For your next campaign, consider trying something called “lumpy mail.” Defined by the USPS as “mail that isn’t flat,” lumpy or dimensional mail produces higher response rates than regular flat mail and generates great word of mouth buzz.

One seasoned direct marketing professional encourages this kind of “outside the envelope” mailing.

“Creating immediate interest is critical in designing a successful campaign,” says Becky Quinlan, Direct Marketing Manager at Allegra Network. “Lumpy mail engages, starts conversations and gets noticed.

“With advances in digital printing technology and production,” Quinlan continues, “marketers can now create some truly unique mailings without breaking the budget.”

Some of our favorites include:

• A large plastic egg filled with candy and a call to action
• Self-mailing “messages in a bottle” announcing a marina open house
• Sample-size bags of coffee to promote an afternoon webinar

Want to try a lumpy mailing? Keep in mind that your list is more critical than ever in these campaigns. Make sure your mail is personally addressed to actual decision makers; you are investing extra time and expense with this campaign. The tighter the list, the better the payoff. And take the Postal Service’s advice to build extra time into the schedule for anything that’s out of the ordinary.

The first annual Twitter Dodgeball Championship will take place Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Ancaster High School, and the Mohawk students organizing the event are urging spectators to get involved and influence the game through their tweets.

“Any spectators who come to watch it, they’ll be able to upload tweets and hashtag them,” said advertising student Lindsay Celeste, who is working on the event with two of her fellow students.

“And if they decide that they want to throw a few extra balls in the court, they can do that. Or if they want another team to join the game, they can join the game. So basically the audience has a say in what goes on in the actual game.”

Celeste, who is organizing the event for Special Olympics Hamilton as part of an end-of-semester assignment, said one of her fellow group members came up with the idea and it seemed like an interesting way to mix social media and dodgeball in order to raise money for a local organization.

“Unfortunately, Special Olympics Hamilton does not get funded because it’s a municipal organization,” said Celeste. “At the national level, Special Olympics does get funding.… So that’s basically why we’re helping them out.”

The event was titled the “first annual” Twitter Dodgeball Championship because Celeste and her fellow organizers are hoping to see students continue to organize it again in later years, depending on how this event goes.

Organizers are still accepting teams to participate in the event and interested parties are encouraged to email fellow organizer Kevin Junor at kevin.junor@elearn.mohawkcollege.ca. The deadline for team submissions is Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $5 and all proceeds will be going to Special Olympics Hamilton.

Source: CBC Hamilton

“Teaming with local businesses and nonprofits to help them reach their goals through strategic marketing communications is gratifying,” said Knox. “Small and mid-sized companies have many marketing channels open to them; helping them find the right one(s) – print, digital or a combination – is what has helped us to be successful this past year.”

Allegra, located at 255 York Blvd., is a full-service marketing communications provider offering marketing consultation, graphic design services, advanced printing technologies including offset and digital printing, signs, posters and banners, vehicle wraps, mailing services, promotional products and print management solutions.

“In a network of nearly 300 independently-owned and operated marketing and print franchises, Dave and Gasper have earned the respect of their peers,” said Allegra Network CEO Mike Marcantonio. “They are committed to their customers, employees and the community, setting an example of what the very best strive to be.”

For more information, contact the award-winning Allegra at (905) 528-2999, or visit the company’s website at www.allegrahamilton.com.

Announcing the 2013 FootPRINT Fund Recipients

Allegra’s FootPRINT Fund has proven to be a resounding success yet again, awarding as many as 30 non-profit organizations a share of $20,000 worth of in-kind marketing and print services. FootPRINT fund helps eligible non-profit organizations enhance their image, expand their services and extend their printing budgets utilizing Allegra’s marketing and print services. If you are a non-profit that could use our help in these ways we encourage you to apply for next year’s FootPRINT Fund.

The list of recipients for 2013 is as follows:

Ancaster Discovery Gardens
Art Gallery of Hamilton
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hamilton and Burlington
Community Transition Network
Crime Stoppers of Hamilton
Dundas Valley School of Art
Earth Day Hamilton-Burlington
Environment Hamilton
Food4Kids Hamilton Halton Niagara
Giant’s Rib Discovery
Hamilton Car Seat Safety Coalition
Hamilton Out of the Cold
Hamilton Regional Indian Centre
HBSPCA
Immigrant Women’s Centre
John Howard Society
Junior League of Hamilton Burlington
Juravinski Cancer Ctr (Bright Run).
Learning Disabilities Association of Halton
Living Rock Ministries
Mountain Kidz Klub
North End Breezes
Soroptimists Stoney Creek- Niagara
Special Olympics Hamilton
Spinal Cord Injury Ontario
Student Open Circles
Suicide Prevention Community Council of Hamilton
Sustainable Hamilton
Urban Arts Initiative
Welcome Inn Community Centre

Congratulations to all of our 2013 recipients! Please remember all non-profit organizations can also use our Posters with Purpose program. The Posters with Purpose program does not require a formal application and is available throughout the year. It awards up to 50 full-colour, customized posters for any event. Please provide the print ready file and we will gladly print them for you. If you require help with the design we can also assist with that.

Good luck to you all!

Personalized communications, driven by digital print solutions, can effectively engage  these constituents with relevant information. This paper provides best practice solutions as derived from a study of PODi’s Digital Print Case Study Collection.

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The answer to these questions depends a lot on your situation, your target audience and how they buy; not to mention your relative strengths as a marketer. But getting to the basics, there are a handful of key tools and marketing activities that every small to medium company should have. Let’s review them in turn.

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It’s simply getting harder and harder to break through the clutter and get people to respond to your call to action. According to current research, each of us is exposed to more than 5,000 messages per day. Of those, we only remember about four. And we don’t even remember those for very long. A large portion of those messages are coming through channels, media and devices that didn’t even exist 30 years ago. In fact, the Kiplinger Letters reports that today companies have at least 60 ways to reach customers.

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Event marketing also adds a personal contact dimension to the less personal, technology-driven engagement that defines so much of the marketing and sales conversations today. It creates face-to-face opportunities to meet important prospects and the chance to reinforce your relationships with current customers.

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St. Matthew’s House (SMH) is a charitable, nonprofit and multi-service agency. It is an outreach of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara and its beginnings date back half of a century. The “Bayfront Clergy” opened a storefront ministry in 1964 to serve Hamilton’s residents in the shadow of industry in the north end of Hamilton. Together with our community partners, we work toward alleviating the poverty experience, eliminating poverty and adopting best practices for improved quality of life.

St. Matthew’s House serves people living in and around some of the most impoverished areas in Hamilton. Our services include emergency food, crisis intervention and outreach to seniors and vulnerable persons to support independent living. Clients include persons with limited or no income, persons living in poor health or with chronic conditions, persons of all ages and newcomers. SMH provides an on-site day care (largely subsidized spaces) and special needs resource teachers who support children with developmental disabilities in day care sites in Hamilton.

St. Matthew’s House were looking for a new brand for their organization. They were using outdated logos and inconsistent branding. Through the FootPRINT Fund we were able to help them come up with a brand new logo and tagline and provide them with valuable marketing ideas and solutions to the obstacles they faced. We have since continued to work with St. Matthew’s House to implement our marketing plan.

If you would like more information on SMH please visit http://stmatthewshouse.ca/