The Holy Grail of Direct Mail The Most Successful Advertisement in the History of the World!

By Denny Hatch dennyhatch@yahoo.comhttp://www.dennyhatch.blogspot.com/ On the Mount Olympus of direct marketing, two figures stand at the summit looking down at everyone else that followed: * Regnault de Mouçon, Bishop of Chartres, France. * Martin Conroy of Madison, Connecticut and Captiva, Florida. On the night of June 10, 1197, fire raged through Chartres, destroying many of the buildings and severely damaging the cathedral. At first, it was believed that the city’s precious relic—the Sancta Camisia, the robe that Mary wore when giving birth to Jesus—was lost in the flames. Bishop Regnault de Mouçon wanted to rebuild, but without their relic, the citizens of Chartres gave in to despair. Two days later, Cardinal Melior of Pisa—who happened to be staying in Chartres—was exhorting the dispirited townspeople to rebuild when suddenly a procession of priests and nuns emerged from the smoking crypt, bearing the reliquary containing the sacred robe intact. The cardinal immediately saw it as a direct sign from the Mother of God to build an even more magnificent church. Bishop Regnault de Mouçon sprang into action and wrote letters to all of the noble families of Europe. Even though France was at war with England, he received permission from Richard the Lion-Hearted to raise money in England. Regnault de Mouçon pioneered the first direct mail campaign in history. The result was the creation of an architectural and artistic masterpiece that has awed pilgrims and worshippers for 800 years.

“Of all the formats used in direct mail,” wrote the late guru Dick Hodgson, “none has more power to generate action than the letter.” No one used the humble letter with more prodigious effect than Bishop Regnault de Mouçon. And Martin Conroy. The Greatest Advertisement in HistoryI started collecting direct mail in earnest in about 1982—noting, cataloging and filing it in what became more than 200 categories in 40 file drawers. From the beginning, I started noticing a simple letter from The Wall Street Journalthat kept coming in month after month with the regularity of the moon. In a small No. 7 envelope, this simple mailing contained a two-page letter printed front and back, an order slip and a BRE. It was written and first mailed in 1974. The lede of the letter: Dear Reader: On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future. Recently, these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion. They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president… Late in 1991, I called The Wall Street Journal’scirculation manager, Paul Bell, and ran some numbers by him. HATCH:Would you say that the average mail order circulation of the The Wall Street Journalover the past 18 years was about one million? BELL:[Pause.] Yes, that’s about right. HATCH:Am I right in assuming that the average subscription rate of The Wall Street Journalover the past 18 years has been about $100 a year? BELL:[Pause.] Yes, that’s about right. HATCH:Is it safe to assume that 55 percent of all your mail order subscribers over the past 18 years have come in as a result of Martin Conroy’s “Two Young Men …” letter? BELL:We have a lot of other sources—telemarketing, subscriptions as a result of newsstand sales, supermarket take-ones, inserts. But, yes, I think 55 percent is a fair estimate. HATCH:Paul, one million subscribers per year times $100 equals $100 million times 18 years is $1.8 billion times 55 percent equals $1 billion. If these numbers are correct, the Martin Conroy letter is directly responsible for bringing in $1 billion in revenues to The Wall Street Journal, and is, therefore THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SINGLE PIECE OF ADVERTISING IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! BELL:[Long silence. Then in a small voice.] Uh, please don’t tell Marty Conroy. He’ll raise his prices. Raise his prices? It was everybody’s best guess that Conroy, who was a vice president of BBD&O, wrote this as a moonlighter and was

paid a paltry $600, which, as Mrs. Conroy reportedly said, was a lot of money to them at the time. The letter finally ceased being profitable in 2003, after a run of nearly 30 years. It was replaced by another format. Direct mail guru Axel Andersson, whose archive of direct mail matched my own in size and scope, analyzed the “Two young men …” letter and came up with this astonishing statistic: The letter runs 780 words, which divided into $1 billion means that over its lifetime, it earned $1.28 million per word. In Andersson’s opinion, no other work of literature or advertising ever earned that much money, with the possible exception of the Bible, which has been around for 2,600 years. I met Martin Conroy once—an avuncular modest man with a twinkle in his eye. When Don Jackson and I were signed to write “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success,” I wrote 750 colleagues around the world and asked if they would share with readers their secrets of success. Martin Conroy kindly took the time to respond: If you’re trying to find out what makes people tick, you might take a look at the Seven Deadly Sins from the old Baltimore Catechism. Remember them? Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Of course, the deadly sins are all bad and all extreme and all no-nos. But there’s an unsinful, unextreme side to every one of them where you can see how good and honest people act and react. On the sunny side of sinful pride, for example, nice people still take normal, unsinful satisfaction in what they are and what they have. Short of deadly covetousness, people have an understandable desire to possess some of the good things in life. Instead of sinful lust, there’s good old love that makes the world go ‘round. Without raging in anger, good people can still feel a reasonable annoyance

with bad people and bad things. Without getting into gross gluttony, normal men and women can have a normal appetite for good food and drink. Short of envy, there’s a very human yen to do as well as the next guy. And as for sloth, who isn’t happy to learn an easier way to do things. The Seven Deadly Sins. If you want to know what makes people act like people, they’re worth a look. Martin Conroy died on Dec. 19, 2006 in Connecticut at the age of 84. Whether or not any truth exists in the prediction that traditional mail is dead and that all communications of the future will be electronic, I do not believe anyone will match the success of Regnault de Mouçon or Martin Conroy. The fundraising letters of the Bishop of Chartres have most likely been lost. On the next page is Martin Conroy’s “Two young men …” effort: Denny Hatch 200 West Washington Square Philadelphia, PA 19106 215-644-9526 (rings on my desk) dennyhatch@yahoo.com Click here for the current issue of Denny Hatch's Marketing Blog