2016 Gold Best use of Door Drops

Agency MEC UK

Client Bupa

Campaign summary

Amazing insights from data previously deemed insignifi cant

Campaign overview

With marketing budgets under increasing scrutiny, the challenge was set to increase enquiries (calls) by 30% across the full suite of 278 Bupa Care Homes, juggling their varying needs with their vastly differing regional audiences.

Strategy

By making many small tweaks across multiple variables Bupa could deliver a big change in performance.

Analysing previous door drop campaigns showed areas to target, and Bupa found macro opportunities in increasing the regional sensitivity and establishing a hierarchy for supporting media.

It considered whether to repeat postcode sectors (to tell a story) or to drop unique sectors each month.

Bupa believed executing this strategy would deliver an ambitious target to increase enquiries by 30% within ten months.

It built a framework to test each aspect of the campaign. Each test had to be designed to deliver tangible results so it understood the impact of that element. This would then form a positive feedback loop whereby the output fed-back into the overall planning process.

Creativity

Bupa used GB cycling’s approach of ‘marginal gains’ to inspire clients and partners to run tests that would have historically been seen as insignificant.

In such a complex, nuanced market such as care homes this would have been a big risk. It allowed Bupa to create a structured approach to improving performance, justifying the resource required (on all sides) and allowing them to effectively measure the impact.

Areas of weakness became opportunities for improvement. Unpacking previous work led Bupa to eight areas of focus, covering targeting and creative strategies. They had to review activity from both a quantitative and qualitative approach. The quantitative approach allowed them to gather data about targeting and feed the learnings and insight back into planning. A qualitative approach allowed MEC UK to work closely with Bupa to set up market research and understand what resonates with people when considering care.

Results

The campaign found eight areas of improvement. While the impact of each change in isolation is small, together, the impact is large.

Leading insights include how Home Catchment accounted for 87% of enquiries. Using a Targeting Model, Bupa moved from four to eight regionally targeted models and delivered RR uplift of 0.005 percentage points.

Creative insights from residents and staff resonated well, so the work used more case studies. For supporting media, door drop, press and radio delivered 0.396 per 1,000 door drops compared with 0.295 for door drops with press or radio and 0.259 for door drops alone.

Door drop frequency used postcode sectors dropped twice over two months to drive the strongest RR (0.342%) compared to a single drop (0.232%). For Clash Management planning in quarterly bursts meant Bupa supported the same home for a minimum of three months, so implementing monthly planning increased flexibility and reduced wastage.

Team

Andy Collins (Business Director) • Matt Higgins (Performance Planning Manager) • Sophie Williams (Associate Director) • Rosie Sluman (Senior Account Executive) • Cheryl Gregory (Regional Marketing Manager) • Chris Hay (Regional Marketing Manager) • Helen Hilliam (Regional Marketing Manager) • Elizabeth Woods (Regional Marketing Manager) • Andrew Richardson (Head of Consumer Marketing and Development)