Ipex Achieves 9% Response Rate using Unique, Cross-Media Marketing Campaign Delivered by DirectSmile
Berlin, 21 May 2010 – DirectSmile, the supplier of image personalisation, cross-media marketing and variable data printing (VDP) software, teamed up with the organisers of Ipex 2010, IIR Exhibitions UK (part of Informa plc), to create a personalised, cross-media marketing campaign for UK pre-registrants of the international print and media trade show. The campaign was considered a huge success with a 9% response rate and positive feedback from a number of recipients.
The campaign was designed to communicate in a memorable and impactful way, the benefits of attending Ipex to pre-registered companies and individuals within five different market sectors, highlighting the key show attractions for each market, and ultimately, incentivising attendance.
DirectSmile’s Cross Media solution was considered the ideal solution to ensure the success of the campaign, enabling personalisation across different media channels including print, email and the Internet, as well as providing the facility to track campaign response rates.
“During my 13 years experience of organising exhibitions, I have never attempted such a sophisticated, personalised marketing initiative to drive pre-registrants to a show. However, working with DirectSmile technology made this complicated initiative very easy and from an event management point of view, the campaign has been a tremendous success from start to finish,” commented Nick Craig Waller, Marketing Director, IIR Exhibitions UK.
The campaign consisted of a personalised mailing printed on Prime Group’s HP Indigo press, and distributed in March 2010 to 10,000 pre-registrants and in April/May 2010 to an additional 15,000 pre-registrants. The mailer’s personalised content included the recipient’s address and badge number details, a personalised Ipex logo image, text customised for the five different target groups and a link to a personalised URL (PURL) - a customised web page, complete with links to all the Ipex exhibitors that would be of interest to the recipient.
Jon Tolley, Managing Director, Prime Group comments, “Having worked with DirectSmile software over the years to fully utilise the possibilities of image and data personalisation in print, we were happy to be involved in this innovative campaign. DirectSmile Cross Media integrates well with our HP Indigo print capabilities and combining these technologies enabled us to deliver a high-quality printed direct mail campaign that incorporated complex variable content.”
After the direct mail piece was distributed, IIR Exhibitions UK noticed that the campaign generated interest almost immediately, as DirectSmile tracked which PURLs were visited and which links within that PURL were clicked through to.
“To date, the campaign has achieved an impressive 9% response rate,” said Nick. “ Not only that, we can see from the tracked PURL visits that interest in the campaign hasn’t decreased after receiving the direct mail piece. Pre-registrants have been referring back to their PURL again and again and some have even contacted me to say how pleased they were with the campaign’s useful content, innovative approach and print-quality.
“This reaction clearly demonstrates that recipients found the campaign of value and it created both an instant and lasting impact. From our point of view, working with DirectSmile Cross Media - one all-encompassing solution - has made the production process simple and cost-effective. The added benefit of being able to accurately evaluate the response to this campaign has been fascinating and really helped to prove the effectiveness of our marketing strategy. We look forward to providing Ipex visitors with similar targeted communications in the future.”
Visit DirectSmile (Hall 12, stand B110), HP (Hall 12, stand AB150) and Jon Tolley of Prime Group (on the HP stand on 24th May) at the show and find out more about these companies’ innovative solutions and services.