Imagine this: You’re the marketing manager for a high-quality consumer product manufacturer and you’ve decided on a new, untried, direct mail strategy. You select a production partner and brief your internal creative department. Next thing you know, you’ve produced a mailer that blows you away and your retailers are calling to say sales are great!

It sounds more like a dream than reality but, according to Brad Treu, Marketing Manager for Mathews Inc. the nation’s premier manufacturer of high-end hunting bows, this project did go much like a dream.

The project involved developing a high-impact mailer with a pop-out DVD holder to introduce a new bow to the bow hunting community. Previously, Mathews had produced high quality DVDs featuring bow hunting adventures. They were packaged with their bows. This time though, Brad and the Mathews marketing team decided to create a mailer designed to introduce the new “Z7” and generate new business too.

Trying something new

“We decided to change things up for 2010. Instead of using the DVD as a post sale reward we decided to use it as a sales tool,” he said. A number of factors including retailer feedback suggested that a mailing around tax refund time might be a great opportunity.

Brad says they wanted to mail something more than a simple DVD sleeve so he worked with GLS and Account Executive John LaBahn to develop a mailer concept. “We were really blown away with what they had to offer us…a mailer with a dramatic DVD holder pop-out…it’s very cool.”

After approving the package design, the Mathews’ creative team in Minneapolis started on the art and copy. The team re-purposed photography from a brochure produced a few months earlier, developed copy and tailored it all to drop into GLS’ CAD-generated mailer format.

Looking good

Unique aspects of the mailer include a cost-effective die-cut clasp to hold the DVD in place and a clever design element reflecting proprietary Mathews technology—a small, integrated, circular “harmonic damper” that reduces vibration. The trademark look is reflected on both the DVD and imprinted on the pop-out holder. It’s even reflected in the red and black color theme seen throughout the piece. The effect: a dramatic reminder of an exclusive Mathews feature.

When a budget concern arose over the cost of attaching the DVDs to the final piece, the team, including GLS and the DVD duplication company, worked together to find a solution. “The vendors were awesome,” says Brad. The mailer was new territory so costs couldn’t be predicted perfectly. But, in the end, costs were contained so well, a Mathews sister company decided to produce a similar mailer using the same DVD pop-out concept.

Smiles

The best dreams, of course, have a happy ending—the kind that make you smile. As Brad recalls this project, the smile comes in the response. Within 14 days of the mailing, success was clear. “It was a quicker response than we anticipated. We were hearing from our retailers all across the country. They were asking ‘Wow! What is this mailer people are walking in with!’—it was definitely creating foot traffic.”

The fact is that few things are truly easy but it’s nice to have a partner on your team that makes it look that way. “What I love about working with GLS and John is that it’s just very easy!”

That makes us smile.

To learn more about Mathews Inc and their bows, visit them at: www.mathewsinc.com.