#128 Double Postcard$

Posted by Denny Hatch 

 http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2021/05/128-double-postcard.html

 

#128 Blog Post – Wednesday, May 28, 2021

 

The Days When Postcards
Worked Like Gangbuster$!

            

                                  A True Story
"One day a man walked into a London agency and asked to see the boss. He had bought a country house and was about to open it as a hotel. Could the agency help him to get customers? He had $500 to spend. Not surprisingly, the head of the agency turned him over to the office boy, who happened to be the author of this book. I invested his money in penny postcards and mailed them to well-heeled people living in the neighborhood. Six weeks later the hotel opened to a full house. I had tasted blood!"
—David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

 

    The Joyous World of Lo-tech Direct Marketing
In the palmy days before email and the Internet, the simplest way to reach a person over a distance was the was the single 4" x 6" postcard with two sides—the kind for sale at souvenir stands the world over. Side 1 is for the address, stamp and a short message (e.g., "Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.")
   The other side could be a glorious photograph of a city or a great tourist attraction. For a business, the single postcard was a cheap way to reach customers—with news of a store-wide sale or the announcement of a great new product. Churches and PTAs could reach parishioners and parents to remind them of an upcoming bake sale.

                         The Single Postcard Advantage
It was the cheapest way to reach a person with a message—1¢ postage in 1900. 8¢ in 1974.

                       The Single Postcard Disadvantage
The original postcard was one-way correspondence. To reply required work—writing a letter and spending money for an envelope and postage stamp. Or making a phone call. Further, without a formal, built-in reply mechanism the sender had no way of knowing whether the card was delivered or if anybody at the other end even saw it or read it.

                                      Enter the Built-in Reply
In the early 1900s the Japanese invented the double postcard—a blank postcard attached to the bottom of a regular single postcard and folded. The recipient could detach it, write a message on one side, address and stamp the other side and send it as a reply.

  

The Genius of the Double Postcard in Direct Marketing
American magazine publishers—in cahoots with the U.S. Postal Service—turned the double postcard into a huge, highly profitable marketing technique. Millions of these little guys were designed, printed and mailed out offering a Free Issue. When the reply cards came back to the publisher, the result was millions of dollars in subscription revenue. What's more these thousands of new subscribers brought in many more dollars in  revenue from delighted advertisers. Plus... a ton of money in reply postage for the Post Office.

 

A Quickie Reminder of the Five
Basic Elements of Direct Mail.

"There are three kinds of copy: 'you' copy, 'me' copy and 'it' copy."  —Walter Weintz

 

Here's how the five elements work together:

1. Outer Envelope. "The carrier envelope has just two purposes: (1) to get itself opened; (2) to keep the contents from spilling into the street."
—Herschell Gordon Lewis

2. Letter ("YOU" copy). This element makes direct marketing different from all other advertising. It's the intimate message from one writer to one reader.
(Good news! You've been selected to receive a complimentary issue of Inc. plus Two Free Gifts.)

 

3. Circular or Brochure ("IT" copy). This element shows and describes IT—the product or service and ITS many features (as opposed to benefits, which are found in the letter). "IT" is illustrated with photos, drawings, descriptions and captions that prove "IT" really exists.

 

4. Order Card/Order Form ("ME" copy). "Yes, please send "ME" the item. 

 

5. Reply envelope. It brings the order home.

The Inventive Double Postcard That Sold Inc.
For 4 Consecutive Years by Compressing the Five
Basic Elements into a Single 4" x 6" Format

 

           Front Side                                  Reverse Side

Top Left Panel: Contains Two Basic Elements: 1. Envelope equivalent (address label) and printed indicia/postage stamp. 2. Short letter with personalized salutation. ("YOU" copy).

 

3. Top Right Panel (reverse side of the top left panel) is the Circular/Brochure.  ("IT" copy) Shows "IT"—the magazine covers in full color plus the Inc. tote bag (Premium #1)...  plus the free executive pen and pencil set (Premium #2) and includes a taste of the upcoming contents. 

 

4. Bottom Left Panel is the Order Card ("ME" copy).

 

5. Bottom Right Panel (printed on the reverse of the bottom left panel) is the Business Reply Card that brings the order home to the publisher.

 

      The Seven Advantages of Postcard Mailings
1. Cheap to Produce. Once the postcard was tested—and retested—and proven to bring in new subscribers at or below the allowable cost-per-order, a circ manager could order this amazing single piece in the hundreds of thousands and warehouse them. They'll be good-to-go for years to come.

2. Cheap to Mail. The U.S. Postal Service adored this format and gave mailers a huge discount on postage. The reason: they made money on postage for the outgoing card... and they made money every time a new subscriber sent in an order using the detachable Business Reply Card. The U.S.P.S. cashed in on this single piece coming and going.

3. The Benefit of First Class Mail. Magazine publishers had all the benefits of first-class delivery (speed, address correction at no additional cost plus perceived importance).

4. Easy to Inventory. Since a single piece does the whole job, you don't have to inventory different elements (envelopes letters, brochures, order forms and reply envelopes. With the double postcard you save big money on printing by ordering extra large quantities and drawing down as needed. 

 

5. Easy Peasy to Mail. Because only one element is involved, the complex inserting step is eliminated. They are simply pulled from inventory and labeled—or laser- or impact-addressed—bagged and put into the mail stream quick and cheap. You can make a marketing decision and be in the mail three days later!

6.  Make These Mailings Seem Even More Personal. Using actual postage stamps and handwriting fonts for the letter give the illusion that a real person sent these out and can increase response.

Above are two postcards with handwriting from Club Med to prospective vacationers—part of a 3-card series. These went to direct marketing professionals (Joan Throckmorton and her husband, Sheldon Satin). Both Joan and Shelly were totally fooled and spent much time trying to figure out who Kim and Richard were! 

 

7. Easy to Reply/Order. Simply check the "Yes" box, detach the reply card half and drop it in your outbox or outgoing mail.

 

 A Disadvantage to Using Double Postcards
These are bill-me offers. The deal: you send out a free issue and then must send out a series of billing/collection letters—a far more cumbersome and expensive system than simply charging a credit card.

"When the comp copy offer first came into being—and Architectural Digest was one of the first to use it—conversions [payments] were somewhere around 50 percent. Today that's down to 30 to 40 percent and declining. The public has gotten spoiled. Now a lot of people respond to offers just to get the comp copy and then cancel. In fact, two database companies have created lists of chronic comp copy cancels. I will be able to run this file against rented lists and use it as a suppress file, which means my percent response will go down, but pay-up should improve dramatically."
—Carla Johnson, Circ Director, Architectural Digest

Because the double postcard invites tire kickers (consultant Bob Doscher called them "Premium Bandits"), the double postcard could be a dicey medium. You can never pronounce a postcard effort a success until you see the net pay-up, which can take six months or more. But the big numbers up front can enable a mailer to net out better than—or equal to—a hugely expensive, cumbersome full-dress package on a cost-per-order basis.

Modern-day Double Postcards = Marketing Blahs.
No Great Offer. No Reply Card. Teeny Boring Copy.

What triggered this post was this double postcard that arrived the first week in May from Wilkie Lexus, Haverford, PA. Here's the creepy, sad-sack text:

 

WITH THE KEYS

       TO A NEW

             2020

             LEXUS

    UX 200 FWD 

Dear Danny [sic],

Wherever you envision life taking you, Wilkie Lexus wants to help you get there. Our vehicles are crafted with the right combination of attitude, performance and design so that you can forge the path of your dreams.

Turn your imagination into reality this month and drive away with a brand new 2020 [sic] Lexus US 200 FWD*

 Please visit: findmyupgrade.com/mppuml by May 31st to explore all our current opportunities.

 

 Besides providing elite customer service and a premium selection of new Lexus vehicles, Wilkie Lexus is known for our tenured, dedicated team and is committed to meeting your sales and service expectations.

 

Reach out at your earliest convenience for more details or to schedule a test drive.

Best Regards,

Jeff Deren
General Sales Manager
Wilkie Lexus
(844) 342-4473
loyalty@wilkielexus.com

 

Additional Important Disclosures

*Offer for new vehicle listed expires May 31, 2021.

See dealer for details.

 

 Wilkie Lexus Screw-ups
• I'm Denny Hatch. Not Danny.
• Wilkie is unloading last year's (2020) models and conning me into believe they're "new."
• If you're hustling last year's models, you damn well should offer a discount under MSRP.
• Clearly this is NOT "providing elite customer service and a premium selection of new Lexus vehicles."
• In the first week of May 2021, a "brand new 2020 Lexus" is ipso facto NOT brand new!
• Postcard mailings are offer-driven.
• The only Lexus offer is the afterthought: "... or to schedule a test drive."

Takeaways to Consider

• How many billing letters should you send before calling it quits? Old rule of thumb: "Keep on sending billing (and/or renewal) efforts until they cease to be profitable."

 

• If you decide to use actual USPS postage stamps on your outgoing direct mail, set the machine to affix them slightly crooked so they appear to have been applied by hand. 

 

• "Two basic tenets of selling are that (1) people buy from other people more happily than from faceless corporations, and that (2) in the marketplace as in theater, there is indeed a factor at work called the willing suspension of disbelief. Who stands behind our pancakes? Aunt Jemima. Our angel food cake? Betty Crocker and Sara Lee. Our coffee? Juan Valdez. Anyone over the age of three knows that it's all myth. But like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, the myths are comforting."
—Bill Jayme 

• If you're gonna get into direct marketing, hire professionals, do what they say and expect to pay them well.

 

• "God protect us from amateurs." —Henry Castor

 

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Word count: 1807

#127 Prune Board Effort

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2021/05/4127-prune-board-effort.html

 

#127 Blog Post — Tuesday, May 18, 2021

 

Guest Post by Bob Blinick
Blinick Direct, Lawrenceville, NJ

 

Direct Marketing for PR Is Almost Always a No-No.
This Oddball Effort Pulled an Amazing 33% Response 

 

I love it when a subscriber suggests a direct marketing scheme that none of us would have a chance in hell of knowing about or even imagining. With 50 years in direct mail/direct marketing, every chip of my DNA—every mentor, every company, every boss I ever had—knows it's nuts to use direct mail for PR/publicity for three reasons. 1) Direct mail is too expensive. 2) With direct you test small, reconfirm large and larger and then roll out to surprise hell out of your competitors, cream the market and rent a villa on the Amalfi Coast for the summer. 3) Direct mail results are precisely measurable in terms of arithmetic—product (or service) pricing, allowable cost-per-order and leveragability. My thanks to Bob Blinick of Blinck Direct, Lawrenceville, NJ for sharing. —DH

“THE STRATEGY WAS ALIMENTARY”
A direct mail program for The California Prune Board

Objectives
• Induce trial of California prunes.
• Sell more California prunes

 

Strategy
• Establish the connection between prunes and health.
• Re-position prunes as more than just a good tasting snack. 

Key insights/learning:
• Both physicians and consumers were unaware of the fiber content and nutritional value of prunes, and considered them “just a snack food…”
• Materials used in a physician’s office must stand alone and require little, if any, active support from the physician and or staff

Tactics
• A multi-step program that educated physicians about the nutritional value of prunes, enticed them to distribute prune samples to their patients, educated patients, and provide an ongoing "involvement" mechanism (cents-off coupons and a recipe book) to motivate future prune purchases.

Creative Elements: Initial Mailing Package to Physicians

Shipping Box to Physician

A sample package of prunes
• (See lede illustration above) 

  

Cover Letter
Explains the elements in the shipping box — A Physicians’ Guide to Fiber, Fiber Facts for a Healthier You, and a sample pack of prunes.   The letter had a modest Call To Action and asked them fill out and return a Business Reply Card to order more prune samples and additional Fiber Facts sheets for patients.   

Nutritional information for physicians written and
designed to look like it came from a medical journal

     A pad of information sheets for patients

A Supply of cents-off coupons for patients 
• Attached to a Business Reply Card that enabled them to request a booklet of prune recipes.

A reply card
• Enabled physicians to request additional samples, patient information sheets and coupons.

PHYSICIAN FULFILLMENT MAILING CONSISTING OF:
• Large display box with 100 one-ounce sample packages of prunes.
• Additional patient information pads.
• Additional cents-off coupons and BRCs.

 

PATIENT FULFILLMENT
• Letter.

• Prune recipes booklet.

• Additional cents-off coupons.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

• 33% - Initial response rate from physicians.
(Percent of physicians who requested the large box of samples and additional supplies.)

• 7% - Response rate from non-solicited physicians who saw the prune sample box and Fiber Facts sheets in a colleague's office

• 12.6% - Coupon # 1 redemption rate: 
(Percent of consumers who redeemed the coupon obtained from the doctor’s office.)

 

• 9.8% - Coupon # 2 redemption rate
(Percent of consumers who redeemed the coupon supplied with the recipe booklet.)

Takeaways to Consider —DH

• The simplest business model I ever heard was Jay Leno's which ran just 6 words:  "Write joke. Tell Joke. Get check."

• The Blinick/Prune Board business model—a series to physicians, physicians to patients/consumers—and Prune Board to patients/consumers was tricky, complex stuff.

• The numbers were eye-popping compared to general direct mail where—in those days—a 2% response was considered average (and profitable). Three percent and higher called for Dom Perignon.

• I cannot believe it would be possible to precisely measure the increase in prune sales tracked back to that promotion.

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 Word count: 625

 

#126 Blog Post Longwood Gardens Rule-breakers

 http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2021/05/126-blog-post-longwood-gardens-rule.html

#126 Blog Post - Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

How The Folks at Longwood Gardens Broke
Every Rule of Print and Digital Advertising 

 

We live in downtown Philly. Thirty-six miles away on I-95 is Longwood Gardens—1,077 acres devoted to one of the world's greatest horticultural extravaganzas. Among the goodies: 4,600 species of plants and trees, magnificent Renaissance-style fountains, year-round programs to delight families as well as scholars, concerts, special exhibitions, wonderful dining. In short, a splendid getaway founded and financed with millions of dollars starting in the 1800s by the DuPont family and going strong today. The Christmas/Chanukah holiday displays are eye-popping and glorious!

Last week I received the membership pitch illustrated at the top of this blog post. The message: You are invited to join for a 15% discount if you act before June 25th. 

As one of the world's leading mavens in direct mail,
I have never received a mailing like this one—NEVER!
As many readers know, Peggy and I were founders-publishers-editors of the cranky WHO'S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service. During its 35 years, we read, studied, tracked and archived more than 200,00 junk mailings—consumer, business, catalogs and non-profits/fundraising. Etched into my DNA:

1. If the same mailing is repeated month-after-month and year-after-year it's a damn good mailing. (Same premise is true for TV commercials and space ads.)

2. It was my job to study it, figure what made it successful and tell my readers so they could "steal smart."

Example: Copywriter Martin Conroy's "Two Young Men" mailing for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. It was mailed for 25 or more consecutive years and brought in $2 billion in subscription revenue. It is indisputably the most successful advertisement in the history of the world. (Imagine! A 735-word two-page letter (one page printed front and back) directly responsible for $2 billion over 25 years!
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/01/37-most-successful-advertisement-in.html

In the course of that 35 years I assembled several hundred commonsense rules by the smartest, most successful men and women in advertising, direct marketing, promotion and publicity on how to avoid turning your print ad, email, website or direct mail effort into a train wreck. 

Five Examples of Commonsense Rules

• "The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline."
—David Ogilvy 

• "The prospect doesn't give a damn about you, your company or your products. All that matters is, 'What's in it for me?' " (a.k.a. "Always listen to WII-FM')
—Bob Hacker

• "Your job is to sell. Not entertain."
—Jack Maxson

• "Your first 10 words are more important than the next ten thousands."
—Elmer "Sizzle" Wheeler

• "Type smaller than 9-point is difficult for most people to read."
—David Ogilvy 

What Makes This Mailing So Unusual?
For Starters It Has Only Three Elements.

Element #1 (standard fare): Four-color 6"x9" envelope printed front and back.

Element #2: Long strip (5-1/2" x 27-1/2") accordion folded into five conjoined panels (5-1/2" x 8-1/4") printed front and back on cardboard. The first four panels are four-color individual circulars. The last panel—the "Benefits of Membership" and Order Form are printed in two colors (black and blue).

Element #3: Tiny flimsy white reply envelope
(4-1/2" x 5"3/4") with blue type.

                     The Carrier Envelope
• "Your outer envelope is where your prospect decides to stop, look and listen. It's the come on—the equivalent of the headline on the ad, the cover of the catalog, the dust jacket on the book, the display window outside the store. The hotpants on the hooker.
—Bill Jayme

Note: The artsy precious little white italic "Escape to Nature" isn't big enough or bold enough to qualify as a teaser or headline. It emphatically ain't Bill Jayme's idea of hotpants. Instead , the teensy weensy unreadable text disappears into busy, out-of-focus purple and yellow mush.

• "Never set your copy in white type on a black background and never set it over a gray or colored tint. Never set it over a busy, mottled background. The old school of art directors believed that these devices forced people to read the copy; we now know they make reading physically impossible."
—David Ogilvy

The Letter
(Astonishingly, no letter was included!)

• "Direct Marketing isn't advertising in an envelope."
—Bob Hacker

 

• "The letter is the most powerful and persuasive selling force in direct marketing, once the product and offer are set. The writer creates this salesman, usually from whole cloth, and you must be certain that this sales representative is truly representative of your product or service as well as of your company. The letter is likely to be the only 'person' your market will ever meet—at least on the front end of the sale, so don't make him highbrow if your market is lowbrow and vice versa. If he's a Tiffany salesman, he writes in one style; if he's a grapefruit or pecan farmer, he writes differently. ('Cause he talks diffrunt.) I develop as clear a profile of my prospect as the available research offers and then try to match it up with someone I know and 'put him in a chair' across from me. Then I write to him more or less conversationally."
—Malcolm Decker

 

• "A letter accounts for 65 percent to 75 percent of the orders. Brochures account for five to 10 percent of orders."
—Murray Raphel

 

Front Side of the 4-color Conjoined Panels on Cardboard

 

Note: The white paragraphs of mouse-type in the lower left hand corners—surprinted over the photography—are teeny testimonials from members.

  

Reverse Side of the 4-color Conjoined Panels on Cardboard

 

Every rule-breaker on the 6" x 9" outer envelope is repeated in these panels:
• No dramatic, attention-grabbing readable headlines.

• Teeny-tiny unreadable mouse-type everywhere.
• Tiny copy surprinted on top of tinted panels and busy backgrounds.
• Added to this dismal design are artsy-muddy matte out-of-focus photos.

 

 

Longwood Gardens' Offer and Ordering Misery 

 

Close-up of the Order Form Top

Garden5 Members & up can add up to five additional youth access (ages 5-18) to their Membership for $10 each (Regular youth tickets are priced at $13 each.)
Please add this number of you access to my membership ($10 each)_________
Total Cost (Membership plus youth access): _____________

• "Don't give too many choices."
—Paul Goldberg

• "Confuse 'em, ya lose 'em."
—Paul Goldberg

• "Make it easy to order."
—Elsworth Howell

• Don't Force the Prospect to Do Extra Work
To complete the ordering process, the prospective member is forced to write in title, name, address, apartment #, city, state, zip code—thus repeating all the information on the address label. This is preposterous! An experienced direct mail marketing designer will make it easier to order by either:
   1) Designing an order card that does double duty, whereby all the name and address data show through the outer envelope window, so USPS has what it needs to deliver the envelope. When the order is returned, Longwood Gardens has all the info to enroll the new member.
                                             -OR-
    2) Use a format whereby the name and address stuff is automatically printed twice—once on the outer envelope and once on the order form.

• Don't Force the Prospect to Do Extra Work
The order card should always slip easily into the reply envelope. The Longwood Gardens crew supplied a half-size envelope, thus forcing the new member to fold the heavy cardboard order card in half and push it into the reply envelope.

• Don't Force the Prospect to Do Extra Work.
Longwood Gardens wants $76 to $538 of my money. In the upper right corner of the reply envelope is this instruction:

                        PLACE
                        STAMP
                        HERE

C'mon folks... don't make an old geezer climb the stairs to the office and hunt for a postage stamp to put on your damn reply mail. A Business Reply Permit costs a paltry $165 and each reply envelope mailed back costs 65¢ postage. (You pay that 65¢ postage only when the prospect orders—not for every BRE printed.)   

(Note): If you have a Business Reply Account with the Post Office and are expecting an influx of Business Reply Mail, you must deposit money in your account to cover that projected postage. No money in the account means no Business Reply Mail will be turned over to you.

Takeaways to Consider

• Over the years people have asked me (and sometimes offered to pay me) to evaluate an upcoming promotion—direct mail, email or space ad.

• I never give an opinion on untested marketing efforts. I say that if it brings in responses at—or below—the allowable cost-per-order—and shows up over and over again for months and years, it's a big winner.

• My credo: "I can't judge advertising. It judges me."

• What I can do is point out where the effort follows accepted, tested rules and where the rules are broken.

• I'm not passing judgment on this Longwood Gardens mailing. Maybe it was a barn burner. If so, Bravo!

• I'm just suggesting direct mail is the most expensive advertising medium and it's a good idea to know the rules.

 Bob Hacker's Three Rules for Breaking the Rules

1. "Play by the rules until you have solid controls. You have a higher chance of success and less risk."

2. "Break the rules after you have solid controls, because in breaking rules risk—and sometimes cost—is much higher."

3. "There are two ways to achieve a breakthrough. Play the rules better than anyone else. Break the rules better than anyone else!"

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Word Count: 1550

#125 Small Ball Direct Marketing

 #125 Blog Post - Tuesday, May 4, 2021

 http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2021/05/125-small-ball-direct-marketing.html

Posted by Denny Hatch

Guest Post by Robert Hacker

SMALL BALL DIRECT MARKETING

A Great Rarity: Using Direct Mail
To Prettify Up Your Neighborhood
 

From Bob Hacker to DH:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Loved your latest blog. And you are
right, direct mail can be a blast.

Your last blog got me thinking: what campaign do I have that can show you a fabulous response? I was reminded of this one for Waypoint, here on Bainbridge Island. The letter tells the whole story, so I won't repeat it here. I can share the stats, though.

• The database was 6,231 names, not the 8,000 noted in the letter. (We found lots of dupes when we merge/purged the files.)

• Every name was a prospect, since Waypoint had never mailed before — hell, they didn't exist before!

• We generated 1,794 responses for a 28.8% response rate! FROM PROSPECTS! I've had NFP [not-for-profit] clients that would kill for .5% on a prospect file!

The average donation was $32.25 for a total take of $57,896. The money went into a trust to pay for Waypoint maintenance in perpetuity.

Direct Mail on the side of the angels. Who knew?

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Here's Bob Hacker's Small Ball Mailing

Letter

Can you help us fix the ugliest eyesore
on Bainbridge Island?

 

<First Name><Last Name>
<Address 1>
<Address 2>
<City>, <State> <Zip>

 

Dear <First Name><Last Name>,

 

       You’ve seen it.  It’s on the right when you board the ferry.  It’s on the left when you get off.  Yup, the ugliest eyesore on Bainbridge Island is there for all to see.  We’ve been looking at this urban blight so long we’ve trained ourselves to ignore it.  But not the tourists, not your guests – the first thing they see when they come to our beautiful island is the ugliest thing here.

 

       The first impression is often the most lasting impression, and this one has to go.

 

       With your help, we won’t have to look at it much longer.  You’ve seen the work going on there.  We’ve already cleaned the place up, now we’re right in the middle of creating The Waypoint. There is a picture of what it will look like on the next page.  Take a peek, you’ll be amazed at how beautiful this new gateway to Bainbridge Island will be.

 

       We’ve got some of the money we need.  There has been a very generous donation from Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island.  And another few islanders, who wish to remain anonymous for now, have stepped up and made major contributions to cover most of the rest.  We’ve got most of the money we need, but not enough to finish the project. That’s why we need your help.

 

       There is enough money to start the project, so we did.  With winter coming, we had to start now or wait until spring.  And, frankly, another six months of staring at that mess made no sense.  Now we are asking you to pitch in, too.

 

We need about $150,000 between now and December 15^th to finish The Waypoint.  This letter is being sent to only 8,000 Bainbridge Island residents — so we need to get a donation of about $20 from each and every one of you.  And since some won’t give, some of you need to give a lot more.

 

     If $20 seems about right, why not give $40?  If you’re comfortable with $50, why not donate $100? (All donors giving $100 or more will have their names listed on a plaque.)  But the important thing is to give, we’ll be grateful for whatever you can between now and December 15^th.

 

                                                                     Sincerely,

                                                                    Chairman, The Waypoint Committee

 

P.S.   Isn’t it worth just a few pennies a day to remove this blight and beautify our Island?
         We think so, too.  All donations are tax deductible.

 

Brochure/Order Coupon 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hatch-Hacker Email Dialog:

[Denny Hatch]

Bob,

Many thanks for your kind words. 

Love your Bainbridge beautifying effort and the story. 

1. May I run it as a post?

 

[Robert Hacker]

Sure.

 

[Denny Hatch]

2. Am I missing something? 

 

[Robert Hacker]

I don’t think so.  What do you think was missing?  For me, the whole project was about the power of words.  It was all about the letter.  Tell a compelling story and the money will come.  The original design was done on Word, so we know the art director had little impact on the return rates.

 

[Denny Hatch]

3. What was it that was so ugly?

 

[Robert Hacker]

An old gas station had been there.  They took it out years and years ago and put an ugly fence around the site that people were using to hang signs and lock bikes to it.  And the wind-blown trash added to the look.  Inside the fence, the blackberry bushes took over, as they always do in the Pacific Northwest.

 

  [Denny Hatch]

4. Do you have a photo of it?

 

[Robert Hacker]

No, but think of homeless camp sans people.

 

About Bob Hacker

                    Left: Bob Hacker in his prime. Right: Bob Hacker in Retirement

Bob Hacker graduated from the University of Washington in 1966 with a BA in Journalism/Advertising. After a short stint in the Coast Guard and a detour to San Diego for a year, he joined David W. Evans in Seattle as production manager/AE/copywriter. He then went to work for KING Radio but soon left to attend Harvard Business School, where he graduated with an MBA in Marketing/Entrepreneurship.

     After Harvard, Bob returned to Seattle and had, to put it bluntly, a rather checkered career. Advertising at Sea- First—that didn’t last. Marketing at Kenworth—that didn’t last either. He then co-founded an advertising agency with two partners, landed two big accounts, lost two big accounts—and the agency was no more.

     Then, in 1981, he joined Thousand Trails as director of direct marketing. With an unlimited direct-marketing budget (yes, unlimited) he could and did test everything that he, his team, vendors and agencies could dream up. Armed with knowledge gained through thousands of test observations, in 1986 he launched The Hacker Group, now HackerAgency.

     Bob and his first hire needed an office. The got free space, phone and fax by camping in the spare office of the telemarketing center they were using to handle inbound calls. Growth forced them to take the space next door. Free furniture from a bankrupt client made the move affordable.

     Over the years, clients such as IBM, Hilton, Hyatt, Symantec, AT&T Wireless, GNA, Airborne Express, Microsoft, Expedia, Oracle, Washington Mutual, and more, continued to help built the company.

     He and his wife and COO, Jo Anne, sold The Hacker Group to Foote,Cone & Belding (FCB) in 1999 and they continued to work for the new ownership for another three years, before retiring from the agency in 2002. After the second glass of wine, he’ll tell you about the four things he’s most proud of during The Hacker Group era:

     • The agency grew ever year, so he never had to lay off staff.

     • The bonus program changed a lot of lives for the better.

     •  Turnover was low—under 5%.

     •  FCB had 205 offices worldwide. With a staff of only 85 in Seattle. The Hacker Group generated more than 20% of FCB operating profit while Bob and Jo Anne were still involved. Within FCB at that time, The Hacker Group was called “The Cash Machine.” 

     Not many agencies survive the departure of the founder, let alone thrive. And who would have guessed that the two biggest agencies in Seattle (HackerAgency and Wunderman) now are direct-marketing shops, not general advertising agencies.

     Bob still consults on direct-mail strategy and copy with his old creative team from The Hacker Group as Arcanum, Ltd., from his home office on Bainbridge Island. That’s when he’s not fly fishing off the shore of the Yucatan Peninsula, Christmas Island or British Columbia.

 

 

 

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