Hello

Background

Esso offer a premium heating oil product in Belgium and Luxembourg called Optiplus. The main USP of Esso Optiplus is that it is 8.5% more efficient than standard heating oils and therefore keeps you warm for longer. DDB WWAV Rapp Collins’ challenge was to move the existing strategy of press advertising to a more integrated approach that would consider a more targeted channel selection and enable a better cost per application. There were limited resources for this campaign and so the aim was to be smart about the channel selection in order to maximise the impact on business.

Idea

Direct forms of communication are not very well received in Belgium and so it was important to add some personality to the piece to enable high levels of engagement amongst the target audience. Because Optiplus keeps you warm for longer, you don’t need to re-order as much fuel. It also follows that you won’t be seeing your delivery drivers as much. DDB WWAV Rapp Collins took this insight and delivered it in the form of a personal note from the local delivery driver. This was dropped through letterboxes with only the word ‘Hello’ hand written on the outer. In order to make the piece as authentic as possible they handwrote every note and even added each local delivery driver’s name as a signatory.

This was a revolutionary technique for the Belgian market and the engagement and interaction with the piece was instant. The letter leads the reader through a journey of explanation which is personal and light hearted - with the benefits of the heating oil woven into the copy. The final sign off asks the reader to phone their local reseller and ask them about purchasing Optiplus heating oil.

Results

Full quantitative results not yet available. However early indications show that resellers have had a huge increase in requests in the test areas versus the control areas that had no door drop activity. Resellers indicated a 40% uplift in calls during the activity time period.

Target Audience

Middle class homeowners living in rural areas, aged 50+, 50/50 spread of male and female.

Size

100,000 door drops

Our Thoughts

It’s cleverer than it looks, this piece. It’s dead simple, so it was easy to ignore in our editorial meeting in a way it wouldn’t have been on the doormat. The hand-written envelope would have persuaded many to open up when they saw it on their doormats - and the handwritten note inside gets the idea of a better-performing fuel-oil across without actually spelling it out.