Grover Kirkman
Creative Director, Meredith Corporation
2010 AD ALL-STAR: DIRECT MAIL
During a time of pinched budgets and cost containment, Meredith has remained decidedly bullish on direct mail marketing, supporting it with a robust testing and creative process.
To say these days that direct mail is a significant source of business—or that it is a source that is continually tested and refined—is a rare thing. E-marketing and alternative sources have commanded ever larger portions of the source mix over the last couple years as material and postal costs have gone up. Meredith has been incredibly bullish on direct mail as a marketing, subscription, renewal and gift source, mailing just over 200 million pieces last year. About 115 million of those were dedicated to renewals and gifts, says Grover Kirkman, the company’s creative director.
With volume like that, the company supports a perpetual testing environment. Kirkman and his team are able to continually tweak creative and packages. “It’s like when you go to the dragstrip and the Budweiser driver blows a motor. He can do that because he’s got a trailer full of them,” says Kirkman, referring to Meredith’s willingness to invest in a fully-engaged creative and testing process. “I think if we weren’t delivering success we wouldn’t get a shot to test nearly as much,” he says. “From a creative perspective, that’s really exciting. You enjoy the win, but then you’re on to what’s next.”
Not content to rest on a successful creative package, Kirkman’s team performs regular maintenance testing. “If you get a control, you have to respect that, but you need to do some maintenance testing against it—price testing and so on to freshen it up. We worry that it will wear out,” he says.
The creative team isn’t afraid to swap successful elements across titles or even different pieces as well. “When we get a successful renewal piece, we’ll clone it across titles or hammer it into an acquisition piece,” he says. “You don’t always have to start from ground zero.”
Vital Stats: How big of a source is direct mail for Meredith? The publisher mailed just over 200 million pieces in 2009. The renewal and gift pieces totaled 115 million.
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