Royal Mail: GOLD MEDAL WINNER STAMPS

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Product & Service

Category: Commercial Public Services incl. Healthcare & Medical

Advertiser: ROYAL MAIL

Product/Service: ROYAL MAIL STAMPS

Agency: UM London, UNITED KINGDOM



Head Of Customer Marketing/Stamps And Collectibles: Fraser Chisholm (Royal Mail)

Head Of Marketing/Stamps And Collectibles: Julie Murray (Royal Mail)

Business Director: Ben Reilly (UM London)

Head Of Strategy: Tony Mattson (UM London)

Digital Account Director: Natasha Lenton (UM London)

Digital Account Executive: Marika (Um London)

Head Of Press: Nick Heales (UM London)

Founder And Creative Director: Robert Campbell (Beta London)

Creative Director: Chris (Beta London)

Group Account Director: Ho Raven (Beta London)







Results and Effectiveness





Winning Reach

• Media activity reached 35m (50%) of UK adults

• PR reach for campaign was 715,202,891 - greater than all UK sponsors combined





Unbeatable Impact

• Royal Mail prompted highest advertising awareness rate across the Games, even ahead of major sponsor Adidas



Triumphant Business Results

• Over £21million worth of Gold Medal Winner Stamps sold (75% above expectations)

• Almost half of sales were to non-stamp collectors

• New buyers were younger than the traditional collector, proving the campaign had broadened the profile and appeal of the stamps overall

• New collectors grew 20%







Creative Execution





We adopted a ‘newsroom mentality’, with staff on duty ‘virtually’ 24 hours a day to ensure we got our message to the right people as close as possible to Team Great Britain striking gold.



Through targeted press ads around relevant Olympic editorial, clever online news placements (using ‘real time’ buying tactics), radio advertorials on talkSPORT within 30 minutes of the latest win, and live advertising updates on the London Underground, we ensured the Gold Medal Winner Stamps became part of hundreds of thousands of conversations – online and offline.



In true media owner fashion, our live updates went way beyond advertising - informing the public of the latest Team Great Britain win before they could learn about it from official news channels.







Insights, Strategy and the Idea





In recent years, the use of stamps has been severely challenged by email, text and social media. The relevance of collecting stamps was declining. We needed to make stamps cool again - to retain current collectors, and win over a younger audience.



The London 2012 Olympics presented a major opportunity. With an event as exciting and fast-moving as London 2012, consumers wanted to be kept informed of every win and development as it happens.



We decided to print Gold Medal Winner Stamps in tribute to every Team Great Britain gold medal victory, which was a record (and unexpected) 46 wins. Stamp production normally requires a 24-month production process and sign off from the Queen. We turned this into a phenomenal 11-hour turnaround, making the celebratory stamps available by lunchtime the following day.



We worked with a simple media idea - “Make Royal Mail the ‘real-time’ media owner for London 2012.”