Birthday book of messages
Pao de Acucar
Issue 28 | September 2013
Agency
Giovanni+Draftfcb
Creative Team
General Creative Directors: Rui Piranda, Marcelo Carnevale Digital Creative Director: Mauro Ramalho Creative Supervisor: Monica Humphreys Creatives: Palloma Quintale, Eber Souza, Thiago Maneschi, Mauricio Bouzon
Production Team
Projects: Guilherme Fonseca, Vitor Siquieira Technology: Marcio Bueno, Cleber Oliveira, Allan Birth Animation: Michael Yamada Information Architecture: Marcel Marques
Other Credits
Attendance: Lisia Fischer, Luis Felipe Ferreira Feresin Customer approval: Patricia Contesini, Luiza Cardenas, Marilia Aspirino, Thiago Lima, Marcia Camargo
Date
June 2013
Background
Known for its close relationship with its customers, Brazilian supermarket chain Pão de Açúcar, wanted to celebrate its customers’ birthdays in a memorable fashion. Pão de Açúcar’s goal was to have as many people as possible share their special date with the supermarket chain, thus strengthening their bond with the brand.
Idea
The Pão de Açúcar brand is known nationally as caring about the little things that mean the most for their customers. And what is more important for people than happy memories? With this idea
in mind, a Facebook application was developed, which gathered together all the birthday messages its customers received and which had been posted on their wall and published them in a virtual book.
But even the nicest memories can dissolve in cyberspace so, to make a more lasting impression on their customers, Pão de Açúcar’ surprised them by collating
all the birthday messages in a real-life personalised book which was delivered to each birthday guy/gal.
Results
- 34% of the emails inviting the clients to try the app were opened, with 30% of them creating the virtual books
- Total of online books created summing over than 15,000
- More than 280,000 messages collected
- Pão de Açúcar printed and delivered 750 personalised books.
Our Thoughts
This idea does two things for me. First, it highlights the relationship between online and mail. They go together like sun and shine. Sure, mail allows you to fulfil your obligations as a vendor but it also allows you to talk to your customers in a completely different and unexpected way. It can be a powerful brand-building device. The second thing is this dramatises neatly the power of real in an increasingly virtual world. Millward Brown commissioned a study into the neurological response to messages delivered by Mail and by digital means. (http://www.millwardbrown.com/ Libraries/MB_Case_Studies_Downloads/ MillwardBrown_CaseStudy_Neuroscience. sflb.ashx) Overwhelmingly, mail worked better simply because it was tactile. A bird in the hand is worth more than two in any online bush.
When you have a piece of mail you might want to keep for months, even years, then its influence extends over periods of time in which, as Giovanni+Draftfcb suggest, the power of the digital moment has long vanished.