Sending Feathers, Making Friends

In its “Say it with feathers!” campaign, Sesame Workshop turns up the volume on a classic tribute-gift offer with the addition of an inexpensive, tangible symbol of its mission fulfilled on the back end. What’s not to love about that!?

A brief but effective letter explains how to celebrate and honor friends, family, co-workers, clients, teachers and others by using the reply, going online or calling a New York City phone number, with a deadline for holiday fulfillment. (I’d have offered a toll-free number, but three different ways to “Say it with feathers” is excellent.)

Then the postscript turns it around to make it about me, too. “And if you’d like a feather for yourself, just let us know. After all, you deserve a feather in your cap, too.”

Given what Sesame Workshop does for kids in the areas of laughter, learning, respect, understanding, and helping them to be resilient and flexible in a rapidly changing world … I think I just made a dent in my Christmas shopping!

Finding your own ‘feathers’
What makes both of these offers so compelling, in part, is the clear connection between the premium and its relevance to the organization’s mission and to the donor. The eagle-feather lapel pin and Big Bird’s feathers have substance and gravitas that put them in a league apart from the everyday address labels and note cards realm.

So the question is, how do we make the offer more irresistible without pushing package costs into the stratosphere? Or, how can we make the offer more meaningful, tangible and harder to discard?

They’re tough questions for mailers of all types, but the most successful fundraisers never stop asking them, taking calculated risks to test into winning answers. FS

Kimberly Seville is a creative strategist and freelance copywriter. Reach her at kimberlyseville@yahoo.com