WHEN WE WERE YOUNG and ever dared to utter a fashionable phrase, our parents would accuse us of being lazy with words.
Grant Johnson was probably not brought up in such an atmosphere. He doesn’t just use cliches; he makes them fly and turn backflips.
Johnson is president of Johnson Direct. He’s also a master of the demented dimensional. Some are so demented you groan. And, of course, the louder you groan, the more likely you are to remember the dimensional. (For example, he was responsible for the rubber- chicken key-chain promo at the DMA fall conference a couple of years ago.)
Of course, some clients are better suited to this sort of approach than others. Enter HM3D, a manufacturer of dimensionals for promotions and direct marketing.
As Johnson Direct asks, “What better way to let art directors and production managers across the country know about it than to mail an example of what they can do?”
HM3D’s mailer is a box, 5 to 7 inches in any direction. The top of the box says, “Every day you’re asked to do the impossible.” Each of the four sides represents a day of the week from Monday through Thursday, with a graphic representing an impossible task. Monday, for example, has a man who’s about to try to put a square log into a round hole in a dam; Tuesday features a woman trying to move a mountain by attaching balloons.
The top comes off, releasing the sides of the bottom of the box. Three of the sides have pockets containing case studies, a brochure, a personalized cover letter and a reply envelope. The fourth side has HM3D’s telephone number and URL.
Like most dimensionals, this piece adds to desktop clutter. But since the campaign targets people who use this form of advertising, the clutter is useful here.
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