How do you catch the attention of people who spend all their time trying to catch the attention of others?
The pioneer in management information systems for the advertising agency industry, Adman faced aggressive competition from programs that weren’t as comprehensive or targeted, but appeared to be more affordable.
Scott Flood Writing and Scofield Design+Communications called attention to the company’s unparalleled industry knowledge by displaying an inside understanding of the players and the battles in a direct-mail lead generation effort. Playing off the never-ending tension between “creatives” and “suits,” the mailer suggested that conflicts within ad agencies shouldn’t be settled with violence, but by fixing the inadequate systems at the root of the problems. It offered a 36-inch punching bag (with a slacker-looking art director on one side and a milquetoasty account executive on the other) in return for more information.
Response was well above expectations, forcing Adman to order additional punching bags. More than a year after the mail drop, requests for the punching bag continued to arrive.