IVE is well known for its printing capabilities – which is where IVE’s story began 101 years ago. But what happens beyond print? In the 5th instalment of our 101 series, we catch up with Brendon Coghlan, Head of Sales for IVE’s Distribution offering, to find out how IVE supports its clients in getting print collateral efficiently and effectively infront of 17m Australians across the country every week.
Give us the 101, what does Distribution do?
“Ultimately, we help our clients connect with their customers – through the letterbox. Whether it’s a catalogue, local area marketing flyer, brochure, product sample, we make sure the right material gets into the right audiences’ hands.”
How do you do it?
“As Australia’s largest distribution network (with more than 9000 distributors), we deliver catalogues (and a range of marketing collateral) to households in every state and territory across the country. It’s important to note though, that every campaign we work on is underpinned by data and targeting insights. We take a strategic approach to understanding a client’s objectives and offer tailored solutions every time. It could be a local area marketing campaign focused on driving awareness of a new store / event in a particular area … or it could be a large-scale national campaign relevant to a range of different audiences.
We always start with the objective and then utilise our data to enable clients to target the right audiences. We can build lookalike audiences or identify particular demographics that resonate with the brand or product being promoted. We have access to a range of up-to-date data including Census, ABS household expenditure, Marketfind and Geotribe. This in turn allows us to build highly targeted campaigns. It also results in less wastage, but ultimately more cut through. Consumers have increasingly higher expectations that marketing collateral delivered to them should be relevant, targeted and of interest. It’s our responsibility to ensure that it is.
Once we know who we need to reach, our Distributors receive a contract via the IVEhub app. Through the app, our Distributors accept, log and complete their assigned walk which allows us to ensure compliance whilst providing detailed reporting on the effectiveness of the campaign. It’s imperative to close the loop and be able to show our clients how impactful a letterbox campaign can be – when executed strategically.
And being part of IVE means we can produce all the marketing collateral in house too – making it a very streamlined process for our clients.”
“We have customers that engage us for weekly campaigns and customers who have seasonal or annual campaigns. Anything goes. Our clients range from global brands and national retailers to local businesses and all those in between. The beauty of our network is that we can scale up or down, depending on the needs of our client. The common factor that unites all our clients is the need to communicate efficiently and effectively to their audience – reaching them before they come into the brand’s space – whatever that is. One-off campaigns can be really effective, depending on the objective but we ultimately maintain that regular engagement with the channel is where the best results will be seen – particularly in the catalogue space.”
Who is a typical client?
“We have customers that engage us for weekly campaigns and customers who have seasonal or annual campaigns. Anything goes. Our clients range from global brands and national retailers to local businesses and all those in between. The beauty of our network is that we can scale up or down, depending on the needs of our client. The common factor that unites all our clients is the need to communicate efficiently and effectively to their audience – reaching them before they come into the brand’s space – whatever that is. One-off campaigns can be really effective, depending on the objective but we ultimately maintain that regular engagement with the channel is where the best results will be seen – particularly in the catalogue space.”
What does a typical project look like?
“Each campaign differs depending on what the client is wanting to achieve. Letterbox campaigns can support a range of objectives – from sales activation to new customer acquisition through to brand building. It’s an incredibly versatile channel.
A letterbox campaign will, more often than not, work as part of a wider integrated marketing campaign across other channels. We deliver (and can produce) a range of marketing collateral like flyers, catalogues, product samples and more. In a digital world, it now feels unique to be able to get tactile, multi-sensory collateral into the hands of your target customer, in their own homes. The use of the channel is only limited by the creativity of the execution – which of course IVE can also help with!”
What’s the most common misconception about Distribution?
“There are a number of misconceptions about the channel – but we meet it head on with statistics that consistently back up that it works. Some misconceptions include:
- No one reads junk mail anymore…but we know 80%* of mail is taken into the household.
- Print is harmful to the environment. Sustainability is a key focus for many businesses today. As a market leader, IVE recognizes its responsibility in this space. Paper, and therefore catalogues are recyclable and sustainably sourced whilst being produced under strict guidelines to ensure the impact to the environment is minimized.
- Print is dead – It just isn’t true. We have many customers sharing examples of tremendous response rates to their catalogue programs – some with an ROI of 11 times over!
- Traditional media is not effective in today’s digital world. We’re actually seeing an increase in readership, especially in younger demographics. Perhaps as a reaction to the busy digital space.”
What are some challenges your industry is currently facing?
“Increasing costs across energy, freight and consumables are putting pressure on businesses across the board.
Low unemployment and the gig economy have also made it harder to recruit into the Distributor network – although we’re expecting this to actually come full circle as households look towards ways of making extra income to combat increasing living costs.”
What’s most exciting about working in Distribution right now?
“There couldn’t be a better time to be working in the letterbox channel. We’re focused on growth and we’re seeing many customers return to the channel because they know it works. That’s a good feeling! It’s an efficient way to reach a highly targeted audience and get cut-through. This puts us in a strong position as clients look to get more for their marketing spend.
None of this could be achieved without our talented people, who share a genuine passion and an unrivalled understanding of the channel. Seeing our team help our clients achieve the best results really is amazing.”
*The Real Media Collective, Industry Insights report, 2022
To find out more about how print can support your business and the world of Distribution, get in touch with our dedicated team.
