E(MERCH)ING

Short List
TitleE(MERCH)ING
BrandTHE NORWEGIAN POSTAL SERVICE - POSTEN
Product/ServicePOSTAL SERVICES
Category E12. Brand Partnership / Endorsement
Entrant POL Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation POL Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation 2 ALSO KNOWN AS Oslo, NORWAY
PR POL Oslo, NORWAY
Production ALSO KNOWN AS Oslo, NORWAY
Post Production ALSO KNOWN AS Oslo, NORWAY
Additional Company NO NAME OSLO AS, NORWAY
Credits
Name Company Position
Rikke Jacobsen POL Copywriter
Anette Finnanger POL Art Director
Marius Eriksen POL Client Director
Kristin Eidså Brantzeg Scheele POL Client Manager
Simon Karlson POL Planner

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

This campaign shows how a brand can use their power and influence to help artists and fans during a trying time and have a positive impact on pop-culture. This campaign shows that a brand can get great results while still allowing artists and pop-culture to retain it's integrity.

Background

The Norwegian Postal Service (referred to as Posten from now on) was going to sponsor of some of the biggest festivals in Norway in the summer of 2020. When all festivals were cancelled the brief changed. We were to find a new way to engage, activate and improve the liking of Posten among young adults aged 18-25 in the middle of a pandemic. The objective was to make Posten more liked in the target audience and strengthen associations such as innovative and "making everyday easier". We had a cancelled summer, many in the target audience robbed of the highlight of their summer and artists who lost their income. We saw this as an opportunity to really step up and be a positive force.

Describe the creative idea

The idea was to create merch for the festival summer that didn't happen. This is an answer to a couple of target audience insights. 1. Merch is a big thing in the target audience. And no festivals, no merch. 2. There is a growing trend of selling, buying and trading fashion online, especially unique brand collaborations. Armed with this insight we partnered up with the megahyped Norwegian artist Ma$arati (who’s paintings sells for thousands of dollars, and his Post Malone and Travis Scott merch is hyped worldwide) and paired him up with some of the headliners from the cancelled festivals. Together they created a limited edition merch collection, produced and shipped by Posten. All revenues went to the artists. The t-shirts shipped with instructions on how to use the "send from home" service so that the buyers could easily trade and learn to use the new service.

Describe the strategy

We knew if we were to really engage the target audience we needed to do something real, not just talk. By creating real merch together with a hyped artist and big musicians we created something that the target audience actually wanted. This target audience is a picky one, so we knew authenticity would be more important than showing the Posten logo and making it about us. A deliberate choice to let the artists and products take up a majority of the space.

Describe the execution

We had 5 t-shirts that was developed with the Ma$arati and the artists, we decided the reveal and release them one by one – creating hype, mystery and traffic. By releasing one every week we got the campaign going for a full week, and depending on the artist behind the t-shirt we reached different sub-groups within the target audience. The campaign was launched solely through PR and social media. All the revenue from the merch went directly to the artists, so they had a good incentive to whip up their fanbase to buy and share the campaign.

Describe the outcome

The campaign got 22.000.000 impressions We managed to get over 500.000 NOK in revenue to the artists. We got PR in some of Norway biggest newspapers. We reached an all time high liking in the target audience. 9 out of 10 has a strong positive impression of Posten in the target audience. We had a view through rate of over 70% on our video content. We had a 44% increase in the association "innovative" in the target audience.