Isuzu Direct Mail "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

The first major promotion featuring the VehiCROSS included was a direct-mail promotion of about 2000 copies (the actual brochure went on to be printed as a run of an additional 15,000 to be distributed to Isuzu dealers). The promo included a velum letter, the brochure and a card to receive a free gift, all in a very nice quality velum envelope.

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

Isuzu "Cars, Prepare for Extinction - Introducing Isuzu VehiCROSS"

From Carol Worthington Levy - Creative Director (edited for clarity and focus on this single promo):

Hello John,

The interest in VehiCROSS memorabilia is really heating up - yours is the third or fourth note I've gotten from collectors in the past couple of weeks. But you seem to be really setting up an historical site and it looks like you're up to a lot of interesting and fun stuff here.

I am recently hearing from other VehiCROSS owners, too, and while I don’t have a lot of samples, I can tell you a little more about it so you know what to look for....

In a nutshell: The Isuzu VehiCROSS solo direct mail only had about 2000 printed, total. We mailed 1800 of them, and from that mailing we received orders for 500 VehiCROSS vehicles, virtually sight unseen. There were only ten VehiCROSSes in the whole USA at that point. Nobody backed out of their order. It was a blockbuster that won the DMA Echo Award and other awards, for its success in the mail.

The gift we gave to customers for their purchase was a special limited edition silverprint photo by a famed automotive photographer Jesse Alexander. To get the shot we took the one VehiCROSS we had out to the desert and he shot pictures of it racing across the sand with dust behind it. Awesome.  Only 201 of these were ever printed.

Now for More detail than you probably ever wanted to know: Here, I'll give you a bit of background information that may be interesting.

First I should let you know that Isuzu has historically had much lower budgets for advertising than typical auto companies. They made a smart choice in their AD agency, Goodby Silverstein in San Francisco... But there is only so much that can be accomplished with a short ad budget, and they knew that they needed more return on investment to make a difference in their auto sales. That's when Isuzu's manager Tony Harkey decided to seek out a company to do some real, database-driven direct marketing for Isuzu. They began working with a firm called M/S Database Marketing (now called msdbm, a Sourcelink Company), who started profiling the typical Isuzu owner. They discovered through some research that Isuzu customers are quite different in attitude in many ways than other typical SUV owners and prospects. This led to the next step -- developing direct mail promotions to generate very qualified prospects into dealers... Prospects who were not being lured in by a low-price opportunity, but rather by the vehicle itself.

I was brought in by referral to work for msdbm as a freelancer, half of a copy/design team with a specialty in direct marketing. Our first piece was an Isuzu Trooper piece done in about 1996. It was really successful and got more sales and lower cost per sale than Isuzu had ever seen.  This was the tip of the iceberg... Over the next few years our team at msdbm created increasingly successful direct mail in very unusual formats, extra-large sizes, and including some terrific premium offers and offer tests. (consider that our first mailing for Trooper used a ziploc bag from a Tortilla manufacturer as an outgoing envelope!).  

The key to the success of all the work for Isuzu was three-fold: first, the incredibly accurate database profiling (provided by msdbm) which told us exactly how Isuzu prospects prioritized their lives and what they wanted... Second, creative work that was intimately tied to that database, both in copy (voice, provided by Otis Maxwell in most cases) and structure (design, my part of the equation)... And third, a champion in Isuzu (Tony Harkey) who pushed past the politics there to make it happen. Budgets were always small compared to typical auto budgets, and so we had to work smart, keep quantities low and response rates high by paring down to mailing to the best of the database, etc.

Isuzu's collateral was being developed by The Designory, who does collateral for many auto companies. They actualy developed the VehiCROSS round-ended brochure which we used inside our VehiCROSS direct mail.

When VehiCROSS was being introduced, we only had access to a near-final prototype, and the brochure was in development. We never got into a final, final vehicle and the direct mail shows illustration/photo combos that hide the things that were changing about the VehiCROSS at the time... It had just completed development when the package dropped in the mail.

Our assignment was a big challenge --  We were told that only ten VehiCROSS vehicles were in the USA, and using this direct mail package, we were to generate 500 deposits to purchase the first 500 VehiCROSS vehicles brought into the USA.   We knew that with only ten in the US, most of them would put that deposit down, VehiCROSS sight-unseen til they took delivery. We decided to develop creative that would play big-time to the early-adapter and collector, using the best of our database in multiple-Isuzu owners and crossing them with other purchase behavior that was cutting edge (people who were the first to own DVD players, for example).

The budget was very small -- and we decided to make it a meaningful package to an audience of only 1800 -- very risky, but that was our strategy...better to really create a splash to a very very targeted audience.

The miraculous conclusion of this was that we sold the first 500, mostly sight-unseen... and NOBODY backed down once their VehiCROSS arrived.

A few more details -
- The creative for the direct mail was centered around the concept of "Cars, prepare for extinction" theme.

- The direct mail package includes the round-ended brochure, a frosted vellum letter, a brochure/buckslip telling about the offer/gift for being the first 500 to take delivery, all in an oversized frosted vellum envelope with a label on the front. You can see the brochure through the envelope and the Envelope has the teaser 'Cars Prepare for Extinction' on the opposite side of the label.

- Only about 2000 packages were printed, and 1800 were sent out by mail to our prospects. The other 200 packages were distributed over a wide range of people in command  at Isuzu, including a package to each Isuzu dealer with our ‘dealer preparation kit’ that we sent out to each dealer.

- I believe the round-ended brochure actually had a much higher quantity, since they also printed those for use by dealers — my guess is that there may have been another 15,000 of those, but I wasn’t involved in that printing.

- the gift for purchase was a silverprint photo by famed automotive photographer Jesse Alexander.  I don’t have a clue as to how much they are worth now, but the edition was limited to 501, and the shot was taken just for us. They cost us about $206 apiece out-of-pocket, but the collection value was of course, higher.  Did you ever see the final silverprint photo? It’s the VehiCROSS racing across the desert!

- Our total cost for the campaign was $226,722 which covered creative, print and production, database and project management, 500 collectible framed prints and shipping for both the gift and postage for the mailer. We generated over $15million in sales.

- Response rates: 83% of the recipients called us to inquire, 32% converted to put money down, 100% of those took delivery, it cost $452 per vehicle sold (most automotive figures come in at $600 and up per sale)

An FYI - one of my colleagues, the head of the agency for whom I did this
work, actually has an odd item — one of the Silverprint photos... What makes her print unique is that she got one with a duplicate number (they are limited to 500 but there were actually 501 and hers is that extra one). The mistake was in the numbering.  I may know someone else with one too, but not sure. If you would like to email her to see if she's willing to part with this ususual piece, you can do so with discretion - her email is eschlaphoff@msdbm.com

- Another FYI, there were not many samples left for our files - so I got ten packages (I sent three of them to the Direct Marketing Association for entry into the DMA Echo Awards, and two of them to the John Caples Awards). I had one stolen from a portfolio I sent to a client (!!), and one of my portfolios with a sample was LOST by the (stupid) client. One of the three I have left is missing the Outgoing Envelope (I think it was destroyed in transit from a portfolio review) - so I have two packages in pretty good shape, plus one each of the vellum letter, the gift buckslip, and two of the round-ended brochures.

End of an era -
Isuzu’s budgets were always excruciatingly low and we were the only company who ever did successful direct mail for them in those days. Now what mail they do is more dealer-promo stuff but our response rates were fabulous and return on investment was high. We were the ONLY ones who did direct mail for the VehiCROSS, and that mail package was IT. The Ironman was the only other one that mailed, that had VehiCROSS in the mix. We also did some great Trooper and Rodeo stuff and an hilarious mailer for the Hombre.

I checked with my colleagues on the samples and it looks like we are all in the same boat – so few were created, we don’t have many apiece. I used to have about ten but I used them for awards entries and a couple were removed and not returned when I sent out my portfolio. Now I never send out my portfolio with that sample in it – I only show it in person.

The Direct Marketing Association has the package in their resource books with my DMA Echo entry -- anyone in New York City might be able to see it in person, but you MAY have to be a DMA member to access that library.

The players for this VehiCROSS piece are myself as creative director, msdbm owners Robert McKim and Evelyn Schlaphoff, Tony Harkey who is no longer with isuzu but is now in southern california, and John Espinoza, who was also a designer on the project. Designory did the round ended brochure.

PS - As if providence were smiling on me, a recent trip to Los Angeles a couple of days ago, I came out of a drugstore and found a bright alert yellow VehiCROSS sitting cute as a bug next to my rental car. Like it was saying Hello or something. It really brought a smile to my face.

Carol Worthington Levy

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