Staples already had a pre-existing campaign, aimed at driving sales among their current customers, and making them aware that the Mail & Ship category had undergone a major expansion with a diverse new product range. Our brief was to target SME businesses specifically, from small warehouses to eBay Power Sellers.

Staples needed a new campaign to assure these potential prospects that Staples are the go-to destination for all of their packing and shipping needs, whilst also raising awareness of the product range, and driving sales. The target audiences were based in Germany and The Netherlands, and our prospect database supplied by the client was 40,000 strong. The prospects also needed the time to redeem vouchers and order for their own business needs before Christmas.

In our search for a unique concept, we explored cardboard technology. This inspired us to design a cardboard engineered, self-assemble reindeer! It was a huge challenge, one that also had to be mindful of production and postage costs, along with the logistics of delivering into Europe at the busiest time of the year for DM. We decided to use Rudolf as the figurehead of the campaign. With the Staples red for its nose, and logo on the backboard, the 3D reindeer certainly looked striking on the wall, and the entire DM was packaged in a full colour sleeve.

An initial indicator of the campaign's success was that the vast majority of the inevitable quota of undelivered returns that we received back were immediately whisked away by courier to Staples HQ in Amsterdam, to meet the extra demand! We also know that 'Staples the Reindeer', as it has been fondly nicknamed, has outstripped the normal brochure response rate and boosted positive conversations across social media. Measured against the response rate of catalogues sales, this campaign gave a very healthy 60% uplift.