Capital One — Direct Mail
Capital One sends out a lot of direct mail, and for 8+ years I helped to create and deploy a huge percentage of it. This is not a quantity story though. It’s a story about creating stables of control beaters and then beating those winning packages time and again. It’s a story about exploring new formats and using existing ones in unique ways to drive engagement. It’s a story about keeping one of the oldest channels alive and thriving.
I love direct mail and direct marketing as a whole, and i can geek out about it for hours. Below are some highlights from the run I had with Capital One, including one package that featured a “trailing edge” bump out on the envelope that netted a couple direct marketing awards for Capital One.
Team: Roneka Patterson (art director), Scott Hutchison (copywriter), Sarah Holmes (art director), Chandler Crawley (copywriter), Laura McCaskill (art director) and so many others over the life of this 8+ year workstream
Awards: Platinum Hermes, Platinum MarCom
These packages used innovative and interactive designs to grab the attention of more affluent targets, a group that is highly sought after by all financial service companies.
The outer envelope is the doorway to a great direct mail kit. These examples show some of the many iterations that take place when trying to find the perfect OE.
These packages specifically targeted small business owners. We even developed a magazine to better engage with real SBOs and tell their stories.
We did a lot of work with Capital One’s partner cards, including this wall of work for General Motors. This work spanned direct mail kits and in-dealership signage.
These packages are marketing a second card to current customers. It was a new line of business, so we had to create and then test into an entirely new stable of controls.
This package utilized a trailing edge, bump out print technique to stand out in the mail. The innovation worked, leading to higher engagement and a pair of industry awards for Capital One.