Neckermann.de is one of the most traditional employers in the city of Frankfurt. It had established itself and even co-invented the mail order business. With thousands of employees and thousands of customers it is a company which is more than a business. With its claim “Neckermann makes it possible” it stood for opportunities and accessibility of goods for everyone.

The long established company got into distress when it had to file for bankruptcy in July 2012. neckermann.de tried to shut down its mail order unit and started to focus on a much leaner business model with only online retail. Thus, they got into a tough spot because due to troublesome layoffs neckermann.de lost its investor’s support.

With no media budget at hand and many confused customers, neckermann.de was at a point where it was essential to stabilize sales and reassure customers. Through a savvy strategy sales reached up to 4.800.000 Euros and more than 500.000 visitors on the neckermann.de website were generated.

The campaign was launched through only 2 banners on the neckermann.de website because there was no media budget to spend at all. Through its provocative message it caught massive attention from the media, who was watching neckermann.de very closely at the time. All relevant media picked up on the topic and found the fighting spirit of neckermann very positive. Many even featured the banners on their websites which drove additional traffic to the neckermann website. For 8 weeks we would launch at least 1 new banner with a message that on one side documented the companies fight to get past the insolvency and on the other hand give customers access to great offers and reassure them of the well working delivery services.

Through the whole campaign the Banners generated over 500,000 clicks.

Weekly sales of about 800,000 Euros, totalling 4.8 million throughout the campaign were achieved. 12,000 items were sold.

neckermann’s newsletters, which featured the campaign headlines had an increased opening rate of 3%.

The demand for the items advertised had an increase in demand of over a 100%.

Before the campaign, sales were down by 66% compared to 2011. After the campaign they stabilized at -13%. This a clear signal to new investors that neckermann.de is a viable business.

We were able to generate free media equal to +2m Euros.