Even today, if you ask someone what direct advertising looks like you’re likely to conjure up images of a form letter from a credit card company. And that’s because – despite years of talk about integrating DM campaigns and a renewed focus on branding – many of the pieces that go out still do look like form letters.

But there are signs that the action is catching up with the talk as many of Canada’s top DM agencies are beginning to turn out more pieces that are not only seamlessly integrated with a larger campaign, but effectively use images and pithy tags to reach consumers on an emotional level – as well as dangling that special offer, coupon or contest.

Juhani Eistrat says his agency’s recent decision to change its name from VBDI to Arnold Brand Response was partly intended to reflect DM’s new focus on branding (as well as obviously highlighting the link to Arnold Worldwide).

He says he’s been closely monitoring the trend towards truly integrated DM stemming from larger brand ideas in the U.K. for some time, but it’s only now beginning to take root in Canada in a real sense.

‘Direct marketing is moving more to incorporate components of brand elements in order to facilitate that emotional connection with the brand,’ Eistrat says. ‘In the traditional direct environment it’s all about the data and the offer and getting someone to react immediately, based on it being a great deal. But more and more what we’re seeing is that in itself is not enough to create an ongoing profitable relationship with a customer.’

Guy Stevenson, managing director at Toronto-based OgilvyOne, says a coming campaign for client American Express typifies this new approach. The trick is to not make the mistake of simply copying over whatever you see in the TV spots to every DM piece.

‘So while the tonality of the direct mail remains the same, it’s done in a much more one-to-one, intimate communication,’ he says. ‘So the out-of-home looks more like a personal invitation or a personal correspondence to that individual.’

Meanwhile, over at Toronto’s Lowe RMP, recent work for The Sony Store reflects the larger appeal to technophile males seen in the retailer’s TV work, while TBWAToronto’s Nissan work uses bold graphics and themes established in other media to go for the emotional kill.

For example, an invitation to come out for a preview of Nissan’s new Infiniti FX 45 is done up in a striking, black six-piece foldout emblazoned with words like ‘exhilarating,’ ‘require’ and ‘passion.’ An insert of magnetic poetry (suitable for refrigerator decoration) is included. Large, full-colour photos adorn the front and inside of the piece. The campaign’s theme, ‘Need an SUV, want a sports car,’ is carried through seamlessly to the DM, exactly as it has appeared in newspaper and other media.

‘That’s because the process for both [DM and agency creative] happens at the same time,’ says Sharon Smyl, brand manager for TBWAToronto. ‘Everything happens in tandem with the development of the brand campaign. So that just makes sure that all of the elements work together. And the DM piece is very similar to that of the brand campaign because one is supposed to help the other.’

Over at Padulo Integrated, Rick Padulo, chairman and CEO, says integration has been the watchword since the company’s inception in 1985. ‘We were the first of the advertising and communication companies to have the ‘integrated’ name because it’s inbred in our culture, philosophically, that everything we do is integrated,’ he says.

‘I find it a little bit humorous now that maybe that’s the flavour of the day, like the CEO du jour.’

Padulo is quick to add that integration is more that just talk or operational level integration, the latter of which many agencies already do. ‘We believe direct marketing is just another medium – a very important one, mind you – but it has to be integrated with the overall communications campaign. If you don’t do that kind of stuff, you’re in deep shit.’

To that end Padulo operates what it calls ‘Padulo You.’ In this ‘university’ each piece of communication must satisfy four criteria: position the client, provide a clarity of offer, evoke an emotion and ‘be excellent’ such that it can get through internal review boards. Some of Padulo Integrated’s clients include the Bay, Home Outfitters and the Ontario government.

At Vancouver’s Go Direct Marketing – which does DM work for parent J. Walter Thomson along with work for five other agencies – SVP and GM Marcel Labbe confirms that there is a new focus on integration and branding in the DM field, and much of that is being driven by the clients.

‘We’re seeing clients North America-wide wanting or demanding that the creative or the brand be extended throughout the program,’ he says. ‘So our job in direct is to ensure that there is brand consistency, that direct marketing does reinforce and build brand in its pieces. So it’s absolutely imperative that our direct is in brand with the mass agencies.’

Noting that the trend has ‘accelerated’ over the last six years, Labbe says about 90% of his clients are now requesting an integrated approach. ‘Even the smallest clients are understanding the value in an integrated effort.’

He points to Telus as an example of this approach. ‘There are strong guidelines for the brand and that brand consistency is in everything that they do, right down to the e-mail in the direct marketing, the outdoor, print and the TV. Our fonts, the graphic standards – everything is designed with that in mind.’

However, things don’t change overnight. A number of agency marketers say there remain clients whose DM efforts still fly solo, and that there are differences between direct and other forms of advertising that still need to be respected. In other words, depending on where the brand stands with the consumer – a pre-existing emotional tie, for example – the DM has to be more or less focused on the selling message.

‘It really depends on the job to be done,’ says Alain Gignac, VP and GM at Montreal-based Blitz, a Cossette agency.

Gignac says brand integration has been a reality at Blitz for ‘as long as [he] can remember’ but also discusses it in terms of the efficiency and cost benefits to be had by merging operations. For example, when a campaign’s core messaging is developed, the TV advertising is developed directly in tandem with the direct response team.

‘Half the time both CDs are on the same set to at least shoot some alternatives that will fit the direct response TV spot and the advertising spot,’ he explains. ‘It’s very efficient on both productivity and economic issues.’

Michael McGovern, EVP and CD at Toronto’s Proximity Canada (formerly BBDO Response) says integration is ‘the smartest way to service your clients.’ However, ‘the upstairs general agency people do not necessarily approve what we do. The attitude is, as a courtesy we go up and we say, ‘Hey, are we OK on brand here?’ and they say, ‘Yeah,’ or they say, ‘No, you have to tweak this here or tweak that there in order to get it back on brand,’ and we go, ‘thank-you very much.”

Still others question whether many clients and agencies even understand what integration and branding are all about.

‘I would say there are a lot of companies out there which think integration is making everything blue,’ says Mark Wright, president of Toronto’s MacLaren MRM, ‘and that’s not what we would classify as integration.’