an unconventional mix of socks & security
When a cloud security company came to Orion pitching the idea of a ‘Week of Socks’, we knew this was going to be a cracker of a campaign. Orion Creative were engaged to deliver a quirky direct mail campaign that would put the Sophos brand front and centre with key decision makers from leading businesses around Australia.
The Brief
Orion were tasked with producing and delivering a direct mail campaign targeting IT managers and decision makers from leading Australian enterprises by sending them a pair of fun, colourful socks every day for a week. This out of the box idea was used to promote the Sophos brand and key product deliverables in a way that would engage, entertain, inform and convert to sales.
our method of sock-sess
Orion Creative collaborated with Sophos to create a ‘Week of Socks’ direct mail campaign targeting IT managers from key businesses around Australia. Elements of the piece included: custom-designed outer sleeve, product and sales information insert, pair of novelty socks. All elements were customised for each day of the week.
Each recipient would be sent a pair of fun, quirky socks per day for five days. From a Nigerian prince’s request to ‘pls send monies’, to the infamously annoying Microsoft Office ‘paper clip’ popup from the 90s, the socks were designed to appeal to an IT guru’s sense of humour.
The packaging needed to be big enough to house the socks and an insert, but small enough to fit in a company mailbox. The card stock was thick enough to safely transport the socks, but light enough to reduce mail costs.
The team designed sock icons for the sleeve, indicating the day of the week and how many socks the lead could look forward to receiving. The emoji graphic was embossed to give the outer sleeve texture. A spot UV was then applied to the graphic to give it a sleek, shiny look.
The copywriting team developed custom-messaging for the inserts to make the connection between the socks and the main messaging. The tone conveyed a benefit of the security software in a fun, unconventional manner, with just a hint of “geek-chic” to appeal to target leads.
Sophos wanted to show how reliable their software was by demonstrating the reliability and punctuality of their campaign. Orion therefore handled print and packing of each direct mail piece component and liaised closely with AusPost to ensure prompt and accurate delivery of every piece customised for the working week.
