The World’s Longest Business Card

Background

As founder and publisher of Directory, Patrick Collister’s fame in DM circles precedes him everywhere, except, it seems, in Australia. So while news of him giving a series of talks would be keenly anticipated elsewhere in the world, in Australia driving attendance was a real challenge.

Added to that, the speaker season in Sydney was well underway, with a number of high profile and more established events – such as B&T Bootcamp – already in people’s diaries

Idea

Patrick had to be introduced to the business audience in a way that highlighted his credentials as well as showing what the medium of mail could do, seeing as the piece was from Australia Post. Using a twist on the usual business card, a piece of intriguing mail was created which must have been the longest piece of direct mail (in shape) that the recipients would have ever received.

We wanted To genuinely engage its audience, what purported to be Patrick’s business card listed his many roles and titles.

As with invitations you receive for your social life you pin/prop these up to remind you of the event – so too this piece had to be rigid enough to be propped up against your pc at work to remind you of the event. In case the audience needed anymore reminding, the day before the event an email was sent to everyone who had booked a seat at the one of the events.

Results

Originally scheduled in Sydney to give one talk in the morning to suits and clients and another in the evening to creatives, such interest was created by this mailpiece that he ended up giving four presentations to a total of around 300 of the top advertising people and marketers in town.

Our Thoughts

If this issue of Directory has more Aussie work than usual, now you know why! It was wonderful to be invited downunder by Alison Ells from Australia Post to talk about what’s happening in the world of direct and to encourage agencies to keep sending us their best work. Because some of it is among the best in the world, as the Caples, ECHOs and Cannes bear testimony.

I like the mailing too even if, in the nicest possible way, what it says is: “Old has-been is here in Oz !”