Facebook As Direct Mail – The Media With Bigger Possibilities
Swedish Post
Issue 6 | July 2008
Agency
Åkestam Holst
Creative Team
Andreas Ullenius, Jesper Holst - Art Directors ;Monica Born - Copywriter;Peter Bergendahl, Göran Åkestam - Account Managers
Production Team
Mari Höglin - Account Assistant;Torbjörn Krantz, Petter Hanberger, Stina Källquist - Graphic Designers
Other Credits
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Date
November 2007
Background
The Swedish Post Office wanted to communicate the personal nature of direct mail to members of the ad and media industry, and at the same time invite them to their yearly Guldlådan seminar day and award ceremony.
Idea
On Facebook it’s de rigueur to show off your private pictures, lists of friends, personal doings etc to anyone who happens across your page. However, to use this behaviour in direct mail makes the practice so hyper-personal it seems almost scary. With this insight, the agency decided to send out physical ‘friend requests’ mailings from five well known employees of Akestam Holst to selected creatives and account managers. The criteria: the recipients had to be on Facebook already and none could already be friends with the sender. If several people in the same company received invitations they were all different.
The mail packs contained hand-written notes from the requester containing such facts as nicknames and friend lists. For example, one read; ‘Hi, this is Andreas Ullenius, I want to add you as a friend. I've visited 215 cities in 33 countries but my travel IQ is below average.’ Another read, ‘Hi, this is Göran Åkestam. I want to add you as a friend. I've tagged myself on 6 pictures. My name if I was a stripper would be "Big Bad Baldwin".’ Also included were ‘tagged’ photos, images of the sender’s other friends, marked maps and even a ‘thrown sheep’. Text at the bottom of each letter pointed out the personal and targeted nature of direct mail as a medium and invited the recipient to the party. A P.S on each one personalised the invitation.
Results
The event, held in a space designed for 400, received 450 visitors.
Target Audience
Selected creatives and account managers at ad agencies and people in the media business. The criteria were that they had to be proven Facebookers and weren’t already a friend of the sender in real life.
Size
70 mailings
Our Thoughts
Doing a Facebook parody to individuals who are avid Facebookers is a very clever way of dramatising how personal and involving the tactile medium of direct mail can be. SH