THE BOOK OF LISTS: The 10 Best direct marketing executions

1. Monster.co.uk "kiss it! Go on, kiss it!"

Winner of the gold award at the Campaign Direct Awards, the "Beware the

voices" work is both memorable and funny. This particular direct

response execution sums up the frustration of the inner voice with some

brilliant abusive copy on some paper that appears to have been scrunched

up in anger.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Art director: Nik Studzinski

Copywriter: Gavin Kellett

2. Vodafone "turn on your voicemail"

A mailing urging Vodafone users to pick up their voicemails. It uses

blackmail: "You will miss birthday bashes or anniversaries if you don't

switch on your voicemail facility." Includes a spoof till receipt for

drinks at a party scrawled over with the words: "Fantastic birthday

bash ... wanted you to be there but couldn't leave a message." A big

winner at the Campaign Direct Awards and D&AD.

Agency: Harrison Troughton Wunderman

Art director: Matt Williams

Copywriter: Paul Suggett

3. Skoda "factory"

Mailing for the Octavia model that masquerades as a technical report

from Skoda's head of technical development. The attention to detail is

superb, including the manila envelope and Czech stamps. A creative and

absorbing way to point out that the new Octavia model has more than

2,000 improvements.

Agency: Archibald Ingall Stretton

Art director: John Treacy

Copywriter: Dan Colley

4. Co-op Dairy "milk bottle"

Incredibly simple direct marketing idea making great use of a milk

bottle as a medium. Bottles were placed outside homes of potential

customers on milk rounds with a note shoved in saying: "Order today and

your first pint is free." A great way of building sales for the Co-op

and nominated for awards at this year's DMAs.

Agency: Partners Andrews Aldridge

Art director: Mark Hanson

Copywriter: Kristian Foy

5. VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) "wallpapering in Vietnam"

Poster in a VSO campaign to attract more volunteers that has lettering

all over the place saying: "The man who usually puts up this poster is

wallpapering a youth hostel in Vietnam." Simple idea, well executed with

brilliant typography and a telephone response built in. Deservedly

picked up awards at the Campaign Poster awards and nominated for several

DMAs.

Agency: Leonardo

Art director: Stuart Button

Copywriter: Wesley Hawes

6. Gordon's Gin "playing cards"

Receiving a Gordon's mailing is something of a privilege because they

are so beautifully crafted and usually contain some sort of freebie. The

disappointment that this is not of the liquid variety soon vanishes as

you open a pack of playing cards complete with lime, lemons,

shamrock-shaped bubbles and ice diamonds as symbols. One of the best

loyalty schemes around.

Agency: Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel

Art director: Leigh Roberts

Copywriter: Rebecca Rae

7. Honda "joymachine 5 door"

Winner of the Campaign Direct award for Best Use of Electronic Media,

this viral marketing campaign consisted of a series of ten films linked

to Honda's website, sent to a group of 500 personal contacts. Attracted

large amounts of traffic to the site within a couple of weeks and looked

really good while being simple and interactive.

Agency: Dowcarter

Art director: Marie Storrar

Copywriter: Ed Carter

8. Ntl "laugh your head off"

Why ntl deserves such consistently good direct marketing is hard to

fathom. Rapier does it again with an amusing mailing for ntl's "fun

pack" offer. It takes the form of one of those flick books everybody

made at school showing a man laughing his head off as you flick the

pages. The offer of £4 a month is revealed at the end.

Agency: Rapier

Art director: Simon Stephenson

Copywriter: Matt Andrews

9. Saab "you as our start point"

Beautiful and lavish mailing, using the idea that Saab makes all its

products to be designed around the human form. Visual ideas include

X-rays of a human body juxtaposed with X-rays of a Saab vehicle. The

copy points out that the whole Saab dealer network is also designed to

care for its drivers. Despite being Swedish, it's the Rolls-Royce of

mailings.

Agency: Lowe Live

Art director: Roddy Kerr

Copywriter: Arthur Parshotam

10. Envision "student TV licensing"

People get scared by different things and, judging by this campaign,

students are very, very afraid of holidays in Ibiza and parties at clubs

being cancelled. The poster campaign uses the traditional TV licence

shock tactics, but in a subtler form. Spoof posters claimed that events

had been postponed because students have TV licence evasion fines to

pay.

Agency: OgilvyOne

Art director: Paul Hargreaves

Copywriter: Nigel Cox

This article was first published on Campaign