Dimensional Marketing and Creative Mailers – Great Promotion Ideas

Web searches for “direct mail response” and similar topics report that “Dimensional Marketing” generates much higher response rates than “flat mail”. This well-documented trend should not come as much of a surprise to marketing professionals. To see an inviting, chunky packet in amongst the morning’s business mail is bound to generate much more curiosity than the run-of-the-mill flat envelopes that arrive without fail every morning of the working week. However, the contents of the pack can be expensive as can the cost of the postage and if the sender has not used much imagination, then the opportunity to create a successful and economic direct mail piece might have been lost.

When you think of promotional marketing and advertising products your mind probably goes straight to a catalogue or website full of mugs, mouse mats, pens, T shirts, coasters and other such predictable promotional products. It is possible that the receipt of one of these hackneyed ideas by your customers will be met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Much better, methinks, to try to generate a greater impact by creating something unique and for less money.

The creation must satisfy certain criteria that are golden rules for direct mail pieces. The mailing pack must be eye-catching and must feel good in the hand. The contents should be interesting and innovative in order to capture your customer’s imagination. The product should also be interactive so that it maintains your customer’s interest for at least as long as it takes your promotional message to hit home. The whole thing should be custom-printed in order to give it a unique feel that could belong only to your company, product or service.

So, what is out there in the promotional product marketplace that could fulfil all of these requirements? One family of products that certainly fits the bill is created using paper and cardboard engineering skills. They can be described as interactive and pop-up marketing products and they come in all shapes and styles.

For the sake of this discussion, I would like to concentrate on interactive products which feature pictures that change. I choose this area simply because it lends itself to one of the oldest forms of advertising -“before and after” images. I have selected three hand-held products for this illustration, each of which has a high curiosity value and is dependent on customer interaction.

Automatic Picture Changing Cover Captures the Imagination

My first example is an interactive marketing product with a very interesting movement. It is a 4-page landscape product with a window or aperture on the front cover. When you open that cover the main picture changes. Customers will open it repeatedly to watch the picture change ensuring that the direct marketing message hits the spot. The product is known as a cover dissolve and it fits neatly into a standard envelope size, though I would always recommend the use of a bespoke mailing pack. It is always custom printed in full colour and it is usually made in 350gsm art board.

Interactive Picture Dissolving Action Creates Excellent Marketing Mailer

A variation on the dissolving picture product above has a simple but attention-grabbing feature. It is operated by the simple interactive action of pulling a tab at one end of the product. This automatically sees the cover graphic dissolve from the original into another picture. This is ideal for many creative marketing themes and it is a very popular mailer. It can be custom made in a variety of sizes.

Moving Picture Card Creates Inspiration for Promotional Marketing Ideas

My final selection is perhaps one of the most ingenious designs that is produced commercially for B2B marketing. The products is known as a flicker card and is somewhat reminiscent of the early days of the moving picture industry. The product is a very creative piece of cardboard engineering that is bound to capture your customer’s attention. It is like a small book with a pull-tab at one end. Pull the tab and the pages automatically turn over and with clever use of graphics, the image on the pages appears to move. This card is bound to be a source of inspiration for many marketing ideas.