• Best Direct Response Campaign 2002

• Bronze Anvil Entry: Direct Mail
Title: AHOY!

Objectives: By February 23, 2001, achieve the attendance goal of 800 salon industry representatives at a national sales meeting organized by Goldwell USA (a major manufacturer of salon haircare products) to educate key customers about a new product.

Successfully compete for the target audience’s attention and time away from their business operations to effect interest, commitment and action. Build brand loyalty by creating and communicating a vacation theme on a 3-day cruise including clients and their guests.

Audience: Salon product distributors, independent and chain salon owners, stylists and salon product educators.

Strategies: (1) Target a list of high-producing Goldwell distributors, salons, stylists and educators to yield the best quality and quantity of meeting delegates. (2) Create a strong sense of importance for attendance relative to the launch of a new product that will benefit their business (3) Create a tool to crash through the morning mail with open-me-first energy and keep interest going with a creative series of messages guaranteed to get attention and effect action. (4) Convey the message that Goldwell cares about them as individuals by staging the business meeting on a cruise and opening the meeting site to friends and family.

Budget: Of the total $1.2 million meeting budget, $60,000 was allocated to the recruitment of delegates. A unit price of
$20 per mailing, per delegate, in a 3-part series was set for the 1,000-person mailing.

Tactics: (1) Direct mail was selected as the venue of choice to reach the audience where they were most likely to be influenced by its message: at their salons.
(2) A message of urgency and benefit was conveyed to attend this event to learn about a new styling product by Goldwell to give salons a competitive edge in a highly competitive industry.
(3) Mailer #1 carried a “save the date” message in a bottle to pique interest and set the tone for a fun, informative meeting “at sea.” Mailer #2 delivered a “family vacation memories” tone in a box mailer designed to look like a photo album, containing a viewer and 35mm slide of a beach scene along with a beach shirt imprinted with ship’s flags spelling GOLDWELL and registration materials. Mailer #3 was the final prompt for registration using ship’s flags to say “Sit back, relax, kick off your shoes, and open this box.” The box contained a gift copy of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by author Richard Carlson, featured keynote speaker on the cruise.

Results: The mailing campaign captured attendance of 800 key clients and 400 guests within the registration timelines and within the budget. It achieved client action (meeting attendance), awareness (product knowledge) and advocacy (client retention and brand loyalty) for Goldwell. A national sales and distribution marketing campaign followed this event