For a long as I can remember my mother has been sending out hand written thank-you notes. So does my older sister. My wife and I mix it up with e-mails and phone calls, but I admit it’s not the same thing.

One of our sales coaches swears by the value of written notes. An international business executive who jets around North America in his own lear jet, he devotes at least a 1/2 hour each day to writing hand-written notes to his core clients. This is in addition to a multi-million dollar on and offline campaign to promote his business.

Yesterday I received a tax receipt, form letter, U+A survey, pre-paid return envelope AND a hand written note from Second Harvest Food Rescue. The note thanks me, tells me how many people my donation will help and encourages me to stay in touch. It’s a very nice touch.   

I know enough about NFP, and direct mail to tell you four things:

1.  Handwritten inserts can easily double DM response rates.

2.  2HFR would not be employing this media tactic if it wasn’t offing them a (statistically) significant lift in DM response rates.  

3.  DM when designed properly and employed by the right brand for the right reasons is still a very powerful advertising tool.

4.  Generalizing (think best practices) about DM or any other (on or offline) medium is pointless because the holistic context is fundamental to an insightful and effective media campaign. (Meaning it takes a pro to set it up and make it work properly.)

There’s another condo going up in my Toronto neighborhood.
While the renderings for this condo (on the hoarding + website) are gorgeous, the copy is written and client approved by idiots.

(Unlike other construction projects her in Toronto,) this development is “Naturally strong.” and “Infinitely beautiful”.
It’s called “HeartwoodTheBeach” - all one word. My guess this is a cleaver little (SEO optimized) wordplay.  

Bonus: residences are “Designed by nature.” and “Grown by the sun.”

In my 40 or so years in the advertising business, this takes the cake for stupid copy. If I had my way, pink slips would be handed out to the copywriter, graphic artist, art director, and the client for having the audacity to look at this stuff and conclude that they have done a piece of incredible work.

When I walk by this tree in the morning it’s easy for me to think of our ancestors who worshipped “pagan” religions and how they may have been inspired by a determined fruit tree like this. The tenacity of it’s fruit makes me want to bring some of it into my home on December 22nd, our longest night, and add it to the ritual celebration that invites the light to return to our cold, dark world.

But I won’t. Left on the tree all those who pass can admire the tree and be inspired by it, and the wild things that need food will have a bit more to get themselves through the lean times.

Like so many other holidays, today’s “Christmas” is a just another sales event that I don’t really want to take part in.

Here’s a brief history of how a peaceful pastoral setting like this apple tree became today's Christmas.

As Christians spread their religion into Europe in the first centuries A.D., they ran into people living by a variety of local and regional religious creeds. Early Christians wanted to convert “pagans”, but they were also fascinated by their traditions.

The Christmas tree is a 17th-century German invention.

The modern Santa Claus is a descendent of England's Father Christmas, who was not originally a gift-giver.

Father Christmas and other European variations are versions of old pagan ideas about spirits who travel the sky in midwinter.

The dark days of winter, and the solstice, were lightened with feasts and decorations that invited the light to return.

With no Biblical directive to do so and no mention in the Gospels of the correct date, it wasn't until the fourth century that church leaders in Rome embraced the holiday. To show that Jesus was a real human being, not just another “spirit” like other religions worshipped, a celebration of his birth was invented.

Pagan midwinter festivals, and the lengthening days after the winter solstice in mid December were already widely celebrated and the date had a good fit for the new Christian festival celebrating “the birth of Christ”.

While the Catholic Church gradually came to embrace Christmas, reformist-minded Protestants considering it little better than paganism. In England under Oliver Cromwell, Christmas and other saints' days were banned, and in New England it was illegal to celebrate Christmas for about 25 years in the 1600s.

People used to share presents on New Year's Day; blessing people to make them feel good as the year came to an end. It wasn't until the Victorian era of the 1800s that gift giving shifted to Christmas.

Before online media became the simplistic solution for anyone who wanted to advertise anything, there were media buyers, planners and directors (like me) that spent days and weeks analyzing printed data reports and using manual calculators and early computer models to build and compare the average reach / frequency as well as the effective reach and frequency distribution for various media plan scenarios with-in budget.

With progressive clients we would run different campaigns in different markets to help our clients determine if the media mix, media weight levels, flight lengths, the creative message - or call to action, competitive brands, or the marketplace in general were the most important variables that we all needed to focus on in order to move the brand.

A faster, cheaper return. Not a better long term return.

Google has done a wonderful job of convincing people that A|B tests can be do online.

:: Adword versus display ads.

:: Demo vs. content adjacency.

::  Channel A vs. B.

Yes it’s a test, but you’re still playing in the same pool. So no, it's not a very good test.

This morning when I was driving cross town here in Toronto I saw a pair of airplanes towing sky-banners. It’s the 1st time that I’ve see them used in tandem (and offering two ad impressions instead of one). It’s also been a long time since I’ve seen them used.

And look who’s using them to expand their audience reach and frequency (as we roll into Christmas).

If an online retailer like Amazon goes offline to expand their message reach and frerquency, what does that suggest you should consider doing to expand you online or brick + mortar operation?