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Every now and then, digital technology produces unexpected results for old-fashioned direct mail.

Take Superior Printing Inks, which achieved more than a 50% response and made “a handful of sales” from a campaign targeting several hundred printing plant executives and managers. The mailing offered to set up an on-site ink-mixing demonstration at recipients' facilities, some of which print book jackets and customized shipping boxes.

Superior used a 3-D variable data printing system that allowed it to specifically target either CEOs or managers at its printing-plant prospects. The campaign cost less than $10,000.

The system can even be used to create sales collateral material at printing industry trade shows, according to Jeffrey Bookstein, spokesman for the Teterboro, NJ firm.

Superior used two distinct mailers for this effort. One, designed for owners and CEOs, was a box containing seven die-cut fish and a bag of Pepperidge Farm Rainbow Goldfish. The other, which went to managers, was a 5-inch by 7-inch package that included a die-cut reef and a hand-folded origami fish. Both were personalized and the copy written to appeal to the execs about the benefits of using Superior's inks and arranging a demonstration at their plants.

Superior sent 100 of these boxes to prospects and another 100 to current customers. The company repurposed the mailing pieces to assemble press kits for a printing industry trade show in Chicago. The smaller package went to 225 plant managers. Media Consultants of Lyndhurst, NJ created the mailing packages.

Indeed, dimensional mail has been growing in favor among business-to-business direct marketers.

For firms trying to get past gatekeepers, dimensional mail is the ticket. Also known as “lumpy” mail, dimensionals tend to be perceived as valuable by mailrooms and secretaries and so are more likely to be delivered to an executive. DMA studies confirm that for B-to-B DMers, dimensional mail produced a 5.14% average response in 2004 and 4.66% in 2005 — the latest figures available (Direct, June 1, 2006).

Superior is considering using this mailing technique again but at this point hasn't decided, notes Bookstein, who adds that these mailings were just one part of an ongoing sales-lead nurturing process.

Ironically, the mailings created a bit of a problem among recipients.

“People wanted to know if they could adapt this technology to sheet-fed printing, and they can't do that right now,” Bookstein says.

For the latest news on postal regulations, visit http://directmag.com/legal/postal/.