Black or White?

Welcome to Pick the Winner, a new semi-regular column in Direct. Take a look at the two creative packages and guess which one pulled best. Then go to directmag.com/pickthewinner/ptw_june06/ and see if you have an eye for success.

There are two rules in direct marketing.
Rule #1: Test everything.
Rule #2: See Rule #1.

SEVERAL YEARS AGO — as gold approached $875 an ounce ($1,800 in today's dollars) — the “Treasures of Tutankhamen” went on a worldwide tour. Fifty-five gold artifacts from the tomb of the famous pharaoh were exhibited. Shortly thereafter, a parallel collection of 55 engraved, gold-coated postage stamps issued by a private island in Scotland was offered by mail to collectors in the United States.

The carrier for the campaign was a 6-inch by 9-1/4-inch window envelope embossed with gold-toned aluminum foil wings in high relief carrying the caption, “…the most brilliant art ever created in gold.” It was tested in black (the classic background for gold) and white (the light of discovery, perhaps?).

Which one got the best response? Visit our Web site to get a better view of each package and learn which carrier won, and by how much.

You may find the four-page letter in these packages interesting reading. Bob Stone reprinted it in his third edition of “Successful Marketing Methods” as an example of “The Almighty Letter.”

This gold stamp program followed the Tutankhamen exhibition around the world and was translated into Japanese, German and other languages “with gratifying results.”

MALCOLM DECKER (mdecker@optonline.com) is an award-winning copywriter and creative director based in Westport, CT.