This campaign was developed more as a quasi brand campaign than a direct marketing campaign. The objective was simply to highlight to executives that they were part of the rat race and that there was a world out there where they could take a break from it all.

The postcards intentionally didn’t come with a response mechanism (a phone number or email address or even a call to action) because we felt that the moment we did that, the idea lost its charm and became just another direct mailer selling them something.What we were selling, in this case, wasn’t airline tickets but a philosophy.

The postcards merely reminded them of their busy lifestyle and asked them in a very informal way to take a break from it. Whether they did this immediately or booked their tickets six months later, the success of this campaign didn’t depend on the actual booking of tickets.And in that regard, the campaign has been a success. Lots of executives have written back saying they were touched by the postcards and it did make them relook at their lives and make sure to take time out to smell the flowers, so to speak.

Our client, Silkair also came across as a concerned company, not one that solely wants to make more profits by getting people to book more flights.How does one assess the response of a campaign like this then? Surely not by the statistics usually used to judge direct marketing campaigns.