Flat Rubber Doll

Background

Tokyo-yoga.com had been struggling to acquire new members for some time. A customer survey revealed that although many people come to trial classes offering the first session for free, most of them drop out and never visit the second class. The mission was to persuade people to come to tokyo-yoga.com regularly after the first free-trial class.

Idea

Japanese cities have witnessed a boom in health trends such as slow food, pilates and yoga. Ashtanga Yoga is said to require the hardest discipline both physically and mentally. In this piece, OgilvyOne Japan wanted to communicate to those who want to live healthily that tokyo-yoga.com’s Ashtanga Yoga classes will help them regain their mental and physical fitness. They sent a flat rubber doll with a photo of the recipient’s head appended to the rubber body as a reminder to those who had attended the trial class. The message accompanying the doll urged, ‘Be flexible with Ashtanga Yoga’. The doll, symbolic of a yoga body, was extremely flexible and recipients could play with it to experience the effectiveness of yoga. Also enclosed in the DM pack was another free-lesson coupon to encourage revisits to the studio and to build a stronger relationship with the target audience.

Results

This DM piece was more successful than any other campaigns run by the studio, increasing the number of new members by 200%.

Target Audience

Size

100 mailings

Our Thoughts

If this was my local gym – the one I keep avoiding – an increase in membership of 200% would mean a sudden cash injection of anything up to £75,000. That money would allow the owners to improve facilities or even open a second gym. The point is, a mailer like this can have a dramatic effect on a small business so that pretty soon it’s not a small business any longer.