Over a year ago, when the Betts Auto Campus became the Willis Auto Campus, the transition campaign we developed featured the tagline The Tradition Continues. Willis has many traditions but few have the reputation of their annual premiere party in October. This event gives new meaning to customer appreciation. Coinciding with the fall release of several new models, the event not only showcases product. Through entertainment, food, and drink, customers are given personal reminders of why they have such affinity for the Willis brand. Typically, Westergaard produced a fairly straightforward event invitation. This year, the client wanted to kick it up a notch. The challenge? Keep the project within comparable costing to last year’s invitation/envelope mailer.

Using a combination of design savvy and print/postal coordination, our team developed a four-color, folded self-mailer. Rather than cluttering the exterior with excessive images and text, the outer look was made to resemble previous envelope creatives to ensure consistent response. It also included the teaser copy. Go ahead … take a peek inside.

As one opens and folds out the mailer, they are treated to photographs of the lush vehicle interiors. All of this is tied together with copy that beckons the customer to explore each automobile’s striking detail — technological innovations, civilized comforts, and pleasant surprises.

The pleasant surprise from the marketer’s point of view? This bold direct mail package met both objectives. Not only did it offer a more vehicle-centric design, but the costs were comparable to previous years. To ensure message consistency, we also built out an email version of the invitation as well.

You can view the complete email creative here. This entire invitation package works as a striking opening salvo to a truly premiere event.