Phillip Gessert.

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Here are a couple mailers I did for a local property company. And this is how I pitched it.

People buy homes for a couple reasons. They may buy to ‘keep up with the Joneses,’ or they may buy to make an investment in their future.

People want to feel something about a home purchase, though. A home is not some trinket, a proper home has deep meaning for people with family in mind– and young married couples and their parents usually do.

When a young parent thinks back on his childhood, he wants to give everything that was great about it back to his own child. If a couple doesn’t yet have children, not yet owning a house may be a part of what holds them back — they recognize that childhood should be special, and it sometimes seems shockingly brief.

The mailer meant for young, married renters addresses this directly. On the front, it features an aged photograph of a child doing exactly what we tend to remember most — waiting, probably for his parents or a friend, doing nothing in particular. The snapshot style reinforces the copy, ‘what memories will you build?’

The second side links nostalgia with home ownership by describing the sorts of memories we may have from our youth. It also further reinforces the pun in the tagline — memories are built, just like homes are.

These young couples have parents themselves, and possibly living grandparents. It really goes without saying that grandparents tend to focus on family — doting grandparents is almost a cliche. Like anyone else, these grandparents want to spend time with their families and build great memories — both for them to look back on and for them to leave their children and grandchildren with.

The mailer meant for empty nesters and 60-85 year olds focuses on this audience. The front side uses another aged photograph, this time of a grandfather playing in the garden with his grandson. The photo is from the 1950s — when a grandfather sees this, he thinks ‘my father made time for my children. I want to make time for my grandchildren.’

The second side addresses the frustration seniors may have in balancing home maintenance with the ideal ‘extended family life.’ Texas Premier Homes offers to free them up to spend time and money on their loved ones. The copy on this version directs readers to the phone number instead of the web site, and uses a slightly larger font than the one meant for young married couples.

Essentially, we are targeting two different generations within the same family. Both elements of the campaign incorporate retro, candid photographs to stand apart from the slick, stock photo style of most other direct mail pieces, and are meant to give the entire campaign a sense of time. The tagline ‘what memories will you build?’ includes a small graphic of a house to support the play on words. This concept is flexible enough to be used across a variety of media.

I have chosen to omit typical ‘beautiful new home’ type photos, because we are really selling the emotional concept.

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/What-Memories-Will-You-Build/440477