When Direct Mail Gets Personal
by Adrian Hanft, (13 comments)
It seems like every printer I meet is promoting their “one-to-one” capabilities for direct mail. You know what I am talking about, right? They have their printer connected to a database of names, so that every piece that gets mailed is personalized with the recipient’s name. The technology keeps getting better and better, and the other day I got a postcard in the mail that was pretty impressive. The photo on the front had a girl in a bathtub writing my name in the bubbles. If you don’t mind seeing attractive women bathing, take a look at the full postcard. The back of the postcard was less impressive, but I never would have read it if it weren’t for the customized front. The postcard is promoting a seminar for designers about one-to-one marketing. If anyone is interested, it is in Fort Collins, Colorado on March 23, 2006. The speaker is Toby Gadd and you can call Carrie at (970) 484-2330 to make reservations.
Comments (13)
Bennett said:
That is pretty crazy. The postcard is too obvert for my taste. I think it would have been just as effective without the semi-nudity … and is it me or could this double as a barely legal phone sex ad? They could have played up the customization/personalization more and made the ad just slightly risque without going that far. Humor and irony is going to stick in your head long after the shock impact has gone away.
Posted on March 16, 2006
Adrian said:
I was hoping to sidestep the morality of sending near pornographic images through the mail, but I think that is going to be a lost cause. I wouldn’t hold this postcard up as great design, but you have to admit that the customization is impressive. What “sticks in my head” isn’t the photo, it is that technology can now personalize photos convincingly. I suppose once we are used to seeing this regularly it won’t be amazing anymore. How do you think they did it? Photoshop bath actions? The “A’s” are different, so it is much more than just a “bubble” font.
Posted on March 16, 2006
Bill Kerr said:
holy shit… that is insane….
i must know how that was done… photoshop working in conjunction with a database? standalone app?
aarrrggghhhhhh!
Posted on March 16, 2006
Adrian said:
I mean “batch” actions. Talk about a Freudian slip…
Posted on March 16, 2006
JonSel said:
Adrian, you should contact the company and find out how they did it. The design is dreadful, of course, but the technology is fascinating, if a little creepy.
Posted on March 16, 2006
Nate Voss said:
Yes. How do I get on their mailing list? Also, I would love to see another card with a different name. I want to see just one more so I can crack their system. And do they customize the girl? Do girls get postcards with Tom Nemitz on them? So many questions…
Posted on March 16, 2006
televator said:
My guess (albeit, a left-field one) is that it is just a typeface, but with some creative use of layers and transparency in indesign. Just put the type on a path, place an outlined (and/or transparent) image of stream of bubbles so that it will go over whatever text is there to make it look more “real”
The A’s seem to be similar, just have different parts covered up, and on different angles, which theoretically could be done the way I described.
Is that too simple?
Posted on March 16, 2006
Su said:
Neat trick. Luckily not as creepy as the June 2004 issue of Reason whose cover was a satellite image of your house. Subscriber-only, of course. (The Times article linked at Slashdot is now in the for-pay archive, but you might find alternate pieces by trawling comments. Or just go searching, I suppose.)
Posted on March 16, 2006
ChrisM70 said:
Maybe I’m alone in this, but as someone who receives junk mail (sorry, direct mail), I don’t want to see it personalized.
The more “one-to-one” it becomes, the more it can feel like privacy intrusion.
Yes, I know that a machine is doing the work, but it FEELS like someone (who I don’t know) spent a lot of time to send me a flier for cheap home loans (for example), and that is a little more personal than I would like them to be. It’s the same thing with internet ads that pop up your personal info in the ad (Example: “Hi Steve! Find great loan opportunities in Atlanta!”)
There’s a fine line between impressing people and creeping them out.
Posted on March 16, 2006
rp said:
It indeed is a neat trick. I guess Televator could be right by guessing they did it out of a program that uses layers. Also I back Chris’s idea about the fact that the more personal direct-mail becomes, the less I have the need to read what it’s about…
Posted on March 17, 2006
Kel said:
That girl is hot? She looks all of sixteen.
Posted on March 17, 2006
Jake said:
I actually have a desktop image that I created as a test image from one of the sites that allows you to do this. It’s pretty impressive stuff. I’ll have to see if I can find the exact website in my unorganized bookmarks. If I do I’ll post it.
I work for a company that does personalized samples of pens and it is a big part of our marketing. It’s definitely a impressive way to pull in the potential client.
I think if they make it affordable, this will be a big item in the future of marketing. Affordability is going to be the key.
Posted on March 19, 2006
pomgod said:
I know that these things can be done with the Xeikon machines. It’s indeed a nifty tool and great things can be done with it… Certainly contact those guys for more samples of direct mailing if you need it, they can certainly tell you where you can find a company that has their machines.
Posted on March 27, 2006