2012 Silver Best online display advertising

Client Royal Mail Stamps and Collectibles

How did the campaign make a difference? Advertising Royal Mail’s Gold Medal Winners stamps within hours of each British athlete winning gold at London 2012 brought stamps into the modern age and demonstrated Royal Mail’s ability to produce exciting next-day stamps within hours.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? The brief was to make stamps exciting to a new generation and position Royal Mail as a contemporary brand. This real-time campaign demonstrated Royal Mail’s capability to produce and advertise next day stamps, featuring London 2012 gold winners. Royal Mail didn’t have the rights to use any association with the Games or athletes but the celebratory nature of these stamps, which captured each athlete during the event they won, had to be communicated. Success depended on a unique process for real-time design and production, updating creative content within moments of a stamp’s image being created. The publicity and extensive coverage also let consumers know stamps were available online or by phone within hours of a win, and at Post Offices by 12pm the next day.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? The big idea was to let the stamps speak for themselves. Working within tight Locog restrictions that narrowed the possible content, simplicity of design enabled each Gold Medal Winners stamp to stand out as the ultimate souvenir of London 2012. Ad content featured the name of the winner and stamp image. A wide range of executions featured winning athletes as close to their winning moment as possible. Each execution could be updated to carry a new winner's name and image in 24 hours. This meant up to 50 new executions over six weeks. In banners, customers could buy from a website within moments; in press, customers were directed to the website, a dedicated phone number or to a Post Office. For projections on London Underground, customers were asked to search online for Gold Medal Stamps. In emails to existing collectors, there was more on the winners and the Golden Post Boxes, plus cross-selling of other Olympic products like artwork and pin badges.

Results The campaign captured the imagination of the British public. Specific sales targets were beaten by 45%, but the brief had been to make stamps sexy again. Royal Mail has sold millions of pounds worth of Gold Medal Winners stamps, but around 90% of sales were not to existing stamp collectors, meaning it had reached a new generation of potential future collectors.

Team Robert Campbell, Ho Raven, Toby Kay, Katie Dear, Mark Edmonds, Martin Lythgoe, Sam Gilmore, Gareth Williams, Chris Barraclough

Other contributor UM – Media strategy, planning and buying