Introduction

Royal Mail MarketReach helps brands and agencies get the most from direct mail whether you are trying it in your marketing mix for the first time, or just want to do it even better. Our ‘Physically Irresistible’ campaign inspires marketers to reassess the role of direct mail.

Challenge

We needed to force reappraisal of direct mail as a creative medium amongst digitally-native, mail-sceptical marketers. Our audience was also locked-down and working from home, where we didn’t have addresses to reach them directly at their workplaces through direct mail.

Strategy and approach

We created an ebook (on the basis of not being able to reach people with a printed version at their workplaces during lockdown) which oozed inspiration with its stunning case studies, creative techniques and thought-provoking contributions from marketing leaders. To drive downloads (and data capture) we took lockdown easing plans from government guidelines and plotted four phases of activity based on insight into changing business needs as the world opened back up:

1. To cope, businesses need to stay in touch with their customers at home

2. To fill whatever capacity is available, businesses need to be targeted

3. To accelerate back on track, businesses need to drive revenue

4. To maximise the opportunity, businesses should evaluate the marketing media mix

This strategy meant that we unleashed a powerful asset in a way that was sensitive to the covid-context that businesses found themselves in, helping them to prosper with mail as part of their media mix.

Solution

Created to inspire digitally-native marketers to reconsider mail, the "Physically Irresistible" book was a strong starting point. Though we couldn't use the planned print-techniques in the digital version, each spread was made to sing the virtues of direct mail with beautiful case studies gathered from around the globe, brain-poking contributions from marketing experts and helpful infographics. The case studies are curated into 'techniques' with the aim to inspire creative thinking and expand people's minds to mail's creative potential.

Then we needed a campaign to drive ebook downloads. During lockdown, B2B channel opportunities were limited. Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn provided a highly targeted environment for static and animated ad formats. Emailing the database and providing content to partner channels, including D&AD, The Marketing Society and Campaign, provided further targeted reach. Lastly, dedicated campaign landing pages on the MarketReach website enable a joined-up experience for responders and a strong conversion to downloading the e-book.

The campaign creative employed vibrant, visual messaging that was split into the four insight-driven phases outlined above. Each phase consised of five executions. And each execution picked off a singular reason to believe that mail was an appropriate medium to consider (e.g. its creative potential and its ability to reach customers at home) - with each message shaped to fit the phase insight. Snippets of the fabulous content from the digital book were used in certain executions.

By empathising with businesses' contexts and by providing simple messages that show how mail could help, Royal Mail MarketReach showed that it was a valuable partner. Add an inspiring ebook as a value exchange, and the leads were bound to flow.

Results

The objective of the campaign was to generate leads for mail from digitally-native, mail-sceptical marketers whilst the world was covid disrupted.

With digital book downloads of 1,400 (40% over target), the campaign generated 270 leads (35% over target).

Using expected conversion to sale and an average order value, the campaign will deliver revenue and margin within the year that results in a profit ROI of 3.67.

By delivering a strong and highly creative value-exchange for datacapture and a campaign that was sensitive to the situations being faced by businesses as they emerged from lockdown, Royal Mail MarketReach provided a compelling argument for the consideration and implementation of mail.