Feature: Specialist print and DM: Power of the press

Transpromo is the new buzzword in direct marketing. Also known as trans-promotional marketing, it is when the white space on bills and statements (transactional material) is used to promote a marketing message to a particular customer. A mobile phone company, for example, wanting to highlight to a customer that their high text use indicates they may benefit from a new tariff.

Apart from the personalised contact, the main advantage of this approach is that bills have to be opened rather than consigned immediately to the recycling bin. As David Jeffries, marketing director of mail specialists Pitney Bowes, says: “Undoubtedly, print and production developments are transforming direct mail. But the most astute marketers are also recognising that channel choice is as crucial as dynamic design and quality materials.”

However, trans-promotional marketing has not been taken up by many companies. Lucy Edwards, marketing director of direct marketing group Howard Hunt, explains: “The idea is quite old – it is used quite heavily in Europe, especially Spain – but it’s not really taken off here yet. My personal opinion is that companies that do transactional print and direct marketing have two very separate departments for these, maybe even a separate database.

“With big companies, the struggle is getting these departments together and getting them to see the opportunities. But imagine you’ve got one piece of mail that will definitely be opened and what this does to production costs.” As Jeffries adds: “The marriage of transactional messages with promotional offers makes the best use of existing communication spend.”

The other area that Edwards feels is influential this year is digital printing. “A lot of clients have been working really hard to get data clean and useable and are starting to understand the value of it.” Howard Hunt worked with Oxfam Unwrapped where consumers can buy a virtual gift, such as a goat for a village. The data taken from the website – the gift chosen, recipient’s details, message – allow each individual gift to be different. It is, as Edwards says, clever one-to-one marketing.

In a campaign developed by Proximity London for Royal Mail, Howard Hunt acted on the conclusions of research by BRAND Sense that revealed that consumers made decisions based on sensory signals. Amanda Philips, chief executive of Proximity London, says: “Royal Mail wanted to highlight the role that direct mail has to play in building brands. We came up with the concept of a chocolate letter because it is simple but powerful and illustrates direct mail’s exceptional capability to engage all the senses.”

The chocolate letter (pictured above) was engraved with a personalised message and sent, along with a brochure sporting a heat-sensitive cover, to senior marketers at top UK businesses and their creative agencies to show that engaging the senses can create positive relationships.

Antony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, said: “Direct mail has for a long time been typecast as a predominantly response-driven marketing medium by many. So, with this campaign, we really wanted to shatter this misconception and demonstrate the flexibility of the medium by showing how it can enhance brand engagement and build deep and meaningful relationships with consumers.”

Also working on the senses is B&H Colour Change’s ink technology. Gilly Beaumont, its marketing managing, notes: “Because recipients will interact with print which has a ‘Smart’ ink on it, the results one gets from these innovations tends to be much higher.”

As well as colour-change labels for products, Chill & Win game cards and chiller thermometers are available. Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW) created a campaign aimed at promoting Guinness sales during the summer as it is traditionally seen as a winter drink. Cards using B&H’s liquid-crystal thermometer strips – dubbed Thirstometers – were mailed to the brand’s database. It was linked to an online campaign, and when the temperature went above 20C TMW sent emails on the Friday evening saying it was the perfect time for a pint of Guinness. Research found that 50 per cent of the recipients showed the Thirstometers to other people, and that they had a very low junk perception.

“Specialist inks are simply a way of getting your print, promotion or game piece message into the consciousness of your audience,” says Beaumont. “It is a highly effective medium because they always involve the target user directly in some type of interaction.”