Matter. Part 1 - The idea.

I got my Matter box today.  Matter is a new idea from Tim Milne at Artomatic, in collaboration with Royal Mail, described on the website thus:

Matter is a new and unique idea in communications that brings companies and people together around real, physical stuff–things you can hold in your hands, keep in your drawer, or give to your friends. It's a new way for companies to introduce themselves by giving you something you might like.

From reading the Matter blog, its also clear the motivation is partially in response to the digitising of so many brand communications too - the answer being this attempt to re-invigorate the DM channel, by curating a box of high quality physical comms bits.

As someone who has worked as a creative in the DM industry, and is now finding themselves having ideas predominantly for digital stuff, I was excited to see what creative goodies could be inside.

My first impression was good; the box itself is a nice size (the postman got it through my letter box just fine), and the intricate perforation to open it was - if a touch fiddly - a lovely tactile experience.  As for the contents, the little bits and pieces almost entirely filled the box with no wasteful gaps or pointless padding.  I'll go through them one by one in a later post (Update: done).

So what do I think of Matter?  Its a great start; DM is often used very crudely and this subscription-based approach has the potential beat off the 'junk mail' perception.

Matter works a little like a magazine by creating specific boxes for different audiences, except each bit of 'content' is in fact a different object each created by a different company. Matter works with each company to create items you'll enjoy getting, which might be something that explains what the company does, its ideas or its values, or simply something to try out.

Having had a look at all the bits 'n' pieces, I think think there's room for improvement.  But a lot of this will come when advertisers get used to creating bits especially for Matter, so they feel right in the context they're in.

The biggest issue, I think, is relevance.  No matter how good the targeting/profiling is, in its 'magazine' format Matter will always end up sending people some stuff they have to bin.  Of the 9 items I received, I'll keep 4 and realistically be able to give away 2 more.  I'm not sure that's an acceptable amount of waste.

Funnily enough I think the answer to this issue could be a digital one.  If an arrangement could be made whereby people can choose what goes into their Matter box, then there's no problem any more.  Would require a simple site and a decent inventory of stuff that changed regularly - so more partner brands on-board.  And it'd be sensible to build in an easy facility for brands to have a response gathering page on the Matter site, so people can nip to one site to make any responses in one go.

I don't think this is beyond the realms of possibility either.  Artomatic has done brilliantly to get a lot of interest in it already, and I think the choice element would also make the whole thing more attractive to people too.  And as for the stuff in the pack, I think the choice factor would free-up the type of thing that could go in it; brands wouldn't feel like that had to attempt to justify the inclusion of the item which always seems a bit forced, just write a nice bit about it on the website to encourage people to choose it and concentrate on providing good pressies, and little samples - I think the stuff can be just a creative that way.

Of course, new brands may have an issue with recognition - and Matter needs to offer advertisers the chance to reach new people.  So perhaps the site should also 'suggest' stuff you might like based on yours and others previous choices.  Hmmm.

Anyway, I'll send Tim the link to this - he was asking for feedback, but maybe not this much!

Comments

[Andy Piper]

Hi Rob, I actually pinged a link to my blog post and video through the the matterbox email address, no response from them though.

I like your idea about making the items more "opt-in" but that of course removes the element of surprise from the package. And some items will inevitably be oversubscribed, while others will not be touched.

In general I think the brands themselves could leverage this opportunity in a more digital way - I noticed that the Jordans thing had a link to their website but other items had no obvious online component.