Examples of great Print Marketing

Print is very much still alive (as if you were in any doubt!) and print marketing is better than ever. The boundaries of what print can achieve are constantly being challenged through creative campaigns. Here are some of our favourite examples of print marketing at its best.

PrettyLittleThing Anniversary Card Sparks Customer Reactivation.

Maintaining customer loyalty in the face of competition is a key aspect of PLT’s marketing strategy. After finding they had a segment of customers that were not engaging via email or SMS, they turned to print. PLT created a personalised Anniversary Card of 1 year since the customer had shopped with them. With their target audience of 17-25 year old’s 31% less likely to receive mail, the pink enveloped mailer really stood out.

“It’s become much harder to identify those customers responding to email and there are customer segments it just doesn’t work for, but mail is cutting through here. This test has shown that this channel can work for us – especially with those customers who are ignoring messages sent by email or SMS.” Lewis Fraser, Head of CRM, PrettyLittleThing

Land Rover uses Clever Print Techniques.

Land Rover faced the challenge of re-engaging alienated customers after advertising messaging for the new model left some long-term customers questioning their loyalty. The new model product positioning was entirely different in perceived luxury and price. Land Rover needed to get these once loyal customers back on board, and remember why they fell in love with the Land Rover brand in the first place.

Going back to their roots, Land Rover needed to prove they hadn’t ‘gone soft’, and that the new model was more capable than ever. Leading with the concept that the model could take on any extreme challenge including wet weather, their mailer did exactly this. Printing with water-reactive hydrochromic ink printed on rugged, submersible paper, the mailer invited the user to ‘Just add water’ revealing the messaging.

Sky King’s Coronation invitation.

Sky needed to reactivate customers with something that truly stood out from other direct mail. They knew they needed to make their customers feel really special, opting for a highly personalised approach.

Sending invitations in gold envelopes and personalised with the customers details requesting attendance at “a celebration of glorious entertainment” to take place at a familiar venue: the recipient’s own home. Saving the branding until the very end of the mailer, it acted as a way of creating intrigue before revealing the true nature of the print.

“By combining authenticity, personalisation, and timeliness, our King’s Coronation mailing was able to achieve a 105% better performance compared to our standard business-as-usual DM campaign,” says Andrea Locatelli, Sky Creative’s creative director, through-the-line.

Toolstation Hyper-personalised QR codes.

A great example of understanding your audience but gently suggesting other ways to engage. Toolstation’s quarterly catalogue is a beloved piece of print by tradespeople - it acts as a Bible, but at 800 pages long the catalogue didn’t have the best user experience. Finding what you’re looking for on the Toolstation website was the preferred engagement. Leading with the concept of ‘Turn anything into your Toolstation’, instead of sending out the catalogue they mailed out a highly personalised 4 page book of QR codes with links to specific categories of products.

QR codes were printed on heavy-duty stickers, allowing customers to stick them to anything and truly ‘Turn anything into your Toolstation’.

KitKat’s Clever Artwork.

Playing on a well-recognised piece of print we all receive through the letterbox, KitKat utilised the idea that the KitKat Chunky was too big to fit through the letterbox. The mailer directed people to their local newsagents where they could pick up a free KitKat Chunky.

IKEA’s Print Doubles as a Pregnancy Test.

Advertising their crib, IKEA took print marketing to a whole new level of creativity. Doubling as a pregnancy test when peed on, the ad offered mums a half price crib if their test was positive.