In The Dark

Background

Eskom is a South African energy company. They were forced to introduce a programme of load-shedding when they could not meet the surging demand for electricity. This led to a series of rolling blackouts in the suburban areas of Gauteng province.

The home-loans unit at Absa, one of South Africa’s leading banks, saw an opportunity to target their existing customers to let them know they could access the funds in their bond accounts to buy a home generator. Or to use the money in any other way.

Idea

The idea was in the tactical approach as much as in the executional detail, talking to householders just as Eskom announced its load shedding programme. Targeting those homes which had already experienced power cuts, the message that recipients did not have to be “left in the dark” was particularly apt.

While the outside of the envelope was black, the letter inside was very white as Absa wrote about how they were helping householders keep their lights on.

Results

Out of a total of 18,333 customers mailed, 1194 responded (6.51%), of which 636 leads were converted (52.26% conversion ratio).

The cost of the campaign was R59,255.32, generating income of R247,378 704 to the Home Loans book, an exceptional return on investment of 1:4175.  The target set was to generate R91 million and the final achievement was 272% over target.

Our Thoughts

This looks like a pretty ordinary sort of mailer. Nothing creative about it. No heat-sensitive inks to make it glow in the dark, for instance, but it is an exemplary piece of thinking. Identifying how deeply hacked off so many of their customers would be at the constant power cuts and by telling them how the bank can help, Absa’s real message to homeowners was how in touch, how concerned and how relevant the bank is to ordinary South Africans. Not many other banks could say the same.