Creative effectiveness in door drop - examples from 2018

Written by Christian Petersen, Unaddressed and Publishing Products Manager, Royal Mail MarketReach and member of the Door Drop Hub of the Print Council.

Farmdrop plugging into the market for fresh produce

The proliferation of the home delivery market for quality fresh produce seems to intensify by the month. Long gone are the days when Abel & Cole were ploughing a lone furrow – metaphorically-speaking anyway… Well here’s another company looking to plug into this market with an offer of fresh, small volume produce that is hand-picked for customers- Farmdrop.

This item didn’t drop through my door but you may be lucky enough to have it drop through yours. It certainly caught my eye when it was being bundled for delivery recently. The quality paper and crisp photography on the front cover made it stand out, along with an interest-raising strapline “Get the farmer’s market delivered to your door” and an offer prominent too. All achieved without making the front look cluttered and creating a classy feel that would catch the eye on the doormat.

That feel continues on the inside, which features in a three-page fold where the insides feature enticing photographs of a selection of the produce available to order, and where they are sourced from, with a few surprises. For instance, who knew one could source quality avocado from Willesden... Use of Text is sparing but the USP of sourcing from small farms is highlighted early on to enhance the understanding of what Farmdrop is about.

The subtle sell continues with a Trustpilot logo and advertising of a customer rating of 9.2, accompanied by a quote from a happy customer and of course the obligatory picture of a happy family enjoying preparing the food delivered by Farmdrop to their home.

At this stage one there isn’t a single mention of how to access the mouth-watering offerings depicted. Normally you see reminders of how to buy liberally plastered across such items, but not with Farmdrop, who due to the quality of the content keep things subtle with the call to action left to the back cover.

The offer is a simple one – you’ve seen the quality of the product, read about the happiness of our customers, so come and order and get your free “KeepCup” – an environmentally-friendly reusable coffee cup worth £15 that comes free with a shop over £60, and also highlighting features such as Nest day hourly delivery time slots in a simple way.

It’s clear that this is an upmarket item aimed at health and environmentally-conscious families living in affluent areas, including the likes of Marylebone. One could easily take issue with the relative lack of hard sell, or even a compelling call to action, but my feeling is that the advertiser has researched its target audience and designed this accordingly.

So this item might be delivered as a leaflet but it demonstrates that door drops can be targeted at a high net worth demographic and be subtle in execution, with beautiful photography and a simple design. There is often a perception that door drops lack creativity and innovation in design – but this disproves that theory. They don’t have to shout offers at you from every angle, or constantly remind you of a website address or phone number. This feels like an item that you would normally receive in an envelope, or as a one-piece mailer targeted specifically at you. But it works as a door drop too. And there’s the offer of a reusable coffee cup to boot. Now where’s that website address…