DHL began an advertising and marketing campaign last week to emphasize its newfound strength in the United States as well as its global network and its products and services.
The effort will cost about $150 million during the next six months. It targets mainly small businesses, with direct mail pieces that drop in July.
Though DHL executed a direct marketing campaign last year, “our overall circulation for direct marketing will increase tenfold [with this campaign],” said Linda Mignone, director of marketing for direct marketing and brand promotion at DHL, Plantation, FL. “We are doing acquisition programs, lead-generation programs … and cross-sell programs.”
The effort, developed by WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather New York, promotes DHL's aim to infuse new competition and choice into the express delivery market.
The front of the self-mailer includes a photograph of a DHL employee carrying a box out of a bookstore. Emblazoned on the box is the statement, “Wish You Had More Choice in Domestic Delivery?” Inside the mailer, recipients will see a DHL truck with “Your Shipper Has Come In” emblazoned on it.
The mail piece also contains messaging about DHL's domestic shipping services, claiming “There's a new choice in domestic shipping.” It also includes information about an offer for a 50 percent discount up to $25 on DHL's domestic shipping services, if the order is placed before Aug. 7.
Part of the direct mail campaign also promotes DHL's international services.
Other media elements DHL is using include broadcast, print, interactive and outdoor advertising, plus sponsorships and public relations.
In a broadcast spot that began airing nationally on the evening of June 14, drivers for rival express delivery companies watch, stunned, as a freight train rolls by carrying dozens of new trucks bearing the new, red DHL logo over a bright yellow background, signaling DHL's increased presence in the U.S. market.
The tagline is “Competition. Bad for them. Great for you.”
The ads will run on primetime network and cable TV as well as early morning and late night talk shows.
“The direct marketing component of the campaign is linked to the messaging that we are putting forth in the above-the-line communications, that there is a new choice in domestic shipping and that competition is a good thing,” Mignone said.
DHL acquired Airborne in 2003 and has integrated its U.S. network to expand domestic services and bundle customized solutions for businesses. DHL said the added resources will offer customers a comprehensive range of shipping and logistics services from a single source.
DHL's new logo will appear on all its buildings, vehicles, packaging units and drop boxes in North America in the coming months as part of an initiative by parent company Deutsche Post World Net to align its properties worldwide under the DHL brand.
