WITH ALL the hoopla over the synergy of direct response television, the World Wide Web and CD-ROMs, you can understand why older media like radio and mailers can be left behind, if not forgotten.
Yet Garden Grove, CA-based Money Mailer LLC and Chicago’s The Mix (101.9 FM) prove that synergy and excitement can happen with an ongoing campaign in the Chicago metropolitan area that started in January.
According to Bill Blackmon, Money Mailer’s vice president of franchise development, The Mix’s targeted audience matches Money Mailer’s exactly. Both aim for women ages 25 to 54 who have above-average household income.
More than 1 million of the company’s red, white and blue envelopes were mailed in Chicago. The Mix’s promotion was on the back of the envelope and on a sheet inside the package. An insert offered the details.
Contest and promotion announcements – including winners’ names – are made on the air. Spots on 101.9 FM direct the attention of listeners to the envelopes for information about the contest.
February’s promotion, “Password to Paradise Game,” provided a chance to win a trip to Hawaii, and included additional partner Outrigger Hotels & Resorts.
Paul Weber, The Mix’s director of marketing, said phone surveys revealed that 40,000 adults between 25 and 54 remembered seeing the radio station’s ads in Money Mailer envelopes. Awareness, Weber claims, increased 50% with 80,000 adults in its targeted market.
A Taste of Success While Money Mailer’s Chicago franchise has had some success wedding radio to alternative media, it was not the company’s first attempt. Blackmon mentioned an earlier trial in Orange County, CA with a station that also called itself The Mix. He adds that the California campaign did not do quite as well as the one in the Windy City.
Blackmon credits much of the program’s success in Chicago to the level of support the radio station gave the joint marketing campaign.
While he did not cite response rates, it’s certainly a sign of success that Money Mailer now looks at this program as a model for other franchises in its network.
“It will work [wherever] the partners work in harmony,” Blackmon believes.
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