Case Paper Celebrates 75th Anniversary in Style
We’ve talked about how bringing your story to life in a unique way can generate demand, and we’ve also covered how sending direct mail is a great way to do it. Next up, we’re going to showcase a company (and one of our clients) who’s done it right.
That company is Case Paper, and for 76 years, the paper and board business has been delighting customers through humorous messaging and a steadfast commitment to going above and beyond with customer service. Their unique approach to the B2B paper market is why they adopted the purpose-driven tagline “On the Case,” and the brand story has come through in everything, from their print ads to their email signatures to their delivery truck wraps.
In true “On the Case” spirit, Case Paper put together a unique direct mail piece for their customers to commemorate 75 years in the business—a paperboard record player, complete with an album, a die-cut tonearm, and a set of premium swag covered in printing puns. While this direct mail piece was sent pre-COVID, a personal touch like this is exactly the kind of thing that businesses should consider as they find their footing in the post-COVID world.
Clearly, this album is a stellar showcase of Case Paper’s high-level printing and paper expertise, and there’s nothing quite so powerful for a company as when the medium and the message intertwine. From there, they exceed expectations with tiny-yet-powerful details that make the entire project purely enjoyable.
In fact, the album was so successful that it won an Award of Excellence from the 26th Annual Communicator Awards. As CMO Simon Schaffer-Goldman explains in an interview, “The whole concept of the album was telling a story of 75 years through the lens of what we’ve done to surprise and delight our customers for those 75 years, how we’ve come through for them over those years.”
How exactly did they do that? Well, the album inside the box is actually a photo album—it tells the history of the company while making you laugh, sharing stories like how they printed on demand when the Beatles landed in NYC, and includes a hilarious faux tracklist with songs like “Sweet Reams (Are Made of Trees)” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Paper).”
Apart from being something enjoyable for their customers, the purpose-infused project also brought that same delight to the Case Paper team, and that’s just another sign of effective B2B brand strategy—employees are engaged and encouraged to access creativity.
After adopting their “On the Case” identity, Schaffer-Goldman noted a spike in ideas from people outside of the marketing team as well, from plant employees to hourly workers: “The fact that it came from employees only deeper-rooted what we were trying to accomplish within the organization […] Once we set forth where we were headed, it was amazing how many employees would then call me or email or even text me being like, ‘I have a new idea. How about this line? How about that line?’ And so we got things like, ‘We give a sheet’ and ‘Sheet happens here.’”