Eyeletting Provides Creative Direct Mail Solutions

In the quest to gain new customers through creative direct mail it is possible to over-egg the pudding by trying to be too clever. There are certain attributes that are very desirable in a mail shot but it is easy to go too far in trying to achieve certain goals. For example, customer interaction is a terrific commodity in B2B direct marketing but if it is not immediately obvious how the interaction works then spontaneity goes out of the window and the opportunity can be lost. Marketing professionals are well advised to keep things simple but nonetheless entertaining.

In order to turn an information sheet into a simple, interactive information tool with an obvious interaction, designers need to look no further than towards a simple stationery eyelet as a tool to provide many answers. This point is best illustrated if we take a look at circular information charts.

Circular Information Discs are Popular Promotional Tools

The main problem with this type of product is that no-one knows what they are called – wheel charts, information discs, calculators, roundels and spinners are just a few of the more common names. Whatever you may call them doesn’t alter the basic fact that they are very popular information tools that are used to promote a myriad of products. They are usually made up of either two or three discs custom printed in full colour and fastened at the centre with a metal eyelet. The eyelet allows the discs to turn around the central point in order to locate certain items of information. The top disc usually has a window or aperture through which it is easy to read information. This info can be the answer to a question, technical data or a list of products for example. Whatever it is, the reader has to interact with the disc in order to read it and so the disc becomes a good product for B2B direct marketing.

Another product that has promotional uses and that is similar to the information discs described above is a product that is familiar in the UK and many parts of Europe and that is a parking disc. In the UK in particular, such products are often used as promotion items produced on behalf of the auto industry and targeted at the motorist.

The simple metal eyelet is also at the heart of other promotional items. Take, for example, a set of information cards.

Fan-like Display Created by Eyelet Fastener

Swatch cards, also known as fan cards and information cards, are printed, die-cut, collated and fastened in one corner using a metal eyelet so that they open like a hand-held ladies fan. Such cards come in a variety of shapes and in sizes, usually from credit card size to A5 and are generally printed in full colour on 300gsm art board or a similar substrate.

There are other ways to use metal eyelets in the creation of movement and one example is to use two eyelets to present a motion similar to that produced by a fly wheel or a camshaft. The product is usually presented as a sleeve with the mechanics on the inside. A wheel at the side of the sleeve is fastened at the centre and is turned in an even, circular motion by the user. Within the sleeve, a die-cut piece is connected to the wheel by a long shaft which is eyeletted to the wheel in an off-centre position. When the wheel is turned, the shaft moves up and down with it but as the die-cut piece is held within a slot, the movement is somewhat irregular – like a “bobbing” motion. With the use of creative graphics, the die-cut piece can be made to look like a duck or a boat bobbing along in water.