Direct mail piece puts a Porsche in your driveway -- literally

[Wimbledon]

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/great-...riveway-142230

Usually, when someone sneaks up to a rich guy's house and drives off with a Porsche, it's a reason to call the police. This time, it might be a reason to call an auto dealership. In a clever spin on direct mail for Toronto's Pfaff Automotive, Canadian agency Lowe Roche photographed one of the dealership's Porsches in the driveways of affluent homes, then used each image to create an ad left at the home where it was shot. The headline: "It's closer than you think." The result, according to the agency's case study video below, was a 32 percent response rate to a site where recipients could schedule a test drive. Direct mail is typically about hitting as many people as possible for as low a cost as possible, but this creative idea shows that for luxury brands, a smaller effort can sometimes go a long way.

[200HP4dr]

A dash of genius, with a generous helping of creepy.

Chris

[.simple.]

Brilliant!

[mikegilbert]

Now that is some creative marketing!

[GiacGtiAgain]

Brilliant!

yes because this would end well if it ever caught on.

i see homeowners beating up photographers if this ever became common/pervasive. in this very specific instance, it is cool, but it really is not a cool idea to "root on."

[Calcvictim]

That's awesome

[GRNWNV]

Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot each house, then photoshop the car in after?
I doubt many people would notice the difference, and it would save a ton of time having to move the car around.

Cool idea anyhow.

[DIAF]

Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot each house, then photoshop the car in after?
I doubt many people would notice the difference, and it would save a ton of time having to move the car around.

Cool idea anyhow.

That's what I was thinking.

[.simple.]

yes because this would end well if it ever caught on.

i see homeowners beating up photographers if this ever became common/pervasive. in this very specific instance, it is cool, but it really is not a cool idea to "root on."

The idea itself is brilliant; You took it to another level. No where did I encourage or "root" anybody on.

And the affluent neighborhoods I've lived in have all been pretty mundane, not exactly the "beat up" type of people. Worst case a photographer catches a penny-loafer to the parietal followed by a draft of a suit by Stainslaw & Ashbaugh for trespassing.

[tampaSi]

I'm thinking Hawk must have come up with this.

Works in Canada, would definitely not work in the US.

[Mintyy]

yes because this would end well if it ever caught on.

i see homeowners beating up photographers if this ever became common/pervasive. in this very specific instance, it is cool, but it really is not a cool idea to "root on."

It doesn't look like there cars were ever on their property, and it isn't illegal to photograph someone's house from the street.

[JMillerUA6]

yes because this would end well if it ever caught on.

i see homeowners beating up photographers if this ever became common/pervasive. in this very specific instance, it is cool, but it really is not a cool idea to "root on."

If you look at the pictures in the video the cars aren't actually on the property. They're in front of it. I'm sure any company/business that was considering using this type of marketing would be sure to cover their asses from a legal standpoint.

EDIT:

It doesn't look like there cars were ever on their property, and it isn't illegal to photograph someone's house from the street.

Beat me to it.

[robr2]

It doesn't look like there cars were ever on their property, and it isn't illegal to photograph someone's house from the street.

Nope it's done all the time by some little outfit called Google.

In seriousness, afaik there isn't a law that says you can't take a photo of someone's house. Appraisal companies do it all the time for real estate agents trying to sell comparables.

[.simple.]

It doesn't look like there cars were ever on their property, and it isn't illegal to photograph someone's house from the street.

That pretty much ends this discussion.

[cougar]

Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot each house, then photoshop the car in after?
I doubt many people would notice the difference, and it would save a ton of time having to move the car around.

I can't imagine it wouldn't be cheaper... but yeah, cool idea at least .

[Harv]

As a marketing professional, this is pretty genius. Granted, half the beauty of it is that they were the first one to come up with this idea.

There is a fine line with this stuff though. When I was in business school, one of my professors brought in a little mini-frisbee with a logo on it and said a lawn care company went around his neighborhood and threw it in peoples yard. (With the assumption that people would give it to their dogs to play with.) Two problems being that no one had dogs in the neighborhood and you can't go around throwing stuff in peoples yard.

He actually called the company and said if they do it again he'll call the police. (He was a grumpy, spiteful older man.)

[sullie]

It's definitely creative but, I mean, I don't want to be "that" guy or anything but with google maps and photoshop you could kind of sort of do the same thing. Oh, me and InternetMeme wouldn't want crappy Porsche's parked in front of our castle's and F-40's!

[RzinDubs]

Cool idea. I wonder what was the percentage of people buying a vehicle? I'm also wondering how many test drives were booked, it says 32% of people responded to the Website. So they might have clicked on a landing page but might have been turned off by the messaging.

Cool campaign none the less.

[bubbagti]

A 32% response rate is absolutely incredible
I thinks its a great concept, but like was said earlier, the beauty of this concept is the fact it was an original idea.

Trying to duplicate this could become counter productive pretty easily

[KahviVW]

Interesting concept but it only works if they already knew the demographics of the target houses pretty well.

BA did something on a similar line in the UK that I thought was creative. Enter your postcode and you see a BA 777 drive down your street using google streetview imagery.

http://www.planeview.net/

[a4]

That's a great idea, props for the execellent marketing technique.

[AZGolf]

you can't go around throwing stuff in peoples yard.

Umm... probably 50 times a year I get flyers stuffed in my front door jamb, taped to the door, hung on the door handle, taped to the garage door, or put in a ziplock bag with a couple small rocks in it and thrown in my driveway. Semi-regularly one of the local newspapers delivers free newspapers by ... you guessed it, throwing a free paper in the yard/driveway. Unless you live in some sort of military complex I can't imagine the police doing anything but writing you up for filing a dumb police report.

[Harv]

Umm... probably 50 times a year I get flyers stuffed in my front door jamb, taped to the door, hung on the door handle, taped to the garage door, or put in a ziplock bag with a couple small rocks in it and thrown in my driveway. Semi-regularly one of the local newspapers delivers free newspapers by ... you guessed it, throwing a free paper in the yard/driveway. Unless you live in some sort of military complex I can't imagine the police doing anything but writing you up for filing a dumb police report.

Which is why they do it. They know it's not something the police will care about to do something.

But you can't mess with any kind of mail. Which is why they throw crap everywhere.

From another site:

Yes it is illegal I know from experience. Put fliers on mail boxes when I was in the plumbing business and just starting out. The next morning I awoke to someone knocking on the door it was the Postmaster and 2 policeman man was I sweating. Luckily for me the just gave me a warning (written) after explaining in detail the legalities and the penalties for such an offense.Don't take the chance it isn't worth it

[MightyDSM]

Clever

[HaterSlayer]

Wow, that's awesome

[dubfan]

Wouldn't work with every market segment & brand, but obviously it works with this market segment & Porsche.

[Chuckdee]

Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot each house, then photoshop the car in after?
I doubt many people would notice the difference, and it would save a ton of time having to move the car around.

Cool idea anyhow.

Technically photoshopping VS. ACTUALLY taking the pic and processing it is just easier in a sense. Trust me, I bet those guys were toying around with the photoshop idea before they went out to that neighborhood. Plus it doesn't take much to notice that it was just a generic photoshop of a 911 in front of what seems to be your house.

If I got an ad in the mail with an actual pic of a sexy car in front of my driveway, I would be more tempted to check out the car VS seeing an photoshopped version of it.

[Wanganrunner]

May as well just break into affluent homes, and plant a business card for Brinks Security.

"If we'd been here, this never could have happened"


Where does it end?

[Aonarch]

A dash of genius, with a generous helping of creepy.

Chris

Wow that had to be ALOT of work. Really cool.

[cryption]

Smart marketing

[SoCalDubber]

May as well just break into affluent homes, and plant a business card for Brinks Security.

"If we'd been here, this never could have happened"


Where does it end?

Your slope is particularly slippery.

[dcmix5]

May as well just break into affluent homes, and plant a business card for Brinks Security.

"If we'd been here, this never could have happened"


Where does it end?

Unless a Brinks security system wraps the home in impenetrable steel, it will do nothing to prevent a break in. It will tell someone it happened though.

I'm no marketing genius, however.

[Cousin Eddie]

Sometimes the simplest of approach is the most effective. Stroke of genius really.

And PFAFF is an awesome dealership.

[Chmeeee]

May as well just break into affluent homes, and plant a business card for Brinks Security.

"If we'd been here, this never could have happened"


Where does it end?

I think it ends at trespassing (which they didn't do), but that's just me.

[MeineFolks'wagen]

Nope it's done all the time by some little outfit called Google.

In seriousness, afaik there isn't a law that says you can't take a photo of someone's house. Appraisal companies do it all the time for real estate agents trying to sell comparables.

As long as the photograph is taken from a public street where they have a right to be, there is no legal issue with taking a photo.

Interesting car selling tactic though.....