The National Geographic Society’s October membership mailing was timely to say the least. It offered new members a free map of Afghanistan, which the editors had created after Sept. 11.
But the timing may have been a little too good. The pieces started going in the mail on Oct. 18, just as the anthrax scare was getting started.
And at least 100 people were alarmed enough by the Washington, DC return address to call or e-mail.
This prompted the Society to issue a statement assuring consumers that none of the pieces ever passed through the contaminated DC postal facility.
“Although the letters carry the Society’s trademark yellow border and Washington, DC address, they weren’t mailed from Washington,” said Betty Hudson, senior vice president, in the statement. “All 23 million pieces in this bulk mailing were printed in the Midwest, then driven by truck to 21 bulk mail centers around the country for delivery.”
Most of the callers went away comfortable that it was safe to read the mailing pieces, according to Kitty Carroll Colbert, vice president-consumer marketing. The encouraging thing is that they obviously studied the pieces long enough to find the toll-free number, 1-800-NGS-LINE.
“I’m always optimistic,” said Colbert. “We might have more response because people are looking at it.”
She added that a two-million piece mailing for Adventure magazine, which was postponed from Sept. 11 to the end of that month, is “tracking well. We reached 58% of our goal in three weeks.”
Despite delivery hassles in Washington, direct mail responses go to Tampa, FL, so “we’re not having any problem,” said Colbert.
That’s important because the October blast was the Society’s biggest mailing of the year.
Meanwhile, the Society is moving full speed ahead with other marketing plans. In January, it will conduct a postcard mailing to around two million people, Colbert said.
Also on tap is a radio test budgeted at roughly $200,000. Created by Ellentuck & Springer, the DR spots will discuss National Geographic as a “relevant source about knowing about other cultures,” said Colbert. They will debut on Nov. 12.
But the phone calls persuaded Colbert and her staff to do some soul searching.
“After all the things that happened, we sat as a group and asked what we would have done differently,” she said. Their conclusion: “If we had put another return address on it, it might have looked bogus.”
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