As I met with the creative director for Dreamworks, I noticed that he had an unusual hat rack in his office. First of all, a hat rack is not a common object in today's working world. But this was even more unusual as it had an assortment of hats hung on it that were indicitive of many vocations. There was a top hat, a hard hat, a nurses hat, a movie director's hat, there was even a "Cat-in-the-hat" hat. I made the observation, "You must be a man who wears many hats!". Why am I telling you this. Well, it gave me an idea. I went back to our office in California and I began to create a hat. I took a really nice bowler hat and cut a hole in the top of it (my art director almost screamed). I then mounted a battery powered light bulb receptical into the hat, attached a couple of 9 volt batteries and a switch into the side of the hat. I screwed in a light bulb and appropriately dubbed it, "The thinking cap". I then wrote a letter talking about how important good ideas are and that at The Cummings Group, we put on our thinking caps for our customers. I found a unique box, created some outside graphics for it, lined it with styrofoam and made special cut-outs for the hat and some extra bulbs. I place the hat and the bulbs in their approriate compartments, placed the letter on top, sealed the box and then started mailing them to potential clients. Yes, it was an expensive mailer (about $60 a pop). Yes we were judicious in choosing who we would send them to. They were also hand addressed. We sent out 20 of them. We also got 12 new clients. Do we understand direct mail? What do you think? Give us a call and don't forget to tell us your hat size!

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