The Letter that got burgled
Issue 16 | September 2010
Agency
Demner, Merlicek, Bergmann, Vienna
Creative Team
Creative Director: Sebastian Kainz; Art Director: Hannes Boker, Sebastian Kainz; Writer: Sebastian Kainz, Alistair Thompson; Graphic Designer: Lukas Hueter
Production Team
DTP: Sarah Spanring, Johannes Vater; Producer: Norbert Rebenseifer
Other Credits
Etat Director: Alexander Rosenegger; Client Executive: Anna Mayer
Date
March 2010
Background
ACTUAL is an Austrian company that manufactures windows. As a result of an increase in burglaries and the media coverage which accompanied them, they wished to make existing customers and new prospects aware that new windows would make their homes safer.
Idea
To show what it’s like being burgled, the mailing list was sent a letter which had been ‘burgled’ itself. The window of the envelope was broken up and inside there was nothing left, as if the mailing had been cleaned out like a flat or a house.
On the inside of the envelope was printed a short message.
“Everything gone? Get an ACTUAL security window. Now with 10% off. For details, go to www.actual.at”
Results
In response to ‘the letter that was burgled’, traffic to the ACTUAL website increased by 21%.
There was a 16% response to the offer, which made the mailing (which was very low cost itself) the most efficient ACTUAL mailing campaign ever.
Our Thoughts
Most direct marketers think that the story to be told is in the letter but I have always believed that the envelope itself is a communications opportunity.
What this piece sets out to do is elicit an emotional rather than rational response. That said, the offer provides an added incentive.
850 households were mailed, 135 bought new windows as a result. I’m having a couple of new windows installed at the moment and I am painfully aware of how much windows cost and that this mailing will have generated revenues of around £250,000. Fantastic.