2022 Silver Mail

Agency: The Creative Consultancy

Client: Royal Mail

Campaign Name: Royal Mail 'OPEN DOOR' boxes

Campaign Overview

Royal Mail is a household name, but there are some large brands where doors remained firmly closed to the postal operator’s sales team. The consultancy was tasked with opening the door to three large retailers that weren't currently using mail services.

Strategy

The consultancy anticipated that presenting the Royal Mail proposition from its own viewpoint would not cut through with the three target brands: Levis’s, MissGuided and Primark.

Instead, it identified and asked focus groups of shoppers for their views on everything from Sunday delivery to sustainability. Insight informed the team about each brand’s specific business objectives.

The collective insight was used as the basis to present what Royal Mail offered from the viewpoint of its shoppers, showing an empathy that would place the postal operator as the right partner to support their direct-to-consumer sales.

Creativity

With an audience of C-Suite individuals, email was not an option that would cut through. A personalised mailing with the stand-out feel to get through their PA was needed. The resulting half-metre, sliding format box - containing some curated objects and the focus group video - was impossible to ignore.

Each box was personally addressed. Alongside the personalised objects relevant to the target brand were Royal Mail's key messages - from sustainability credentials to Sunday deliveries and doorstep returns.

Items included a sustainable pencil case made of Levi's denim to support Royal Mail's ‘greenest carrier’ claim, a biscuit high-street for Primark to demonstrate Royal Mail's place in local communities, and an expresso cup for MissGuided to sum up customers’ thirst for a Sunday delivery service.

In addition to the object, a magazine was created for each brand to showcase the customer views and the Royal Mail response, and an integral video screen showcased an edit of the live customer focus group.

A handwritten note to the C-suite target was included and, as the boxes were distributed during the pandemic, the team also provided the receptionist with an additional mailing carton and pre-paid postage label in case the recipient was permanently working from home.

The consultancy collaborated with Royal Mail’s sales team to ensure that every detail of the box delivery was planned and executed to the letter. It was imperative the boxes were hand delivered wherever possible, and in the case of Missguided, they were delivered on the day of a board meeting, ensuring all contacts received their box simultaneously for maximum impact.

Results

All three brands contacted Royal Mail to find out more. Each target’s box included an individual QR code, which once scanned linked the recipient through to a personalised landing page. The Royal Mail strategic business development team swiftly followed up the contacts that had scanned the code.

In all cases, they didn't have a direct email or phone number for the contacts, so they got in touch via LinkedIn or through the switchboard to set up meetings. All contacts responded to set up a meeting, proving the boxes opened the door to three major high-street brands, that had been previously unresponsive to the Royal Mail sales team approaches.

The tactile, personalised nature of the direct mail box was intrinsic to the success of the campaign, and its originality and memorability was commended by some of the target contacts once the dialogue began.

The Team

The Creative Consultancy - Teresa Sullivan, Creative Director - Tim Cornell, Creative Director - Marie Hague, Senior Designer - Dean Chillmaid, Senior Designer - Nicci Kitchiner, Account Director - Polly Griffiths, Account Manager - Henry Plumridge, Copywriter - Rowan O'Duffy, Director/Photographer

Royal Mail - Sandeep Dhak, Account Campaign Manager - Declan Breen, Strategic Business Development - Fay Swinton-Berry, Strategic Business Development - Emma Shaw, Head of B2B Marketing

Contributors

Screaming Colour Print