DM loves... experiential

Advertisers have always believed that if you can show what your product does the customer will buy it. But in the digital age how do you create a virtual version of the door-step challenge? 

According to Jon Ingall, managing partner of Archibald Ingall Stretton, one of the most powerful experiential channels is still direct mail. Why? Because from the moment someone picks up a mail pack from their doormat they are engaging with that brand in an explicit, tactile way.

Once the recipient has opened a piece of direct mail they've interacted with and 'experienced' that brand on a far more complex level than if they had just glanced at a poster or watched a TV ad. 

Ingall believes direct mail has more power to express a brand's values than any other medium and cites his experience with telecomms client O2. Its online hub, 'blueroom', uses content from sponsorship partnerships which link to customer information gleaned through extensive use of direct mail. 

Combined with personalised SMS, email and online experiences and backed up by awareness-building advertising, direct mail sits comfortably among the latest online and mobile techniques.