Titanium

PostNL, the Dutch postal company, wanted people to reconnect with real mail, which meant:

- Inspiring and activating people to send more postcards.

- Let people experience that real mail is far more personal than new media.

There was no budget for an ATL campaign so people had to be activated through a newsworthy and inspiring promotional idea. Strategy was to focus on Valentine's Day. We made this romantic day even more personal: WITH A KISS!

Everyone in the Netherlands could send their Valentine cards with a lipstick kiss instead of a stamp! Special software recognized the lipstick kisses.

Results:

- 283% more Valentine cards sent.

- 40% increase in Valentine cards send with a stamp (probably men)!

The extra turnover surpassed the variable cost of the promotion, giving PostNL immediately a positive ROI.

This idea has beaten every single campaign from the past of PostNL, but without their budgets.

The press release immediately caused an online tsunami; trending topic for days. All Dutch newspapers, major TV news shows and online news sites reported extensively. A famous radio DJ spontaneously asked his female listeners to send him as many kissed cards as possible. In Dutch schools children were assigned to create kissed Valentines cards after which entire classes mailed them collectively. BBC World News and German TV made reports from the PostNL distribution centre.

It all lead to a huge response:

- Almost three times as much Valentines mail was sent.

- Even an increase of 40% in paid Valentines mail (with stamp). Probably men!

- In tracking, the brand values of PostNL showed the highest increase ever.

PostNL’s Valentines kiss is a truly newsworthy idea that travelled solely on PR and social media and outperformed any other ATL campaign in the history of PostNL with media budgets of millions.

PostNL had to rewrite all its recognition software so all possible lipstick kisses would be identified. After extensive testing it was decided to go ahead with this global first: on February 13th all postcards and letters ‘sealed with a kiss’ that were mailed before 5 p.m. would be delivered the very next day!

Since it was crucial people would understand the idea, a romantic online explanatory video was shot. Point of view being a postcard, we see a lovely girl buying, writing and eventually kissing the screen.

This video was included in the press release four days before Valentines Day. After that, it was out of our hands. With no ATL support, being completely dependent on PR and social media.

Everybody knows these are hard times for postal companies. For almost every service they offer, there now is a cheaper and faster digital alternative. The result? Declining volumes, huge cost saving programs, lots off lay-offs and therefore hardly any marketing budget.

Consumers are becoming more digital by the day and the millennial generation actually hardly ever writes a post card.

With no marketing budget, PostNL was looking for an idea that would reach millions of people and inspire them to send a postcard again. So it had to rely completely on the power of PR and social media.

Strategically it was decided to focus on Valentine's Day since this day is the easiest entry for newcomers. And the day with the best chances of touching peoples hearts.

Idea: allowing people to send their Valentine cards with lipstick kisses instead of stamps! Making it far more personal and intimate than before.