Bulk Catnip DM
Bulk Cat Litter Warehouse
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
Rethink
Creative Team
Creative Director Chris Staples Ian Grais Art Director Leia Rogers Copywriter Bob Simpson Designer Lisa Nakamura
Production Team
Content Strategist Leah Gregg Editor Chris Neilson
Other Credits
Account Manager Marie Lunny
Date
Dec 2013 – Jan 2014
Background
Bulk Cat Kitty Litter Warehouse needed a direct mail flyer. Unfortunately, most direct mail never even gets looked at. So to increase the odds for a mailer for Bulk Cat Litter Warehouse, Rethink did something that would get people's cats attention first.
Idea
Owners were targeted through their cats, by printing a mailing on paper that had been prepared with catnip. When the cats responded to the mailing, so did their owners.
Results
The flyers were by far the most effective direct marketing done by Bulk Cat Litter Warehouse. There was a spike in both customer counts and sales, with many people mentioning that they came in specifically because of the flyers. In addition, the "making of" video was viewed over 370,000 times on YouTube and featured on numerous blogs and websites like Gizmodo, Mashable, PSFK, Laughing Squid and Jezebel. More than 3,660,540 online impressions were generated, including 2,269 tweets and 4,509 Facebook shares.
Our Thoughts
Mail is the only advertising medium that appeals to all five senses – including smell. One director of Royal Mail in the UK made sure his business cards all smelled of strawberry so he could make the point whenever he met potential customers. This idea, though, has an added element of genius in that human beings in every home mailed were the secondary target audience. Their cats were the primary audience.
Because it’s such a funny idea, it’s gone viral. The original mailing went to 500 people but the story has been taken up by many websites and the video has now reached 370,000 views. The client must be purring.