The (Un)Wanted Envelope
Halo Top
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Iris Worldwide, Amsterdam
Creative Team
Copywriter Gabriel Abrucio Art Director Gustavo Figueiredo Creative Director Rachna Dhall Executive Creative Director Colin Lamberton
Production Team
Head of Studio Michael Dooling
Other Credits
Account Director Alexandra van Nunen Managing Director Chris Friend Account Manager Michael Kirijian
Date
Summer 2019
Background
Halo Top makes low-calorie ice cream for adults.
To launch the brand in the Netherlands, they wanted a campaign idea that would position them as an antidote to the pain of adulthood.
Idea
The idea was to take advantage of the most adult time of the year: tax season, famously known for the blue envelope warning letters from the Dutch Tax Authority (Belastingdienst).
The (Un)Wanted Envelope was a Belastingdienst lookalike letter that, instead of warning grown-ups about bad stuff, rewarded them with good stuff for surviving this period: free ice cream, delivered to their doors.
The letters were sent to influencers across the Netherlands.
Results
With no media budget, the letter got a 40% response, which translated into free media on dozens of influencers Instagram accounts, thousands of views across the country and lots of free ice cream.
Our Thoughts
You don’t have to mail a million people for mail to reach a million people. You just need to target the right influencers and hope that they do the rest. The trick, though, is you have to make the mailing interesting enough for them to want to share. If influencers just become unthinking mouthpieces for brands, they cease to be influencers pretty rapidly.
People will only share what they think their followers will like. And who doesn’t like free ice cream?