LETTERS FOR LATER

TitleLETTERS FOR LATER
BrandHALLMARK
Product/ServicePOSTUUM
Category B08. Calendars, Invitations & Greetings Cards
Entrant HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Havas Lemz Havas Lemz Creative agency

The Campaign

When someone passes away, they leave an immense void in the lives of others. The absence of a loved one weighs most heavily at the important moments in your life. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary if we could enable people to still be there at those special moments? Hallmark Postuum is a service that helps you to write letters to your loved ones for them to open on specific moments after you’ve passed away. “When you have your first kiss”, “When you turn 18”, “On your wedding day”, “When you become a father”. The Postuum box contains blank letters, seals, envelopes, inspiration and practical information to help people write these letters of love. In the campaign we use true stories (mini-documentaries) about people who have experienced receiving letters from a loved one who had passed away. These stories are intended to inspire others to leave a similar legacy.

Creative Execution

In the creative execution of Postuum, our aim was to find the best and most respectful way of helping people write letters for after they are gone. We considered designing Postuum as a digital service, but felt that this weakened the personal character. Moreover it raised practical limitations with respect to managing, saving and activating such a system. Inspired by the idea of a shoebox with letters, treasures and personal memories, we decided to introduce Postuum as a physical box, containing blank letters, seals, envelopes and inspiration. Together with Hallmark's designers, we developed a high-quality, yet modest design that gives the letters extra value and allows as much room as possible for people to personalise their legacy of love. Because writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, we developed a booklet with inspiration, examples and helpful tips.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Although our primary goal was a small-scale pilot, we received over 2500 applications within three weeks. The response was overwhelming. People were moved and thanked Hallmark for enabling them to leave a legacy of letters with such great personal and emotional value. Even for people who didn’t receive one of the limited boxes, the mini-documentaries were just the motivation they needed to start writing. Going beyond the traditional greeting cards, this idea helps increase the relevance of the Hallmark brand for people. By inspiring people to write letters to their loved ones for when they are gone, Hallmark plays a genuine role in helping people to connect, even after death. This success prompted Hallmark to add Postuum to their permanent collection, enabling even more people to write letters of love for after they are gone.

Hallmark’s mission is to create a more emotionally connected world by making a genuine difference in every life, helping people to express their emotions. However, we were not sure whether people would allow a commercial brand to intervene in their personal lives regarding such a sensitive topic. That’s why we introduced Postuum as a pilot, building a community of people co-creating the service with us. We could then discover the market potential, build a business case and find the best way to help people write these emotional letters. In the pilot campaign we used true stories about people who had experienced either writing or receiving such letters, and turned these into mini-documentaries to be our key campaign carriers. Partnering with the largest magazine publisher in the Netherlands, we invited readers to share their motivation to start writing with us in order to qualify themselves for one of the 500 boxes.