Mass Mailing anyone?

[Susana]

Just wondering if we should consider mass mailing prospective viewers in the top Neilsen DMAs to advertise for the showing of the mini?

Some quotes I've received, are that 10,000 addresses based on location, age, income, and sci-fi/cable TV watching preferences will cost $890. Mailing postcards (postage only) will cost $2300. 10,000 postcards are $1200 (plus shipping).

So, for around $4500 we could reach 10,000 prospective viewers. If we were able to sort or barcode the cards, the postage cost would go down some.

Oh, and I'm not volunteering to address all those cards :). I'd do some, but we'd have to split them up!

[RustySlinky]

I had volunteered a few summers in the direct mailing department of a local business, and had taken a couple of classes. I'm still a rookie at this, but I think my answer is "maybe not" but "it depends".

Here's a passage out of the textbook: "Successful Direct Marketing Methods" by Bob Stone. I don't have a link because my version's in hardcopy:Direct mail is an expensive advertising medium. It costs 15 to 20 times as much to reach a person with direct mail as it does to reach him or her with a 30-second commercial or a full-page ad in a newspaper. But direct mail has certain unique advantages that more than compensate for its higher cost. . .The chapter goes on to list the advantages of direct mail. In my own words, these are:

1. The ability to target specific individuals, provide them with personalized attention, and measure their responses.

2. The ability to give them something they can actually touch and keep around for reference. A good example of this would be the Christmas catalogs that many retailers still mail out. Even though many people place their orders online, many still want to "hold a glossy catalog" in their hands and take it around to show their friends, etc.

3. Compared with radio and TV, direct-mail can provide very lengthy information instead of soundbites. In Farscape's case, this is probably a good thing, because of the show's complexity.

4. The ability to build long term relationships with the person on the other end. A lot of the direct mail packages sent by retailers are geared for repeat purchase customers.

5. With direct mail, a person has to focus on what it is, and either open it up or throw it away. With TV, Radio, Internet, and newspaper ads, the person might not notice the ad, or ignore it.

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So, in deciding whether to mass mail for new fans, some points to consider IMO:

1. Is there a cheaper alternative way to reach these groups of people?

2. How good will the mailing list be? Is there a high potential for either new Farscape viewers or better casual viewer participation? My professor said that response rates of anywhere between 1 to 5% could be considered successful for a fresh mailing list, but it still needs to be compared against other forms of advertising.

3. What exactly do we wish these guys to do? Do we want them to watch, convert, or buy DVD's?

4. How important are these groups? Are they opinion leaders or normal folks?

In making a decision, management might try to compute a "best guess" estimate of "return on investment" for each type of advertising. If they do try a mailing, small test samples are sometimes done to guage response, Before committing to an all-out campaign.

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It's a good idea to send a mailing out to those Scapers who sent postage correspondence to *akimbo*'s Farscape PO Box. These individuals were also given a choice to correspond via internet or phone, but for whatever reason, chose to go mail instead. They cared enough to write.

[Ammit]

We should definitely mail the people on akimbo's list! I'm not sure about mass-mailing though.

[blue]

Just looking at the numbers above, it does not look cost effective. You can't put more than a soundbite on a postcard. For $4390, you reach 10,000, and one to five percent of 10,000 is 100 to 500 people who might look at the card before throwing it away. Plus, you may alienate the other 9,500 to 9,900 people, who may hate junk mail as much as I do. It's like spam--unsolicited stuff you have to spend time sorting through to find your real mail.

[akimbo]

Originally posted by Ammit
We should definitely mail the people on akimbo's list! I'm not sure about mass-mailing though.

LilOrion and I already thought of that and are starting to work on a cunning plan. :O But that's only about 200 scapers at this point.

If we do other advertising, we could use the PO Box/Tollfree number strategy. (They are both still being maintained so we would have options when we did more advertising.)

[atlantagirl]

Plus, for your money you pretty much only have the opportunity to reach those specific 10,000 people. With TV ads, Farscape gets in front of many more eyeballs. Granted, they may not be a niche market of 10,000 people who specifically have an interest in science fiction (unless of course your ad appears during a science fiction tv show), but the key to successful promotion appears to be repetition. People need to hear about Farscape over and over and over again. Hopefully they'll see several tv ads, they'll see mentions of Farscape in newspapers and magazines. College kids will see posters around campus advertising Farscape. People in bookstores will see bookmarks. Eventually, the message will sink in . . . "Farscape is good, must give it a try" or "Farscape is coming back on! Got to remember to watch!"

That is less likely to happen with direct mail. The majority of the postcards would go into the trash before anyone paid enough attention to get the message we were trying to deliver, and it would not add to the overall potential for repetition to all the other people we are trying to reach.

I still believe the key to the successful promotion of the Farscape mini-series is going to be the amount of money and effort that Henson and their backers put into an ad campaign. The kind of money involved in really getting the word out there is simply out of our reach.

Our efforts are best served in "priming the pump" (continuing to get the DVDs out there may be our best hope -- either through individuals lending their DVDs to friends, or through the library and military campaigns) and in keeping our focus on the media -- making sure they don't forget about the campaign and the mini-series. These are realistic goals given the amount of money we will have access to.

With any luck, we may eventually be able to implement Xothas' tv advertising campaign (at least phase 1) as well, which could also generate more buzz among the media. But we'll never be able to compete with the big boys in a major ad campaigns via traditional methods.

[mjwillia]

How can we get Farscape on TV Guide's Cover the week the Mini-Series airs? Now THAT would be a mass mailing!

[Shipscat]

We can do an email/writing campaign, mjwillia. :)

[mjwillia]

Good idea!

I just sent an email to TV Guide and now I'm going to warm up my good ol' pen!

[divinedaydreams]

TV Guide might have considered putting Farscape on the front already. They have always seemed in favor of the show. A little writting would probably seal the deal.

I've been all over the last couple of days but in another thread I mentioned doing something in alterantive papers such as the Stranger up in Seattle. Its available everywhere, free, mostly black and white, and people are reading it from front to back. Most major cities probably have something similar. You know the urban guides to what is going on in the city?

[Johnny Bob]

Yes, and these alternative "news" papers reach a wide number of people. I pick up my freebee every Friday afternoon on my way home. And from what I understand, advertising in these papers is relatively cheap.

It would definitely be worth looking in to.

[divinedaydreams]

I'll start a new thread and people can list what their alternative paper is. If we can hit a few major cities it would be well worth the pay off.

[divinedaydreams]

Here it is...

http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17597

[uisceboo]

Originally posted by divinedaydreams
TV Guide might have considered putting Farscape on the front already.

They probably will do it, but knowing their habits -- and their vast experience of what will garner the greatest attention -- they probably will not do so until the show is about to be aired. and I would have to agree with this, as at this point we don't even know where the show will be aired, what all the details are -- things they would need to know. Covers go with cover stories. There is not enough information available for them to write a proper story. Later next year, I would say, and I am going to assume that they will do so without any prodding whatsoever, for no other reason than Farscape is humongously newsworthy and they already know that. In fact, the press in general knows this a few times over. That crawl on CNN this weekend did NOT appear due to a letter campaign. It was put up because Farscape is international news!

If you all are looking to write letters, you might write to Farscape's current advertisers/sponsors (http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=71) and ask them to sponsor the miniseries when it comes up. You can also throw your support behind the TV ad campaign, as mentioned, and the library and military projects, and other DVD-in-front-of-eyeball projects as they come up. Those who want to place ads in newspapers again, good for you! I've done it myself!

Our #1 role, right now, as Ricky done told us -- go out and turn people on to Farscape. Keep turning your friends on to the show. Even one at a time counts, because you never know what that one new fan can bring to the table: a Nielsen box at a critical time, funds, ideas, or a way to show Farscape to more people. Each new viewer COUNTS -- we don't necessarily have to ONLY bag people by the hundreds. What you all have been doing in spreading the wonder has worked solidly! Now go do some more! :D