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An envelope appeared in my morning post yesterday that had my name typed in a sort of old Smith Corona/Olivetti typeface with the word "Luftpost" in the top left-hand side. Inside revealed a letter and a packet of six photos in a "Steikenlab Fotos" envelope. The letter began:

Dear fellow car enthusiast,

My name is Günter Schröder and I work as an automotive engineer in Germany. I cannot say who I work for, but it is a German car company.

The letter went on to say that he had to blow the whistle and let the world know that the Subaru Impreza was a wonderbar vehicle. It suddenly became crystal clear that this was a direct-mail tie-in to the maybe-not-the-most-original-but-highly-enjoyable Subaru television ads. (Ya, ya…I know, it was still early in the morning and I'd only had one cuppa Joe, so cut me some slack.) You know the ones...where the German engineers are joyriding in a Subaru while blasting Austrian band Falco's song "Rock Me Amadeus".

How fun! How clever!  The accompanying photos were brilliant as well. They were deliberately amateurish and were made to look as if they had been taken in secret. There was one image snapped from behind some plants, another featured a thumb and another was blurry. On the back of the photos were handwritten notes from Günter talking about various aspects of the car.

In addition, the direct mail campaign drives recipients to the microsite www.imprezaenvy.com. Created by DDB Canada, the Subaru Impreza print campaign is just a fabulous.

Okay, so we aren't all Subaru with big agency budgets. But as an SME, here's what you can take away from this…

Voice - Hats off to the copywriter here. This is some of the best copy I've read in eons. The Subaru campaign has a strong personality. How many times have you read stuff like "You can get there from here. Shift into action with a 6-speed or go gearless" and yawned? Creating a strong brand voice goes a long way in building rapport.

Big Picture Thinking - This direct mail campaign was a beautiful tie-in to its television commercials. It's really nice to see a thoroughly coordinated and very cohesive effort. Television, print and web…DDB Canada has even created a Facebook account for "Günter Schröder."

Gender-Neutral Advertising - I really liked this campaign because it was smart and funny, and Subaru wasn't trying to sell me a car that coordinated with my outfit.

Features & Benefits - Each one of the photos had "handwritten" notes on the back that conveyed not only the features but the benefits as well; I have no idea what a "double wishbone rear suspension" is, but I appreciate that it gives me a quieter ride and more storage space. This was a very ingenious way of delivering additional purchasing information.

Targeted Audience - As a Subaru owner, I'm more likely to buy another Subaru. Companies often overlook their in-house lists of current customers. This is a very targeted campaign. If you're launching a direct mail campaign - start with the people you've already got a relationship with.

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one comment:

The irony of the commercial is that these guy racing around in a Japanese car jamming to a tune by someone who was killed in a car accident—while driving a Japanese car.

Magpie (URL) - 02.25.09