Pass The Parcel

Background

The objective of the campaign was to recruit new customers to the telephone and online bank, first direct. Using direct mail and an incentivised member-get-member approach, first direct wanted to talk directly to potential customers who were already warm to the idea of switching

Idea

The problem is that at any given moment, only 7% of the population is looking to switch, so simply finding these customers is a challenge.

That said, first direct is the UK's most recommended bank so a member-get-member approach seemed the simplest way to target a warm audience.

1,000 existing customers were mailed, allowing them to pass an application form to friends who they thought might like to switch.

The mailing delivered the member-get-member message inbetween different layers of newspaper, the package replicating Pass the Parcel, the children’s party game. Each page of the newsprint wrapping paper featured funny stories centred around first direct. 'Remember when passing something on was so much fun?’ asked the tag tied to the first layer. Once unwrapped, customers were rewarded with a mouth-organ and the offer of a fifty-pound iTunes voucher when someone they know joined up.

In a market saturated with enticing offers to move bank account, the idea made memorable and fun a task that could easily have been embarrassing or irritating.

Results

Anecdotal reports indicate a high percentage of those contacted said they would recommend to a friend. In telephone research, one customer said it was 'the most original thing he had received in a long time and completely unexpected from a bank'. He added that he 'will be recommending first direct to everybody'. He signed off by playing a tune on his mouth organ.

Our Thoughts

Think of the worst creative brief in the world and surely one of the top contenders would be to write a member-get-member ad or pack.

You’re doomed from the start. Everybody hates banks; in addition to which, your mates won’t thank you for handing over their names and addresses to a marketing organisation that will hound you mercilessly till the end of time. But, y’know what? These guys have cracked it.

This is bread-and-butter work for most agencies but with a really thick layer of butter and some jam as well. It won’t win the awards it deserves simply because it is a common sort of job. It has just been done uncommonly well.