So, you might have caught a glimpse of the gigantic Brain on AccuData.com.  Think of The Brain as the collective intelligence of the thinkers at AccuData.  He is a big giant 300-pound brain and has some smart things to tell you. And he has even started tweeting: www.Twitter.com/AccuDataBrain.  You also might see The Brain appear in your email box, in Target Marketing Magazine and at DMA09. 

Yes, we’ve decided to have a little bit of fun with The Brain in 4Q, but the message is a serious one. 

Next year the economy will rebound and if you’re like many of AccuData’s customers you hope for better things in ’10 – in fact you are counting on it.  AccuData’s message is:  “Be smart.  Consider AccuData in your 2010 planning.” We say this because all year we’ve shown our customers how to be more effective on the top line and bottom line – and we’d like to show more companies what we can do next year.

To find out more about The Brain and AccuData’s products and services, click here.

I’ve written about see-through envelopes and a general deterioration in the level of effort many companies are putting into their direct mail efforts.  But not all companies are letting their direct mail languish - and they are still generating very strong results despite today’s poor economic conditions.

How are they doing it?  Sharp targeting and (increasingly) variable digital printing. 

Regarding the latter, I received a mail piece a few weeks ago that illustrates the level of customization some direct marketers are now achieving in their direct mail.  The piece offered an extended warranty for my vehicle.  I’ve been receiving a number of these lately but this one was different. 

Beyond the usual “Dear Mr. Goff”  the piece included a list of the top 5 repairs I could expect over the next 36 months with their corresponding costs (for my vehicle) and a map showing the location of three nearby garages that not only accepted the warranty company’s coverage, but also waived the deductable.  Impressive.

The information was important because it gave me specific information that I could weigh in my decision making process.  In fact, I even visited one of the listed garages to get a reference on the warranty company.

Out of curiosity I tracked down the direct marketing manager for the warranty company and she was quite open about their approach.  The company had been sending out increasingly less expensive pieces with generic offers and (yes!) see-through envelops.  After some internal debate and experimentation with prospect email, the company decided to double-down on direct mail and address the fundamental issues that had been limiting their response - the lack of “monetization,” that is the lack of data that enabled a consumer to weigh the cost of the warranty against the cost of repairs and the lack of specifics around garages that accepted the coverage.

After building the databases powering the cost and garage data and fully taking advantage of variable digital printing (and upgrading their paper stock), response rates had almost doubled and direct mail became the companies second most effective channel…(can anyone guess what was always and still is their most effective direct response channel?).

The truth is, this example doesn’t come close to illustrating the amazing things possible with variable digital printing, but it does illustrate how a company with a common product can use data very surgically to drive very impressive direct mail results and economics - and it was not all that hard to do.

I find it interesting that there appears to be a direct correlation between data quality and model quality.  Fundamentally this might make sense to modelers and data gurus alike.

Interestingly, on the client-side there are still many organizations that do not adequately capture data on prospects and newly acquired customers - often no clear linkages between the two. This creates a disconnect.  Consequently, the patterns that normally can be extracted usually weakly present themselves.

Bottom-line: it is critical that organizations that want to improve their marketing results, focus on getting their marketing database in shape.

A key message we’re hearing at the show is that printers must become “MSPs” or “marketing service providers” to stay competitive. 

Several presentations including a very interesting presentation given by Kodak suggested that the opportunity now exists for traditional printers, “ink and paper guys,” to help their clients develop and deliver effective multi-channel marketing campaigns.

The availability of technology like digital press solutions from Fuji, Kodak and others allows for powerful printed media that incorporates variable data including images.  Add a PURL and you have a highly customized multi-channel campaign.