Return To Sender
Gothenburg Homeless Aid
Issue 6 | July 2008
Agency
GOSS
Creative Team
Gunnar Skarland - Art Director;Jan Eneroth - Art Director;Mimmi Andersson - Art Director;Albin Larsson - Art Director;Mattias Frendberg - Art Director;Elisabeth Berlander – Copywriter;Micke Schultz – Copywriter;Ulrika Good - Copywriter
Production Team
Johan Good - Account Supervisor;Stig Lundstedt - Account Supervisor;Fredrik Toreskog - Account Supervisor;Malin Berggren - Account Manager;Anna Troglin - Account Manager;Lena Kling - Account Manager;Monica N Persson - Account Manager;Karolina Mindhammar - Account Manager
Other Credits
Robert German
Date
December 2007
Background
Gothenburg Homeless Aid is a voluntary organisation that helps the homeless, substance abusers and other vulnerable people. People are a bit more generous around Christmas and tend to give more to those less fortunate than themselves, making the period a very important time for the Gothenburg Homeless Aid, when a large proportion of the entire year’s funding is collected. The organisation needed a mailing that would stand out amongst the onslaught of Christmas cards – another christmas card!
Idea
To draw attention to all the people with no fixed abode in Gothenburg the agency sent out 20,000 Christmas cards in envelopes addressed to: 'Lasse Persson, in a tunnel somewhere, Central Gothenburg'. On the back of the envelope they wrote the address of the actual intended recipient. Obviously the Swedish post office could not find Lasse because he does not have a real address. The mail therefore had to be returned to the ‘Sender’ address on the back of the envelope with a post office stamp saying ‘Not known at this address’. The yellow label on the envelope not only highlighted the fact that there are people in Gothenburg who have nowhere to live, but it also made it virtually impossible for the recipient simply to discard it without opening it to see what it was about.
Results
The campaign raised SEK 1.6 million (around EUR 170,000), which is more than any other campaign for Gothenburg Homeless Aid. The result was also a 60% increase on previous Christmas campaigns.
Target Audience
People of Gothenburg, with account taken of age and annual income.
Size
20,000 mailings
Our Thoughts
I love the idea of people receiving a ‘return to sender’ letter that they never actually sent. How abruptive. And how relevant. For the idea demonstrates that while you (the recipient) can always be traced to a home address, there are those unfortunates who have no such fixed-abode. SH