Archive Observations: Healthy New Year?
April 16, 2009 by Paul Bobnak, archive director, Who's Mailing What! Archive
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Mailings for fitness and diet programs are usually all about promising a new and better "you." As the new year dawned, as if the prospect of a healthier and better-looking body weren't enough, Dick Benson's magic word, "free", was all over the mail. "FREE ENROLLMENT!" screamed the front of Total Woman Gym's 5-1/2" x 11-1/2" postcard (Archive code #396-715112-0901). Weight Watchers reached out to former customers with a free registration offer for its new Momentum weight-loss program, calling it an "investment in yourself" (Archive codes #396-171849-0901A & 396-171849-0901B). Jenny Craig targeted its former clients with 5-1/4" x 10-1/2" postcard that includes a coupon for a "FREE DAY" of meals (Archive code #396-178528-0901). Virtua Health's Center For HealthFitness soft-pedaled its free enrollment offer, instead, making the connection between a healthy lifestyle and the freedom "to live the life you want" (Archive code #396-699905-0901).
Pop culture loves to organize items in groups of tens, like best-selling books, or just about anything for "The Late Show with David Letterman." Two fundraising efforts received by the Archive in recent months present, in different ways, their own "Top 10" lists, as a way of encouraging donations. In January, a membership offer for The Wilderness Society promotes the "Ten Wild Places You Should Experience in Your Lifetime" on the front of the #10 carrier envelope. The four-page freemium inside includes photos of areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, and notes how each one can be protected from development under proposed laws supported by the group and its members (Archive code #603-171776-0901).
A retention effort by Chemo Comfort, an organization that provides "comfort kits" to cancer patients, did not ask for specific additional gifts in the one-page letter or on a separate insert. Rather, it includes its "10 Ways You Can Help Chemo Comfort" as part of the reply form. The list is a convenient way of reminding the donor that options like a spring raffle, a recycling program, or contributing American Express Membership Rewards points are also welcome (Archive code #604-709443-0812).
Grand Control Update & Profile
Starting off the new year as the Archive's latest Grand Controls (controls in the mail for three or more years) are mailings by eight mailers, including Mutual of Omaha (Archive code #410-171627-0901), Arthritis Today (Archive code #202-693887-0901B), St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Archive code #613-171733-0901B) and Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center (Archive code #611-178773-0901).
Pop culture loves to organize items in groups of tens, like best-selling books, or just about anything for "The Late Show with David Letterman." Two fundraising efforts received by the Archive in recent months present, in different ways, their own "Top 10" lists, as a way of encouraging donations. In January, a membership offer for The Wilderness Society promotes the "Ten Wild Places You Should Experience in Your Lifetime" on the front of the #10 carrier envelope. The four-page freemium inside includes photos of areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, and notes how each one can be protected from development under proposed laws supported by the group and its members (Archive code #603-171776-0901).
A retention effort by Chemo Comfort, an organization that provides "comfort kits" to cancer patients, did not ask for specific additional gifts in the one-page letter or on a separate insert. Rather, it includes its "10 Ways You Can Help Chemo Comfort" as part of the reply form. The list is a convenient way of reminding the donor that options like a spring raffle, a recycling program, or contributing American Express Membership Rewards points are also welcome (Archive code #604-709443-0812).
Grand Control Update & Profile
Starting off the new year as the Archive's latest Grand Controls (controls in the mail for three or more years) are mailings by eight mailers, including Mutual of Omaha (Archive code #410-171627-0901), Arthritis Today (Archive code #202-693887-0901B), St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Archive code #613-171733-0901B) and Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center (Archive code #611-178773-0901).
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