Title	BURGLARY WARNING MAILSHOT FOR SWISS INSURANCE COMPANY
Brand	HELVETIA VERSICHERUNGEN
Product/Service	INSURANCE
Category	B01. Flat Mailing
Entrant	AGENTUR AM FLUGHAFEN Altenrhein, SWITZERLAND
Idea Creation	AGENTUR AM FLUGHAFEN Altenrhein, SWITZERLAND

Name	Company	Position
René Eugster	Agentur am Flughafen AG	Creative Director
Dominique Rutishauser	Agentur am Flughafen AG	Art Director
Valeria Hoerler	Agentur am Flughafen AG	Graphic Artist
Miriam Egli	Agentur am Flughafen AG	Consultant
Patrick Lindner	Agentur am Flughafen AG	Copy Writer

The Campaign

The mailing was sent out in a standard window envelope. However, the envelope window had been “smashed”. This made it clear that the mailing was about the issue of break-ins as soon as the recipients saw the envelope. Upon opening the envelope, the recipient found a letter covered in “glass” fragments. The letter called on the recipient to obtain advice from Helvetia Insurance on preventing break-ins.

Creative Execution

Envelopes with windows were produced for the mailing letter. The window of each envelope was then “smashed” so that fragments fell inside it, and pieces of “glass” fell out when the letter was opened by the recipient. One week after the mailing was sent out, the insurance adviser, who acted as the sender of the mailing, contacted the recipient by phone and attempted to arrange a consultation appointment. A total of 2,500 mailings were sent out. In the market area of those insurance agencies which made use of the mailing campaign, there are around 80,000 SMEs. (Definition of an SME in Switzerland: between 1 and 249 employees)

Results

The break-in mailing was extremely successful. During the telephone follow-ups, the recipients remembered the mailing and the insurance advisers were able to arrange a consultation appointment with 60% of those who had been written to. Helvetia was able to sell an insurance policy to 30% of those who made an appointment.

This is a classic direct mailing made up exclusively of traditional contents that remain extremely effective: an envelope, letter, and reply form. The follow-up was conducted by phone.

The direct mailing was designed to act as a door-opener and to simplify the telephone-based follow-up by the insurance adviser. The adviser could use the mailing topic as a discussion starter with the aim of getting an appointment with the company that had been written to.