A Brochure Mailer That Broke Some Major Rules

I received a direct mail piece in the mail the other day. It was very expensive looking, about 6 inches square all folded up. Inside the ultra cool envelope there was a fold out brochure loaded with pictures of scenes of apartments in cities. The brochure had a wrap around it which said:

Pied-A-Terre, On Demand. Prestigious Locations. Dramatic Views. Attentive Service.
Fully Appointed Luxury Apartments when you need them.

Below is only one panel of 6 or so.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

No Offer - No Call-to-Action - I bust into the brochure looking to find copy, an offer, anything. I finally find some that I can barely read because it's in knock out white then type against a busy picture (see above).

Unreadable Type - All of the type is turned sideways (see above, if you can) so i have to turn my attention away from the pictures to read it.

Where's the Beef? - I say to myself there HAS to be a letter in this envelope talking about a virtual tour, a deal for our business for business travel, something. Wrong.

I understand the cool factor, but you can at least write a nice letter or another piece talking about the offer or call-to-action in "cool speak" with something for me to "do". Otherwise it's just some nice fuel for a blog post like this or a toss in the circular file.

Comments

[Maddison]

I hear you on this one. What a waste of creative style. Everybody knows a marketing piece is nothing but words and pictures if it doesn't make the potential customer take some kind of action after reading it.