The First Direct Marketing Campaign!

Although by today's standards a bank notice may not seem exciting, this case was extraordinary in several respects:

What Made It Special?

• The „Penny” Record: In 1908, the Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank (PMKB) launched a massive, nationwide campaign. To make it cost-effective, they exploited a loophole in postal tariffs: the domestic delivery fee for printed matter at this time was only 1 filler.
• The Volume: It was not just a few hundred items. The bank sent tens of thousands (according to some sources, nearly a hundred thousand) of these notices to the post in a short period of time. This caused such a logistical shock to the Royal Hungarian Post that special units had to be assigned to process them.
• Marketing Pioneer: This was one of the first conscious, mass „direct mail” (DM) campaigns in Hungary. The bank realised that placing a personalised notice in every potential customer's letterbox was far more effective than a static newspaper advertisement.

What Remains of It Today?

For collectors, these printed matter items are still valuable today, especially if they bear the original grey 1 filler Turul stamp. Since most people immediately threw away these advertising materials, the surviving copies are important contemporary documents of turn-of-the-century Budapest economic life.