THE 1997 DMA/ROYAL MAIL DIRECT MARKETING AWARDS: BEST DM CAMPAIGN - MAIL ORDER

WINNER

Client: Scotland Direct

Agency: In-house

Copywriters: Fiona Lawson, Arthur Bell

Art directors: Andrew Leigh, Paul Provan

SECOND

Client: Motive (3 Suisses)

Agency: WWAV Rapp Collins

Copywriter: Rob Steeles

Art director: Caroline Jaggard

THIRD

Client: Lakeland

Agency: JDA

Copywriter: Kate Hinchcliffe

Art director: John Sheridan

WINNER

Aware of a growing interest in good coffees, Scotland Direct - holding

company for Scottish Gourmet and The Whisky Connoisseur - tested the

water with a mail insert to existing customers, and a couple of

off-the-page ads in BBC Good Food. Despite the fact that world coffee

prices have doubled, the strong response has led to the establishment of

The Coffee Connoisseur, supplying coffee by post.

A response rate of 7.7% to the mailing to existing customers was

particularly gratifying to the company - economical, and proof that

customers trust it.

Initial orders totalled nearly pounds 13,000, which was twice the cost

of launching the programme. Brochures are now mailed at intervals of

about six weeks, and the first three drew a 19% response rate. ’A

complete new mail order business has been started for a tiny

expenditure, which was self-liquidating anyway,’ the company said in its

submission.

’The mail order coffee club is a stunning idea, backed up with wonderful

customer acquisition programmes,’ the judges noted. ’The results are

seriously impressive.’

SECOND

3 Suisses is an authentically French, slightly risque clothing

catalogue, aimed at fashion-conscious women under 45. The challenge was

to do what the La Redoute catalogue does, but cheaper, through a

hard-working creative approach. Full-page and quarter-page ads, in

addition to inserts, were used in women’s weekly and monthly magazines,

as well as Sunday supplements and listings titles, to attract enquiries.

In all, 64,000 requests for catalogues were generated, at a cost of

pounds 2.99 each - a third below target.

THIRD

Product images ’morphed’ into each other in Lakeland’s first experiment

with DRTV. The company was the first in the mail order kitchenware

sector to use the medium, in a bid to counteract a gradual decline in

responses to its press inserts. It took the opportunity to test

terrestrial channels against cable and satellite, and different response

mechanisms. The lifestyle-oriented channels UK Living and Discovery Home

& Leisure were particularly effective. Orders totalling pounds 95,000

were 20% above target.

This article was first published on Marketing