The Xerox Work Centre Pro is a digital printer which needed to be launched across eight European markets. We needed to find an idea that was meaningful to all markets and able to cut through the language and culture differences. Our target was 60,834 IT managers in small to medium-sized companies. We knew they had old, out‑of‑date analogue copiers. We knew, therefore, that their copiers were near the end of their life and could be frustrating to use. This was the starting point for our creative. We focused upon the problem they’d been having – standing around looking after their copier when they could be doing better things.

And we dramatised this by taking a Polaroid of the worn-out carpet in front of an old printer. We sent this Polaroid to our low-end prospects. For the high-end prospects we actually sent out the carpet tile! Having dramatised the problem, the letter then explained the solution: the Xerox Work Centre Pro.

These mailings generated a 12 per cent response rate. The mailings cost $436,000 to produce. Yet they generated $4,633,332 in sales. That’s a return on investment of almost 11:1. The cost per lead was $60 for a machine that costs $4,400. It also won a Gold at the DMA Awards.

Question

Making business direct mail work is extremely difficult. Executives receive so much that getting a response is ever harder. Give five reasons why the Xerox Work Centre Pro copier mailer worked so well.