It is hard to keep up with technology at the best of times, before I get home in the evening I can turn the heating on before I leave the office, warm my car up before getting in, order my dinner to be delivered. Then once I get home I can unlock my front door using my phone, turn the lights on and sit down while still controlling the TV.
One thing I have to do manually when I get home, is to check if anything has been delivered in my home post box. Most of the time it is general junk mail, but the other day I had a welcomed surprise. When I opened up my post box, in between the general rubbish, there was something that gave me that wave of excitement, that same feeling you got as a child when you got an unexpected surprise present in the post.
I immediately discarded all the other post and caressed the brightly coloured textured envelope, it was like holding my very own Wonka bar wondering what was I going to find inside. Excitingly tearing it open and discarding the envelope on the floor, it revealed a beautifully designed, personalised brochure just for me, with my name throughout telling me and showing me all the latest products from one of my favourite bike brands. All the pages and content captured me, every turn of the page made time stand still.
After a few minutes had passed, and my dinner had got cold, I started to think about the feeling and experience I had just had from opening something that had been printed and posted to me. Had I ever had that same feeling or connection from something sent digitally to me. No, was the simple answer, I couldn’t think of one digital experience that gave me that same rush of excitement from start to end.
Technology might be advancing and so with it the digital age of marketing, but some things just can’t be digitised, they will never work or give the user experience we want it to, no matter how creative or complex the technology behind it.
This got me thinking of my own company marketing, and how as a business we could recreate that childhood feeling of excitement and wonder. Personally, you can unsubscribe me from the feelingless, numb world of digital marketing. It might be old school, but give me that spark of excitement you get from a personalised tactile piece of printed marketing sent to me in the post, anytime.
