2021 Gold Best B2B

Agency: Havas CX heli

Client: Toolstation

Campaign Name: My Toolstation

Campaign Overview

Toolstation had an alternative channel to its much-loved catalogue that gave customers a superior experience and saved the brand money - but it wasn't being used.

The brand needed to coax customers to the website to experience its benefits and change their shopping behaviour.

Strategy

Toolstation was founded on its quarterly catalogue - a workman's bible in the form of a metaphorical brick.

Many of its customers were addicted, but times change and it had become a millstone to both company and customer.

After thumbing through 17,000 products in 21 departments over 800 pages, customers either had to go to a store or head online - possibly to discover an item was out of stock.

Something better was needed.

Toolstation had a website where customers could not only find the products they needed at the click of a button, but check on stock availability and delivery options, and refer to saved searches.

But it wasn't being used while customers automatically reached for the catalogue.

Customers would need to be coaxed into experiencing the site.

Counter-intuitively, the best way to do this would be by relying on their muscle memory, using paper as the means to encourage them from paper, to online.

Fast, highly relevant and sparky communications were needed to spur customers into actio

Creativity

DM with QR codes provided speed: 143,000 pack iterations ensured hyper-personalisation with customers directed to the departments they shopped.

Eye-catching designs turned QR codes from masses of pixels into appealing visual guides. Relevance was added by applying them to stickers that could be posted wherever customers needed Toolstation most.

All this was done by crunched data around shopping behaviour.

It turned out most customers shopped in just six out of 21 departments - so Toolstation decided to direct them only to the departments they purchased in; hence the six-figure iteration.

The QR codes were eye-catching designs that screamed ‘short cut’, showing at-a-glance products people regularly shopped.

And, as customers would ideally take their own personal Toolstation store wherever they went, they were given heavy-duty stickers to attach to the places they needed the brand most: their toolbox, workbench or dashboard.

The full sticker panel could even be torn off to create a miniature Toolstation containing their key departments on the go.

Results

Customers liked being given shortcuts to what they wanted to buy: targets were smashed by 300%.

Incremental traffic to the website went up by 10% as customers ditched their catalogues to go online.

They shopped more 9% more frequently, and average order values went up by 5%.

Toolstation also enjoyed 14% more revenue per customer.

The four-page mailpack cost just a quarter of the catalogue - and data scientists uncovered and removed 6.5% of customers who were getting multiple copies.

All of this resulted in an annualised saving just short of £1m, a loss-making communication turned into a profitable one with an ROI of 3:1.

The Team

Havas CX helia - Carly Martell, Strategy Director - Tim Waskett, Senior Data Consultant - David Thomas, Head of Analysis - Rachel Heathfield, Senior Copywriter - Libby Clay, Senior Art Director - Natalie Hilliger, Head of Copy - Charlie Ryder, Business Director - Nick Hurst, Senior Account Director - Geeta Bhandari, Senior Producer - Kat Polley, Programme Director - Simon Baker, Digital Design Director - Matt Palmer, Design Director

Toolstation - Chris Maggs, CRM Manager - Gary Edwards, Direct Marketing Campaign Manager - Kyle Kenny, Direct Marketing Campaign Manager - Stuart Mcgrogan, Head of Architecture

Contributors

delivr and TaskerStone