Royal Mail blitz calls on marketers to be 'carbon smart'

Royal Mail’s MarketReach is taking a fresh approach to encourage more brands to embrace direct mail with a new campaign that bigs up the medium’s environmental credentials rather than its marketing effectiveness.

The “Circular Advantage of Mail” campaign is the first major push since the business unit commissioned the Private Life of Mail study, which provided insight into the role of mail in people’s homes and the impact this has on advertisers’ ROI. This was supported by the Mailmen marketing campaign featuring senior clients and agency chiefs.

The new activity is backed by what the company claims is an industry-first study into the environmental impact of commercial mail. Carried out by environmental experts WSP, the research details a full carbon lifecycle assessment (LCA) of mail, from forest source to end-of-life, via the processing, design, production and delivery stages.

The study claims that, by taking every opportunity to regenerate, reinvent, reduce, reuse and recycle, mail can contribute to a circular economy, and be part of an effective marketing mix.

The creative campaign to support the research, devised by MSQ/Sustain, launches today across direct mail, OOH, social, email, search, display, YouTube and trade media.

The activity is designed to challenge some of the myths and misperceptions about the sustainability of mail, and lay the foundation for consistent messaging.

Throughout the planning and delivery of the campaign the team were considerate of the environment, from shooting in a studio and using stock footage rather than outdoor location settings, to being mindful of website functionality by limiting the use of high impact assets such as multiple videos and animations.

Moreover, all the direct mail used as part of this campaign has been created sustainably, from using sustainably sourced paper, bio-degradable inks, while also encouraging end user behaviour change through messaging.

To empower marketing teams to make informed decisions and help make mail campaigns “carbon smart”, MarketReach has also launched an interactive online tool using data from the Life Cycle Assessment that provides data on the carbon footprint of each stage in the supply chain of ten of the most commonly used commercial mail formats.

The tool allows users to compare the average carbon emissions of formats across the lifecycle of mail and compares it to everyday products to provide context for the understanding of its impact.

As an example, the current overall carbon impact for one standard postcard is 43.61 gCO2e. The firm claims this is less than an email with a large attachment, which could have a carbon footprint of 50 gCO2e, according to Climate Care, and also less than the impact of buying an orange.

The overall impact of an A4 or C5 Large Catalogue is 445.29 gCO2e, which is only slightly more than the impact of one 15g cup of coffee. The tool is complemented by a checklist of points to consider when planning a mail campaign and an online film.

MarketReach commercial director Philip Ricketts said: “Working with LCA experts and the entire mail supply chain, WSP helped us to understand and identify driving factors that will enable us to build on the industry’s substantial progress in terms of sustainability and enable future change.

“But carbon is only part of the story. Understanding the broader environmental credentials of mail is equally as important. Our campaign demonstrates how mail can be part of a circular economy.

“Our focus is simple. We want to empower mail users to make informed choices and decisions so we have developed a range of resources with the support of the print industry to help them, including a best practice guide and our new LCA tool.

“There’s still so much more to be done across the supply chain to lower the environmental impact of mail, but our journey is well underway. Along with our customers and the print industry, we are determined to continue to make a positive impact in this important area.”

MSQ/Sustain partner Richard Armstrong added: “By widening the ‘aperture’ to see the whole of the life cycle of mail, from sustainable forest management to its eventual recycling, the campaign uses the facts to prompt a reappraisal of what mail can be if the right sustainable decisions are made at the right time.

“We want it to be more than just informative, however – we want this campaign to be useful. We want those who use or are thinking about using commercial mail to have the information they need to make good decisions – so they can continue to invest in a highly effective and creative medium, but to do so knowing they are also minimising the carbon impact of those choices and contributing to a more circular economy.”

The campaign follows the launch of a Royal Mail TV push also aimed at showing just how environmentally friendly the firm is, encouraging UK consumers to send their parcels “greener”.

The ad, devised by AMV BBDO, appeared on Sky as part of the broadcaster’s Sky Zero Footprint Fund, a £2m initiative which saw five firms handed free TV advertising spots to promote business initiatives that are driving positive behavioural change for a more sustainable world.