Without a doubt, email is a powerful communications medium. Getting updates on Facebook or a regular dose of Twits is definitely the way to go for many people. Yet, the romance of a simple postcard cannot be denied. For those of you who have ever received a nice postcard from a loved one or a long-lost friend, you should understand. The simple thrill of receiving a personal postcard cannot be compared to anything online.

Many have predicted the death of junk mail. What a joke. Do you see any ebb in the flow of direct mailers to your mailbox? The only reason direct mail persists in an increasingly digital world is because of a simple reason; it works.

Postcards work. A well designed postcard can convey so much. In any case, we know that the attention span of the average consumer is counted in SECONDS. Thick catalogues are for lazy Sunday afternoons. But a postcard is an instant attention grabber. Within three to five seconds, you need to get your message across. Too little, you say? How about 140 characters in cyberspace?

Images are powerful. Coupled with strong copy, you stand a much better chance of getting your message across using postcards. Not only that, you can incorporate powerful tracking mechanisms in postcards with cut-out redemption, coupon codes and even incorporating QR codes to weave your mobile marketing efforts into the mix.

Don’t wave off postcard marketing. After all, unlike a Twit, that postcard lying around can catch the attention of the next person passing by.

If the AE (aka account executive – the suit that takes care of the Almighty clients) isn’t alert to spot that silence isn’t golden, it might just be too late.

We said the client doesn’t listen. The client also says the same thing about us. The relationship between the client and agency is always  a sensitive one. Sometimes, it is not about who is right or who is wrong. It is just a communication issue and the angle we look at things. We made our call based on our knowledge and past experience.

Anyway, someone printed the following text for me and I had it stuck on my wall.

Said also don’t listen
Listen also don’t understand
Not understand also don’t ask
Ask also don’t do
Do also do wrong
Wrong also don’t admit
Admit also don’t correct
Correct also not happy
Not happy also don’t say

To remind myself to smile it off whenever a sticky communication issue arises

Advertising dates very far back. But the most likely start of “modern” advertising the way we know it can be traced as far back as 1600′s. There are posters selling fruits dating from as far back as 1608 (Presbrey, Frank. The History and Development of Advertising. Doubleday, New York: Doran & Co., 1929. p. 114.).

From there, advertising has evolved. In fact, from the times in Europe, to colonial America, to modern times, advertising has been slowly evolving. But you almost never move away from the basic model. Almost all advertisements fall into two fixed categories – selling or awareness (branding). Whether it is an informative ad, or an artistic ad, or a “supermarket” ad, they are all aimed at selling the product/services or at building the brand/product awareness.

Advertising has evolved as new media have emerged. However, the advertising agency has by and large remained the same. Sure, recent times have seen a large movement towards vertical integration and then specialisation. But the basic client-agency model remains intact.

With the fast paced and instant communications world that we live in today, does this agency model still work? Can clients afford to wait a few days while the agency receives a brief, deliberate on it, comes up with a proposal, gets approval, executes the advertising. Well, newsflash, Twitter is 140 characters delivered in seconds. What about Facebook?

Can companies afford to keep the old agency model going in these modern times?

While the new media engaged and even mesmerized the world, the so-called old media aren’t redundant yet. We just organised a seminar for a client. Against their strong opposition, we somehow managed to convince them to invest just $500 on fax promotion. A drop in the ocean and yet they were so aghast with the idea. They kept saying that facsimile is so last century; an electronic dinosaur that no one cares. Well, their jaws dropped when we showed them the sales generated from the fax messages that went out.

So when this particular client held another workshop recently, they were much more receptive when we encouraged them to do direct mailing. Not e-direct mailing. The traditional method – where the postman dropped a beautifully designed and printed 250gsm postcard into your letterbox, where you can read it slowly over a steaming cup of cappuccino. In these days where spam is rampant, a large percentage of e-direct mailers goes down the chute without being read. This is true even when the recipient knows the sender or have requested for such information be emailed. A survey was conducted to check out this phenomena and the obvious answer surfaced – people simply don’t have time to go through all their emails! So only the ‘official’ ones take priority. An advertisement is definitely not at the top of people’s reading list. Even if we believe 100% that our message will enrich and benefit our customers’ life, they see it as just another advertisement or worse, junk mail.

Postcards are great in any marketing campaigns but particularly during the November-December festive period. Out on the streets, your customers are wooed by every form of media from billboards, lightbox posters, neon signs, newspapers, magazines, video walls, brochures, flyers and more. While they are watching TV or surfing the internet at home, banner ads, link ads, advertorial, product placement on MTV and movies etc also bombard them. How do you capture even 15 seconds of their precious time? Our recommendation is to catch them while they are not distracted. When is that? We found that window of opportunity may be a brief 1 minute or 30 minutes if you are lucky.

People pick up their mails on the way back home. Scenario 1 – They throw the mails on the couch and plonk themselves down too. For the next 1 minute, while kicking off their shoes, they sieve, read and ditch their mails. Scenario 2 – They throw the mails on their dining table and go about their stuff until dinner time. While they eat their pizza and sip their coffee, they slowly read their mails … including junk mails. If your postcard direct mail hits the hot button, that’s where you make your sales. So always list your 24-hour sales hotline number or website URL because you can bet that their smart phones would be on the table. Many women do ‘dinner shopping’ like this, one hand eats, one hand shops.

The best size to do a postcard direct mailer is A5 size or 5.5″ x 8.5″. With a picture that captures attention, a headline that highlights your unique selling proposing plus an irresistible offer, this size ensures that you can attract eyeballs when it is being handed out, being displayed on the stand or lying amongst many other mails in the letter box.

A postcard direct mailer can be done easily = Sales Strategy + Advertising Concept + Design Execution + Printing + Mailing List + Mail Out. It is not as expensive as people perceive it to be. Production cost has gone down significantly over the last few years. You can engage marketing consultants to do all that for you, or you can go online and get it done real quickly, like 3 working days. The results and services offered may be different but you will get yourself a full fledged direct mailer campaign. Most importantly, don’t ever think that postcard direct mailer is dead. Far from it. If fax campaign can still pull in results, you can bet a postcard direct mailer will too.

Who said a good product endorsed by a well know celebrity will always sell like hot cake?

If the market doesn’t buy, the good product will not fly off the shelves.

If the market thinks the celebrity isn’t the hot topic of the day, there’s no WOW factor to go gaga over.

Before Michael Jackson, most big companies wouldn’t dream of engaging him to endorse their products. The King of Pop just didn’t have a positive image to drive sales.

What is happening to Tony Robbin now?

After two episodes, NBC yanked Tony Robbins’ reality show from its summer schedule. Effective next week, NBC will air repeats of game show “Minute to Win It” in the Tuesday-night slot instead of “Breakthrough with Tony Robbins.”

Tony Robbins is known to help real people solve tough challenges yet audiences didn’t show up; the most recent episode generating only 2.8 million viewers.

NBC wants big advertising dollars from the big boys and they are not showing up with 2.8 million viewers.

So what’s happening?

Should Tony Robbin waves his magic only in seminar room,  CDs and DVDs only?

Did NBC and Tony Robbin not do enough to attract audience?

I’m scratching my head and will be happy to know some insider information on this. Any one?