MRM

MRM Japan has won the Grand Prix at the 2014 Japan DM Award for developing a new and innovative experience-based direct mail locked with a key. Details can be found at http://www.advertimes.com/20140227/article148884/. In this campaign, direct mails were sent out to our client’s new business prospects to promote the use of their online advertising service. The DM’s they received were boxes locked with a padlock, and they needed to find the key, a three-digit code, by using our client’s online service. When they successfully found the code and opened the direct mail, they would find a Japanese scroll and folding fan designed to drive them to a website containing our client’s case studies.

Although the recipients of the direct mails had to search on the Internet to open the direct mail, it achieved a high activation rate with 95% of the 1000 direct mails being successfully opened and about half of recipients responding to the questionnaire either online or by using the enclosed form.

The judging committee selected this work out of 712 total submissions as the Grand Prix because it is a high-quality, comprehensive direct mail campaign which incorporates call-to-actions and follow-up functions, and uses an unique direct mail creative developed in a way so that it’s consistent with the key message of the campaign “Find the Key to Success.” The committee also recognized the courageous decision made by our client to use a locked padlock because with direct mails, opening ratio is critical, even considering the key objective this time: to get prospects to experience its service. The mechanism which required recipients to find the key to open the direct mail is believed to have tantalized and helped them become deeply engaged with the campaign, thus contributing to the high response rate.

A big congratulation goes out to the client and everyone in the team!