Mont Blanc is a well-known international pen brand. Lately, the use of fountain pens has declined dramatically. We were briefed to increase the sales of these premium quality pens. We chose to reach our audience through a daily newspaper, with a strong business slant, widely read by the professional people of Cape Town.

Because we were essentially still running all the newspaper’s editorial, we were able to negotiate a far cheaper rate than a normal full-page ad.This was the first time a newspaper had allowed an advertiser to set their articles, and this fact alone generated a lot of publicity for Mont Blanc.

We arranged with the newspaper to allow us to hand write one of their pages. They provided us with all of the articles and we wrote them out by hand and set them in the style of newspaper editorial, demonstrating the ease and pleasure of writing with a Mont Blanc fountain pen.

The readers of the newspaper in which we placed our ad are generally wealthier, business-minded professional people - the exact audience we needed to reach. By presenting them with a page of editorial written out by hand, we were able to catch their attention and hold it for a lot longer than a regular ad.