EMPIREBLUE.COM
Peering beneath teaser copy that declares "Your Prognosis is Excellent" is what appears to be a small portion of a person's blue-tinted x-ray.
However, opening this intriguing 9" x 12" package reveals instead the blue butterfly logo for Empire HealthChoice, a licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The transparent butterfly insert comes attached with a sticker and directions that encourage recipients to "Peel and use to affix x-ray to window." Of course, this striking freemium is more than a beautiful window decoration; it also continually displays Empireblue.com's domain and telephone number to potential business clients. The central focus of this promotion is an introduction to the Empireblue.com Web site, which promises to make employees happier by giving them added control over their health plan. It goes on to state that with online support, employees "won't need to knock on your door"--the invariable cause of many HR headaches. Those who would like to test-drive the Web site are asked to call the toll-free number for an activation code. To generate more personal communication, a free Polaroid iZone camera incentive is given to those who call and schedule an Empireblue.com sales appointment.
TERRY
A new promotion from Terry, a women's bike company, uses an uncommon format and bright photography to boost interest in its innovative apparel and to introduce a distinct piece of activewear. 
The front cover of Terry's 5-1/4" square mini-catalog features what appears to be a brightly-colored mini-skirt along with the question: "What's a skort?" The skirt/short hybrid is a stylish skirt attached to and concealing a pair of more practical bike shorts underneath. Terry plays up the "form," "fashion" and "function" of this 2-in-1 combination with women modeling the skorts in a variety of sporty action shots. Although this particular apparel item has been in the marketplace for some time, Terry's athletic versions and extensive line is relatively new and will no doubt benefit from the more formal introduction. Orders can be placed by phone, fax or online, although there is no printed order form in the catalog.
CFO
Direct mail efforts promoting paid-only content sites like WSJ.com are still fairly rare, and those promoting free content sites are rarer still. It is this uncommonness that is probably the most intriguing aspect of a new package from CFO, designed solely to get recipients to register at the CFO.com Web site. As CFO's print magazine is a prolific mailer of qualified circulation solicitations--a publishing sector increasingly involved with online sign-up forms--it's surprising to see an effort launched solely in support of online content. To illustrate just how committed it is to this strategy, an e-premium report ("Guide to Asset-Based Lending") is offered to online registrants. In contrast, CFO's print magazine efforts have offered no premiums to date. The one downside to this spare but effective promotion is the rather confusing assortment of special codes one is called upon to enter when registering online. While the promotional code for the e-premium is easy to spot (in this case BS1), an additional "e-code" is also required but not clearly marked in the direct mail package.
The direct mail pieces appearing in Mail Stream are tracked and analyzed by Paradysz Matera, New York, through its online competitive direct mail and e-mail tracking tool MarketRelevance. Market Relevance tracks and archives more than 25,000 direct mail pieces and e-mail promotions annually generated from the catalog, publishing, fundraising, dot com and financial industries. The pieces are scanned as images and analyzed for changes in creative, copy, offer and type of incentive or promotion. The results are recorded along with the piece's in-home date.
