Promotions Ideas – Creative Mailers that grow in Size

“Think Big” is an advertising slogan that goes round and comes around again and even though “Small is Beautiful” had its day, it only invited the rejoinder “But Bigger is Better”. So, what is it about being big that appeals so much to the ad men? I think that it is the association of being big with being successful. Maybe that is why promotional products that grow in size are so very popular in direct mail. They successfully carry a message that suggests company growth, growth in sales or growth in wealth.

To convey a business-to-business message by way of direct marketing it is vitally important that your marketing piece captures the imagination of the customer whilst at the same time driving home the promotional message in an impressive way and with impact. Not only that, the mailer must be custom-printed so that its unique appearance could be associated only with your company, product or service.

As specialists in paper and cardboard engineering we offer a variety of bespoke products with different actions including a selection of products that grow in size. I will describe four such products, each with totally different paper and card mechanics and each with different types of “growth” to whet your creative appetite.

Unique Folding Style Creates Big Display for Direct Mail

The first example features a folding style that has been known for hundreds of years and has its origins in the art of origami. The unique folding mechanism of the star burst product gives a display that can double the size of its cover which makes it a terrific corporate promotional item whilst its slim profile makes it ideal for direct mail. It can be made in many different sizes from credit card to A4. Custom printed in full colour the cover is often made in 350gsm art board whilst the star burst folding inner is on 150gsm paper. These specifications differ slightly from one supplier to another.

Automatic Extending Action Great for Marketing Ideas

Another, totally different, product has an automatic extending action that creates a big impact and is known generically as A SideShooter. The product is basically a sleeve that holds two rubber band powered arms. The arms are compressed within the sleeve and held in place by the mailing envelope. Take the product from its custom mailing pack and the arms shoot out to make a total length of approximately 3 times the original size! This action will inspire many creative marketing ideas and will make a great publicity product. The auto extender or power extender and its mailing pack are custom printed in full colour and usually made in 500micron board.

Fascinating Interactive Movement Makes Successful Direct Mailer

The next item on my list relies on customer interaction to show off its impressive display technique and we call this one a Push’n’Pull. This particular style has a manual operation. The action requires the user to push and pull a tab at one end of a sleeve. This reveals a fascinating interactive movement. Pull a tab and a card appears from the opposite end. Push the tab back and the card disappears simultaneously. The action increases the original size to almost three times the original length. The push and pull product can be made in a variety of styles and in popular sizes including A6, DL and A5.

Versatile Pocket Media with many advertising uses

Simple folding techniques are often used to conceal a big product in a little pack and a folding style that is often employed to achieve this is a simple concertina fold. Used to good effect, a concertina fold can create an extremely versatile and convenient advertising product particularly when folded down to credit card size. Such a card can unfold to over 10 times its original length and one such example is a Foldilocks card. It is neat, it feels good in your hand and it fits easily into your pocket. Examples in this style have been used as a giveaway at exhibitions, as a timetable or sports fixture list and as a way to present vouchers.