Australia Post Pushes 3-D Mail

Things are getting touchy down under.

Australia Post has seen an 8.5% response to a business-to-business test campaign that used a pop-up cube to promote the use of direct mail among the uninitiated on that continent.

The mailings, the first part of the postal corporation's “sensory mail campaign,” were sent to 2,455 executives at more than 2,000 Australian firms, including marketing and product managers, creative directors and others, according to Australia Post's innovation counselor Michelle Weeks.

“The campaign aims to satisfy direct marketers' ongoing need for creativity, mailbox [clutter cutting] and improved response rates,” she says. “The core objective is to encourage direct mail volume growth by promoting effective, multisensory direct mail options.”

Specifically, Australia Post sent out the promotional piece in August as a teaser. The small cardboard cube was placed in an envelope and popped up when pulled out.

A few days later Australia Post sent the same group its sensory mail brochure and a bookmark. The brochure gave recipients ideas and information about how to incorporate sensory elements like taste strips, scented ink and textured postcards into a mail campaign. An interactive version of the brochure was slated to drop at the end of October.

All mailings directed recipients to the Web site www.auspost.com/sensorymail where recipients could register to receive free sensory mail samples, download production guides and find a list of suppliers.

Weeks says Australia Post also advertised this type of mailing in several Australian professional magazines and at local trade shows.

The campaign will continue into 2009. Australia Post may run others to further build its prospect list.