NewPage Corporation
As one of the largest printing paper manufacturers in North America they wanted a campaign that would:
- Increase awareness of NewPage and its Sterling Ultra Digital line of papers designed for use in digital presses.
- Gain market information about smaller digital print shops and quick printers for use in future marketing efforts (companies that it had not targeted with past marketing campaigns).
- Generate high quality sales leads to turn over to its commercial print sales force and distributors.
The Results
NewPage defined a response in this campaign as anyone who visited their PURL and completed the short survey. The company was happy with the double digit response rates:
- 25% company response rate
- 12% individual response rate
- 250 sales leads
NewPage was able to gather 250 leads to turn over to its commercial print sales force and distributors. The average order size for Sterling Ultra Digital is several hundred dollars, but increasing sales was only a portion of the benefits NewPage reaped from the campaign. The survey results were also very important to NewPage as they provided the company with detailed market information.
The Campaign
The initial mailing went out to 2,000. The second mail drop was about two weeks after the first and was sent only to people who had not responded to the first touch. The third, and final, drop was mailed about two weeks later and only to people who had not responded to the first two touches.
Arizona’s Children Organization (AzCA)
This is a non-profit agency offering fostercare, adoption, and other child welfare services. It needed to increase its revenue from private donors. Previous campaigns consisted of static direct mail. To improve the performance of its 2007-2008 winter campaign AzCA developed a cross-media, personalized direct marketing campaign that would:
- Increase total value of donations over the previous winter campaign (2006)
- Increase the average donation over the previous campaign
- Reactivate dormant donors
The Results
For the campaign, AzCA and Allegra started with AzCA’s database of 14,000 active and former donors, which they segmented by donor status (active or dormant), donation history, and location of residence. AzCA was thrilled with the substantial increases in number of donations, total amount, and average amount per donation.
- It was the largest revenue campaign in the history of the winter appeal.
- The total value of donations grew from $17,088 to $46,179 (270% of the previous total).
- The number of individual donations increased from 110 to 177 (160% of the previous total).
- The average donation grew from $155.35 to $260.90 (168% of the previous total).
- The campaign succeeded in reactivating numerous former donors.
The Campaign
All printed pieces included a pre-populated donation form and a personalized message about the donor’s last contribution. (For example: “Your gift of $50 on Sept. 14, 2006, personally impacted a child or family in a difficult situation.”) All direct mail pieces offered multiple response mechanisms: telephone (using local response phone numbers), mail (using local addresses), and personalized Web sites to make donations.
The personalized URL greeted recipients by name, thanked them for visiting, and provided variable donation levels to encourage them to increase their gift amounts.
Concurrent with the mailing of the printed material, an e-mail blast supported the arrival of the direct mail component. This e-mail blast included a link to the donor’s personalized Web site. AzCA boosted the impact of the campaign by asking for donation referrals.
The campaign ran a follow-up direct mail appeal that was much more limited in design. It included variable names and addresses, as well as a local return address following the guidelines of the winter mailing. It was sent to all active donors who hadn’t responded to the initial mailing.
