That’s it... the gloves are off now.

As the election draws ever closer, the major political parties are really vying for our attention. So, as my doormat slowly disappeared under countless leaflets and flyers...

 ...I had a thought...

...Why not have a closer, more critical look at a very important election battle: the battle of party direct marketing?

 

Now, throughout this election campaign I’ve received numerous leaflets and flyers telling me to ‘make a change’ and ‘do the right thing’ (watch out if you do the wrong thing – big trouble). But rather than dissect every piece today, I thought I’d stick to the (slightly) more personalised packs I’ve received – one Labour and one Tory.

Both packs came as a surprise because I’ve never registered my interest in any particular party. One was hand delivered to my front door (!), whilst the other was addressed to me and dropped off by the postman.

Of course, as an Art Director here at Bluefrog, I was excited to tear them both open and see what impressive tactics were about to be employed in gaining my support. Below you’ll find a few quick thoughts on the ups and downs of the packs. I’ve left out letter content simply because critiquing those is another blog post altogether.

Let the games begin!

 
 The Labour pack.

A • C4 envelope. Big envelope. Makes me feel important. Good work.

B • Address label stuck on. Someone’s gone to the trouble of hand printing these and placing them on by hand. Swoon.

C • Image. Helping to give the letter a voice. Shame Jim’s face is a bit red. A quick bit of photoshop could have sorted him right out.

D • No letter personalisation. By using handwriting then calling me ‘Resident’ has broken the illusion of personalisation. Plus, Jim seems to have forgotten my name, but remembered it on the outer. Hmm.

E • Strange headline. Both in position and content this is odd. Since ‘Dear Resident’ is rather large, it’s lost up there on its own.

F • Indentation.  Eyes are drawn here again but since it’s such a large chunk and makes me not want to read the first two paragraphs.

G • Two sheets of paper. This isn’t a long letter; it’s just two sides but printed on two sheets of paper. This appears incredibly wasteful!

H • Printed colours. Both sheets are four colour prints but the reds at the header and footer are different colours. This adds to an increasing sloppy feeling of this pack.

I • Signature scan. Looks rather messy but, more importantly, doesn’t look like it was done with the same pen as the ‘Dear Resident’.

J • Poster. It’s presumptuous that I’ll want this, but very eye catching. I’ll remember that Jim Fitzpatrick is a Labour candidate – it’s imprinted on my retina in neon yellow.

K • Return form. Well well, this freepost A5 response device is rather bizarre. It’s a heavy, coated stock (of about 300gsm), asking for my details to be written on the reverse (for the world to see) and returned. It also slyly asks for a donation therefore I’d have to go find an envelope myself. I wonder what the response rate is for this?

L • ANOTHER response device. Asking for me to apply for a postal vote on a photocopied application form that I’m supposed to fold up and glue together. Oh Jim, you really are expecting a lot from me.

 
  The Conservative pack.

A • C5 windowed envelope. Official looking. Best open it. Might be a bill!

B • No letter personalisation. Oh dear, my name is printed a few centimetres above but not in the letter. This also means Dave knows what constituency I’m in, but fails to mention it or who is running for MP.

C • Image. Again, making it obvious who is writing the letter.

D • Orphan. Poor layout. Poor orphan.

E • High-vis pen. David Cameron’s been raiding his kids’ pen sets.

F • Response form. This incredibly short survey has free form space for me to share my opinion. Nice.

G • BRE. With space here for a final bit of communication/branding, leaving this blank seems like a missed opportunity.

 

Quick questions.

So it seems Labour have tried to show me that they’ve spent a bit on my pack, and want to encourage me to self-define by putting a poster in my window. They’ve also tried to speak with me on a local level. The Conservatives have gone for a cheaper, letter and survey approach with information based almost solely on national issues.

Both, however, seem to have missed the mark. It might well take a little longer (and cost a little more) but with a more thought, care and attention to detail both packs could have really have given me some clear thoughts about what they were trying to say.

The devil really is in the details.

So, before you cast your vote on who won in this particular election battle, a few comments on some other DM pieces directly addressed to me – that have since dropped through the door. One was a fold out flyer from my local Conservative candidate (featuring some incredibly low resolution images and an image of David Cameron with half a neck – seriously!); another was an A5 letter from a ‘neighbour’ urging me to back my Labour candidate (with a blue C5 outer, light blue A5 letter, dark blue ink and the slightly confusing name, Bernie Cameron); and finally, I received a fold out flyer from my Lib Dem candidate (including some horrifically out of focus photography).

It seems the lack of care in the first two pieces I reviewed, weren’t just a one off...

That’s all for now, Tom.