If a squeeze on your marketing budget is simultaneously squeezing your creativity, think different, think improvisation, think shoestring!
Such was our dilemma when in the final stages of pulling together one of our Phoenix Moments corporate hospitality events earlier this month, this one being centred on a Sushi-making and Sake-tasting cruise down the river Thames.
The invitation needed to reflect the theme, be quick to produce and inexpensive, but most of all it had to catch the eye of the top flight marketing invitees and secure their attendance.
The end result created by our head of design Roger Bradshaw, was a striking oriental scroll, each one hand crafted from part of an inner cardboard tube from a £1 roll of cellophane, sprayed a deep red with some spare car paint and stencilled with the Japanese calligraphy for ‘Sushi’ and ‘Sake’ in black. Rolled inside and printed to mimic old paper, while really being the regular copier variety, was all the necessary information, authentically finished with a colour co-ordinated silk thread and stone bead from a local craft shop.
Everyone commented on the invitation during the course of the evening with an excellent take up rate by recipients of 76%. They admitted the invitation had been instrumental in securing their attendance and, for those who’d never had any previous contact, said it gave them a prior perception of The Phoenix Partners as being a truly creative agency and a lasting impression.
Tim Hamill, head of the Mail Media Centre at Royal Mail, who attended the Phoenix Moments event, commented: “The mailer showed ingenuity and resulted in a piece of creative design which really hit the mark against all its objectives. It was a fitting pre-cursor to a very enjoyable event and demonstrated that mail is an effective communication tool to cut through day to day business communications. Most media would dearly love to demonstrate driving such high rates of action. This campaign also demonstrates that it’s not all about big budgets where effective direct mail is concerned.”
Freida Moore, head of corporate communications for recruitment experts Hays, commented: “The invitation certainly had the wow factor. I was impressed from the minute I opened the padded envelope it arrived in. It was a perfect introduction to the event and it looked very exclusive. All of my colleagues commented on it as it sat on my desk and it definitely set the scene for what proved to be an amazing evening. The team at Phoenix had thought of every little detail, from mirroring the Japanese characters on the invitation to print on the apron for the event, to the event branded marketing materials for us to take away. I was so impressed with the creativity and flair of the invitation and can't wait to see what they do next!”
The event was also a success on the night in generating potentially lucrative business tenders from several attendees spanning our expertise in live events, design and video.
Rachel Hargrave, managing director here at The Phoenix Partners said: “We like to do things a little bit out of the ordinary both with our own marketing and on behalf of our clients. Sometimes the simplest of things are more effective than sophisticated production techniques. It’s always the creativity behind the idea which counts.”
To put some creativity into your next direct mail campaign give us a call.
Rachel Hargrave
Rachel@thephoenixpartners.com
01509 815026
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