2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Direct mail has long been known to be an engaging and effective piece of the marketing mix, one that Canada Post stands behind and constantly brings innovation to. Unlike other tactics, DM presents the unique opportunity to physically place a brand in someone’s hand.

However, as companies are shuffling their budgets to deal with market conditions, some elements of the media mix are seeing declining budgets. Many are leaning on digital tactics for a quick-to-market solution. Direct mail in turn is more likely to be set aside because of concerns like lead times and paper-shortage issues. But the tactic remains highly effective, even more so when paired with digital tactics, and deserves to remain in high consideration.

Canada Post was faced with the challenge of re-engaging declining customers to help them determine how to keep direct mail in the mix while managing their time and budgets. Canada Post recently launched its exciting new data visualisation tool; a modern and innovative way for businesses to find new audiences for their direct mail campaigns by literally visualising their data on a map.

With this tool, they saw a great opportunity to help customers garner insights and drive improved results to make the most of their time and resources. The target audience of marketers had effectively used direct mail in the past, but their spends were declining for various reasons and they needed a reminder of how powerful the personalised, tactile experience of direct mail can be.

What better way to remind them than to showcase the newest direct mail innovation to them through a powerful direct mail experience? Canada Post would use direct mail to sell direct mail. To capture the attention of target customers, a bold DM was needed. The new visualisation tool enables marketers to picture their data on a map, leading to the key message that “seeing is believing.” To deliver this message, a nostalgic approach was taken to surprise and delight and create an emotional connection with recipients.

The DM took the form of a classic viewfinder device that was sent along with a reel (a disc with miniature visuals that you view one by one through the viewfinder lens). The reel told the fictional story of Joy, the Marketing Director at Joyful Walking Shoes, a Canadian business that had experienced success by leveraging direct mail and Canada Post’s new visualisation tool.

The viewfinder direct mail piece was deployed to a highly-targeted, exclusive list of key customers prime for winback. It was the cornerstone of an omnichannel, multi-touch campaign that also included email and sales outreach to further engage recipients and build on the initial impact made by the direct mail flagship piece. And the use of the viewfinder didn’t end with this first delivery. Canada Post will be deploying more reels to continue the story of Joyful Walking Shoes to showcase further possibilities and innovations (delivered via direct mail, of course) and drive further win-back and retention.

While the campaign is still active and responses continue to come in, the existing results have been nothing short of extraordinary. While many DM campaigns see strong response rates in the range of 2%-5%, Canada Post is currently seeing a 23% response rate. These responses have led to active sales conversations, which in turn have created a pipeline valued at more than $1M. With a marketing budget of just $53,000, this represents a 19:1 return on investment; well above the accepted marketing benchmark of 5:1. And because the campaign is still ongoing, the response rate and ROI is expected to continue to grow!

Credits

Client: Canada Post
General Manager, Marketing: Danielle Doiron
Director, Smartmail Marketing: Kristi Tomasin
Manager, Enterprise Marketing: Daniya Hashmi

Agency: The&Partnership
President: André Louis
Group Strategy Director: Erika Maginn
Strategist: Rebecca Lyttle
Creative Director: Nabil Rachid
Senior Copywriter: Dean Maruna
Art Director: Adrian Cooper
Integrated Business Lead: Sophie Mair
Group Account Director: Ashleigh McEwan
Account Director: Abbey Koma
Account Manager: Marwa Eid

Agency: Tank
VP Client Services: Lyne Mongrain
Account Director: Anne-Louise Bélanger

Agency: Junction59
President: Marc Cooper
Executive Creative Director: Curtis Wolowich

Production Company: Junction59
Producer: Ellie Lee
Studio Production Artist: Gary Collver