But first for background: In late November, 2001, giant postcards were new, quickly becoming the latest direct marketing rage. Door hangers, it was thought then, were a cheap staple, commonly used only on a local basis, by the neighborhood pizzeria or corner dry cleaner, never by sophisticated national marketers.  

Sitting in his office one day, Bill Borneman, PowerDirect's founder, was on the phone.   In front of him on the desk was a door hanger grabbed off his front door earlier:   small, on thin paper, poorly printed. Next to it was a postcard, a sample he planned to show a prospective client of his fledgling direct response company. It was large, as big as the Post Office would allow. Colorful and bold. High quality printing on heavy stock.   A scratch-off feature provided incentive to respond. Impressive. And expensive. The U.S. postal service had just announced a rate increase - with more to come.  

He hung up the phone looking at the postcard. How to get that impact at lower cost?

Reaching to throw away the door hanger, he....wait a minute. Ah-ha!!  

Wanting feedback, Borneman presented his concept, a super- jumbo door hanger with an added scratch-off feature, to a trusted client in Dallas, a major big-box retailer.  

Their response was hard and fast, and provided the foundation on which PowerDirect was built. Here's the scoop, they said:

First, there's a negative perception of door hangers out there. They bring to mind cheap and junky pizza flyers. Not good.

Second, distributing door hangers nationally requires contacting multiple local systems across the country, reliable in some markets, questionable in others. And there's no accountability, they said, no way to know if the door hangers actually get where they're supposed to go. What you have here, they said, would be a logistical nightmare.

Next. There's no system for profiling or predictive modeling of a target demo. Their opinion? Targeted marketing is in. Door hangers which are typically distributed by zipcode, reach too broad a demographic.  

Try something else, they advised.

He didn't. Instead, he used their feedback as criteria for a new swing at direct response. His objective was to reinvent door hanger advertising.

And from their three comments, came a three-pronged strategy that's still in place five years later:   

1) Develop a high quality super-jumbo door hanger:   The decision about size came first.   It was to be 17" x 5.5", 5-color printing on high-gloss cover stock. Clearly visible from the street.   Heavy enough to stay put. So it would work like a billboard. With good copy, consumers could read the offer in seconds, on their way up the sidewalk. And with a scratch-off, maybe a magnet or a gift card to spark interest, response rates would take off. It was different.   It might work.

2) Build a reliable national distribution system: On this point, progress was not automatic, despite months of wearing work. To start, PowerDirect brokered distribution through a national trade association.   This approach, common in the industry at the time, is still used today by PowerDirect competitors. But, as Borneman's client had warned, it worked in some markets, not in others. The extremes were painful.

But there were three potential fixes: replace distant suppliers with a PowerDirect staff of distribution supervisors and auditors whose commitment to the company would fuel our success. Next, track all jobs using the latest GPS technology, overseeing that tracking on a real-time basis with in-house support staff. And finally, offer an independent telephone audit to confirm delivery. We went for all three.

And it took about three years to get the basics right.   In that time, on-site distribution staff grew from one manager and an assistant to a national team of supervisors and auditors assigned regionally to oversee PowerDirect jobs across the country.   At home, additional staff watched over each job via computer and cellphone.   Problems previously undetected could be solved in minutes.  

Today, PowerDirect is the only national door hanger advertising company using staff employees to manage on-site distribution. We're the only ones using GPS and auditing effectively. We're not perfect...but that's our target.   Our systems and our people are on a roll, learning every day, improving every day, and offering the best national door hanger distribution available.    

3) Develop sophisticated analytical tools: Profiling and mapping came first. Verification came first too.   Not enough to target the right consumer...we had to confirm delivery.   We hired the best data specialists.   We bought the best software. We took up yoga.

Data started strong, and has grown stronger. While others talk about what's ahead for complex consumer targeting, we're there:  

• Profiling and mapping systems merge public, census bureau and geographic data with thousands of demographic variables via computationally sophisticated private software.

• Pre-campaign predictive models are developed from an existing client database, or from a clean baseline using new demographic and geographic consumer segmentation.

• Post-campaign tracking systems analyze response data to develop predictive response models for future application.

• Usage/trial, intent to purchase, brand awareness and recall studies are optional.

• Independent field and/or telephone audits by Verified Auditing Company (VAC) are also optional.

We're in our fifth year.   We're growing so fast, every day is new.   We think we're growing so fast because we're good at what we do.   And there's so much room to go. We want our door hangers always fresh with new ideas, continually unique, above the rest. We want our distribution system to run like clock-work, all the time.   We want to figure out how to more accurately measure response and conversion.   Today, many of our clients don't measure results carefully, or if do, they don't tell us the details.   "Sales spiked, so it must have worked," they say.   We want more info than that.   We want to prove, statistically, how good we are, and the impact PowerDirect has on our clients' ROI.   We're working on that now.   Stay tuned.

CONTACT INFORMATION
PowerDirect
4700 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA   92660
www.powerdirect.net
800-517-9227 

MEDIA CONTACT:
Sue Sampson
859-581-2419
ssampson@powerdirect.net