in Australia. There was also an event with a live broadcast on the roof of the Australian Parliament — probably something too difficult to do in these days of hightened security.

MAD also arranged a poster in support of Australian Youth to be signed by the politicians and guests at the launch event. The poster was donated to the ABC for display in a boardroom.

As an early adopter of the internet, Triple J had built a database of customers and decided to test a mail‑order catalogue of Triple J merchandise. The catalogue broke many of the rules — in very Triple J style — even telling customers to "don't even think of returning your goods" if you weren't satisfied. Here's the cover and opening spread. The cover has a shot of a 1950's home complete with picket fence, while the first spread is a photo of a toilet with magazines and reading material on the floor. The headline invites you to "sit down and take a load off" so you can enjoy reading the Triple J catalogue.

Says Malcolm Auld "it's probably the most fun I've had writing copy".

Prior to the terrorised world in which we live today, you could deliver anonymous parcels to company executives without too much fuss. This campaign demonstrates that you need to always consider who are your prospects' customers before sending them anonymous boxes.

In 1989 our (O&MD) client Fuji Xerox was having a sale. They were offering 10%, ($50,000) off high performance laser printers — the type of printers used by big organisations. So the agency came up with a creative mailpack that included a toy laser gun that made very loud noises. We tested the mailing in the post to ensure the gun didn't fall out of its cradle and then sent it into the market.

What type of organisations buy expensive laser printers? Companies and government departments that export to the middle east, or have defense contracts, or mining companies, or organisations operating in other sensitive industries.

One government department evacuated the building and called the bomb squad. The head of the department called Malcolm (as the head of the agency) and unpolitely told him where to put the laser gun.

A defense contractor evacuated its building and called the bomb squad. While in a mining town in WA, the postmaster put the mail pack in the middle of a dusty street, called the bomb squad which arrived followed by a news helicopter and the mailpack destruction was broadcast on prime time news that evening.

A classic case of not thinking about the customer. Because if you do think about it, we had the list of prospects and a great offer. All we had to do was write them a letter and we would have sold some equipment, but hey, we're an advertising agency so why not be creative?

It's not easy getting IT Managers to come to a free seminar where people from Fuji Xerox talk about Fuji Xerox equipment. This is an invitation to such an event — a presentation about the benefits of highlight colour laser printers.

The invitation demonstrated how highlight colour helps you stand out from the crowd using one coloured ball in a can of white balls. The incentive to attend was quite relevant. Everyone who attended the event went into a draw to win a touch of one of the best drops of colour in Australia — a bottle of Grange Hermitage wine worth over $250. Over 45% of IT Managers who received the mailing turned up with their numbered, coloured ball. This was a record response rate for Fuji Xerox at the time. Some events had to be postponed while the sales reps followed‑up the leads resulting from the first event.

Fuji Xerox was so pleased with the idea it was copied by the colour printer division a couple of years later, using a box with coloured balls instead of a paint tin. The campaign was again successful and even won an ADMA award.

Here's the pack:

This is a case study from 1982 and sadly due to modern security circumstances you couldn't do this type of campaign today.

The security guard industry was unionised with small profit margins and all the major suppliers used similar training courses for their guards. To the typical manager responsible for 24 hour security at a company, the only difference between the suppliers was the colour of their uniforms.

At TNT we tried unsuccessfully to gain appointments by telephone with potential customers. But the pain of change was too great and we couldn't get beyond a phone call to do a sales presentation. The only time you could get to see a prospect was when they'd had a security breach or their existing contract was due for renewal.

So we decided to demonstrate that their current security services were not adequate. The objective was simple — get appointments with Security Managers of companies employing 24 hour security services.

The strategy was also simple — demonstrate to the Security Managers that their current service wasn't working.

The tactic was simple as well — hand‑deliver an anonymous, personalised parcel to the security guard and ask for it to be delivered to the Security Manager. Every security guard complied with our request. And when they did, each Security Manager asked similar questions:

Q: Where did this come from?
A: I don't know

Q: Who gave it to you?
A: I don't know

Q: What's in it?
A: I've got no idea

Think about this — a security guard delivered an anonymous parcel to his Security Manager with no idea where it was from or what was in it. What did it demonstrate? The security service wasn't working.

When the parcel was opened it revealed a box about the size of a small chocolate box. On the front was a statement Seeing isn't necessarily believing and inside the box was an illustration of an optical illusion, with a statement; looking closely at the facts makes sense.

The first delivery was followed up the second day with an identical parcel. But in some cases our sales reps who were delivering the parcels, were bailed up by the security guards and asked to explain themselves.

The second parcel had an identical box but with a different optical illusion on the inside, and a statement; what you see isn t necessarily what you get. We then followed this up with a telephone call for an appointment and achieved a staggering 86% response rate for appointments.

The sales reps had new collateral material that matched the images used on the boxes and they went to work, closing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business.

This approach, using mail, telephone and sales reps would probably be labelled integrated marketing these days, but we just thought it was commonsense.

One of the obvious lessons in this case study is that if you sell a parity product or service, try to find a creative way to demonstrate the differences between your's and your competitor's service. By letting the differences speak for themselves, you don't have to try as hard to sell yourself.

Here's the pack:

When Malcolm Auld was running Ogilvy & Mather Direct, the American Express team pioneered a number of direct response initiatives. One was the first tip‑in advertisement in magazines, where the ad had a tipped‑on element within the publication, rather than on the cover.

This advertisement was a tipped‑on application form that appeared as an Amex card on the page, but opened to an A4 application form and then folded to become a reply envelope.

The advertisement became the second cheapest way to generate new card members behind take‑one brochures. But it also had the highest recall of any Amex brand advertising, as well as contributing strongly to reflecting the premium values of the Amex brand.

Here's a couple of shots from the campaign:

The ABBi launch was the most successful financial services brand launch in Australia since ING Direct. ABBi was the country's first direct insurance service for small business owners. Customers buy directly from ABBi and don't pay any broker's or agent's fees or commissions.

The brand was launched using direct response television commercials, press inserts, press ads, direct mail, e‑mail, banner ads, publicity and much more. The agency also invented a Small Business IQ Test a competition over 10 weeks for small business owners to test their knowledge and win prizes. One condition of entry was to advise your insurance renewal date — and thousands did.

Here's one of the TVC's created by MAD:

This mailing shows how you can build a brand through mail with a very simple idea. The Pink Duster is a commercial cleaning company. Commercial cleaning is one of the most parity service industries in the world. How do you differentiate your cleaning services?

Judi Bright did so with a simple, but clever idea. Judi named her company The Pink Duster and created a letterhead that included a pink feather attached to it, as well as her signature in pink ink.

Whenever Judi gets a new contract she distributes a mailpack to businesses in the immediate neighbourhood. The envelope is addressed in pink ink and when you open it, lots of pink feathers fall out. You can't help but read the letter, which is a request to quote for your cleaning contract. You immediately have visions in your mind of what the cleaners are wearing.

Brilliant branding, brilliant differentiation and brilliant results — and no agency necessary.

Here's the pack:

In 1996 this mailing won awards in Australia and the US and has become a classic in marketing training seminars. The mailing was to Professional Conference Organisers (PCO's) to inform them of the hotel's meetings and conference facilities and to encourage them to book a site visit or event.

In addition to a letter and testimonials, the mailing contained a coffee plunger, gold leaf fine china mug, fresh Italian coffee and a floppy disk. The idea was simple — make yourself a cup of coffee and take a tour of the hotel while sitting at your desk. This was the first disk of its kind (prior to the internet) that involved such interactive features — it was pioneering work.

The response was phenomenal — over 70% response rate including bookings for events, accommodation and restaurants, as well as 15 unsolicited letters of congratulations from recipients about the quality and branding of the mailing.

The pack was so highly rated by awards judges that during one judging session, a jealous creative director, in a pitch to downgrade the vote of support for the campaign, claimed "it's just another idea in a box". Strangely that's all a mailpack is, an idea in an envelope, or a TVC is an idea in 30 seconds. Gotta love petty award judges.

This is another mailing to win an Australian award for results. This mailing was to frequent travellers from Melbourne to Sydney. The offer was a free trial of one night's accommodation when the traveller next visited Sydney.

The pack contained some samples of the personal touches you get when you stay at the hotel and included a letter and testimonials from corporate customers.

Nearly 25% of executives took up the offer, generating an increase in business and corporate accounts.

Here's the pack:

This simple survey acts as a highly cost‑effective lead generator for new conference and corporate business.

The hotel management review the type of delegates attending meetings, seminars and events at the hotel. If the event has the right type of delegates, they all receive one of these surveys. The survey asks the delegate to print their name and contact details as well as the event they attended. It then asks them to rate the hotel services and advise who is responsible at their organisation for booking conferences and accommodation.

In return for providing this information, the delegate receives a free drink at the bar — free booze being one of the consistently best performing incentives in Australia.

The hotel management team then contacts the people listed on the survey and uses the survey information as a referral to gain business. This is the most cost‑effective way for a hotel to gain new customers and has now been copied by other hotels around the world.

Here's the piece:

Viking Office Products has done numerous tests to determine the best offers when they have sales. Three products consistently outperform all others — and they're not digital cameras, cash‑back or other typical premiums.

The third‑best performing offer is bulk packs of Kool Mints, the second‑best performing offer is bulk packs of snakes and the best‑performing offer is bulk packs of jelly beans. MAD has used jelly beans in numerous tests for Neverfail and found them extremely popular.

There are three reasons for this. The first is that the jelly beans have universal appeal across all ages, the second is that they can be shared with other staff by the person who takes up the offer, hence enhancing that person's social standing and reputation. The third is that it overcomes any fears people have about taking personal inducements for a business purchase as the rewards are shared.

Here's an insert we designed using jelly beans as an incentive for Neverfail:

Fine dining restaurants in hotels always have trouble attracting business executives for lunch and dinner if they aren't staying at the hotel. The Observatory Hotel is located on the outskirts of Sydney's city CBD in The Rocks district.

The agency built the database by walking 10 minutes from the hotel and creating a geographic boundary using the nearest cross‑roads. We then visited every office within the boundary and asked for the name of senior executives. Each executive then received an invitation to dine at Galileo with a friend. The offer was two people dine for the price of one — pitched as bring a guest for free.

The envelope was oversize and printed on high quality parchment stock. It folded out to become a poster displaying the credentials of the new chef and photographs of the signature dishes.

Restaurant bookings immediately increased and the hotel created a database of local customers for meals and accommodation services.

Here's the pack:

Most business executives didn't know The Astral Restaurant existed as they hadn't been to Star City or hadn't realised there was a fine dining restaurant at the top of the tower near the high roller private gaming room.

The mailing list was created by selecting streets in the CBD and specific job titles of medium to large companies in those streets. The executives received the mailing with an invitation to dine at the restaurant.

The mailing was the size of a dinner plate and included a number of elements in the offer. There was a one month membership to The Endeavour Room — the private members‑only high roller gaming room — a $50 gaming voucher to use in The Endeavour Room and a $75 voucher to use at the restaurant.

The letter also explained how quick and easy it was to park at Star City and the brochure displayed the unique view of the city that the restaurant offers.

Response was immediate with bookings for lunch and dinner increasing and the average patronage of the restaurant remained higher after the campaign had finished.

Here's the pack:

MAD was the first agency in Australia to use this specialist streaming audio/video technology for clients. The technology determines the right format and speed to stream the message into an in‑box.

MAD created an e‑mail for PlayStation2 to launch the internet gaming system. The e‑mail campaign is the largest video e‑mail campaign delivered in Australia, with over 140,000 e‑mails being sent and over 15% growth in database through the viral effect.

ReefHQ used a series of video e‑mails to the travel trade to demonstrate the aquarium's features for group bookings. The e‑mail encouraged recipients to pass the message along and subsequently grew the database by over 550%.

Here's the content of one of the most successful e‑mails Malcolm Auld has ever written. It was test to determine how many e‑mails would have to be sent to fill two venues for a half‑day e‑marketing seminar.

The subject line read: How to succeed with e‑marketing.

The content read:

Q: How do you succeed in the e-world?

A: Give someone else your start‑up idea and then wait 6 months and buy their company from the receivers for peanuts.

A respondent from one of the top two banks asked if he could bring 11 colleagues. The first response was received in under two minutes and both events were filled without any need to roll‑out to the remainder of the list. Nothing like speaking in simple customer language to generate response.

Creative Disagreements Easily Fixed

When Malcolm was running Ogilvy & Mather Direct, there was a problem getting creative work approved for a confectionary client at Ogilvy & Mather. The clients couldn't agree on what was the right creative solution, so the agency invited them to attend a workshop about developing creative ideas.

Both clients were invited to bring a sample of what they thought was a good and a bad television advertisement to the session. Coincidently, they both brought the same two ads even though they hadn't discussed them with each other. But sadly, one client's good advertisement was the other client's bad advertisement and vice versa.

At least it highlighted the reason for not getting the creative work approved and helped solve the problem.

The Amazing Disappearing Salmon

Malcolm was involved at Ogilvy & Mather Direct in developing a series of magazine advertisements for a gas company, focusing on the unusual uses of their specialty gases and how they benefit the public.

The client had appointed the Direct agency to do the ads, because they'd lost confidence in the General advertising agency, as they had taken too long to organize the shoot. One of the shots was of an Atlantic Salmon and it featured the special oxygen gas used in the farming of the fish.

The agency and the client visited the fish markets and picked three farmed Salmon for the shoot. After the shots were taken there was a dinner party at the Account Director's home where everyone got roaring drunk and full of fresh cooked salmon.

When the account handler at the General agency heard about this he became somewhat peeved. Unbeknownst to anyone, the account handler went to the markets and bought a fish and had it shot by a different photographer. He then had new artwork created by the general agency and instructed the magazine publishers to replace the original approved artwork with the new art.

On the day the magazines hit the streets, the client and all the clients' customers opened the magazine to see an advertisement with the headline Meet the Atlantic Salmon underneath a picture of an Australian trout.

Nobody could work out what had happened. After all, the client had selected the salmon, attended the shoot, eaten the salmon and signed the final artwork. The fish farmers were giving the client a hard time and the client was demanding answers from the agency.

Eventually the Direct agency discovered what had happened as the General agency's account handler had nowhere to hide. Not only did the agency have to cover the costs of two sets of artwork, but also the media fees for ads in national magazines — the damage amounted to tens of thousands of dollars.

As you would expect the agency didn't keep the account, although the account handler kept his job. Go figure.

Warning Will Robinson, danger, direct marketers about

Malcolm was once advised by the Creative Director of a multinational agency he was working with to stop winning new business as the agency was in danger of becoming too much of a direct marketing agency. We need more television commercials was the cry. That's when Malcolm realised it was time to move on.

Liverpool Kiss Resolves Client/Agency Dispute

In a particularly feisty meeting between a multinational agency and their largest multinational client in Sydney, the discussion became quite heated. In desperation, the account manager (a down‑to‑earth Kiwi) leant across the table and gave the client a Liverpool Kiss.

Everyone was so shocked, the meeting stopped for a pregnant pause, before things calmed down and the meeting resumed. As most of the clients in the meeting didn't like the client who was on the receiving end of the Kiss, there wasn't a huge protest. But the account manager was subsequently removed from the account. He eventually opened his own agency and sold it for a healthy profit to a multinational.

The client/agency relationship continued to be caustic, mainly due to ex‑pat clients demanding the levels of service they received in NY, but not being prepared to pay for it.

At one stage the entire creative department refused to work on the client, so a team was flown from the US to help out while the agency worked out a way to solve the relationship problems. Eventually an industrial psychologist was brought in to help resolve the differences.

The solution was unusual. The agency team sat in a circle with the client team sitting in a larger circle around them. The agency staff aired their grievances and then swapped places, so the clients could air theirs — quite personally in fact.

After a group hug everyone went back to work and within a few days all was back to normal — a sour relationship with lots of unhappy people. At least the psychologist made some money.

You're Just the Junk Mail Guys

While contracting to an old‑fashioned packaged‑goods advertising agency during the dot.com, Malcolm was instructed by the CEO to not win any new internet business for the Direct division, as this type of work was to be for the new Digital division — being established by the print production manager because he knew a bit about Flash software.

You just stick to doing the mail was the instruction from the Luddite CEO — delivered just after Malcolm had launched his book E‑mail Marketing Made Easy and run a successful series of e‑marketing seminars around the country.

The Digital division never got off the ground, the Direct Marketing staff resigned and the agency was eventually bought by another because they were losing so much money — given the direction from the top it wasn't really surprising.

Would You Like Research With That?

If you are a marketer running a pitch amongst a few agencies and those agencies present research to support their creative concepts, always ask for the raw research data and evidence that the research was conducted.

You'd be amazed how research documents can be manufactured to support a preferred creative concept in the desperate attempt to win new business. And of course the research always supports the concept the agency is recommending. Gotta love the advertising industry.