As much as an optimist like me hates a news cycle that is constantly dominated by negative gut wrenching stories of business failure after business failure, I can’t help but smile on occasion. X bank filed for bankruptcy, Y retailer is going out of business, Z company’s CEO just soaked himself with hot maple syrup at the opulent holiday brunch in response to questions about his inevitable golden parachute. What’s this world come to, I feel like I want to hide in the bathroom all day and read only the strangest of direct mail pieces I get each day in my already stuffed to the brim mailbox…Wait that’s what I do in a good economy. Ok, you get the idea, the economy is in shambles and the only good thing I can see coming from it is this, people get real creative when all else hits the fan.
I was working on direct mail piece for a consulting client today and realized in order for it to be picked up by even a single recipient it had to be so outlandish it would stand out in even 1,000 pieces of junk mail. A piece so perfectly absurd people would have to open it, read it, and tell their friends about it.
If there is one thing great to come from economic downturns it is innovation, creativity, and that added motivation that if you haven’t done your darn best by 6:30 pm Brian Williams is going to tell you not to expect any business tomorrow, because al l the world’s consumers are hiding out in their bathrooms reading a direct mail piece that was so outlandish, they just had to take a peek inside.
