Salem

Part of a bigger rebrand, and the job was to break through mailbox clutter. A list of 13,000 adult smokers got a small, real-looking Chinese takeout box with two fortune cookies and a coupon inside. Other pieces included a box of green tea with two packs of Salem, and a mailer built to look like a refrigerator (“Get Inside. 2° of Chill”), magnets included.

The mailers hit a 35% recall rate, 74% unaided, and recipients’ opinion of the brand improved 56%. That kind of recall is rare for direct mail. It happens when people actually want to open the thing before they’ve seen the message.