The Sport Relief Mile, the biennial event where many of us dust off our shorts and T-shirts, is looming. We’ve all seen the plugs on the BBC and been enthralled by David Walliams’ and John Bishop’s efforts, that to most of us seem superhuman and frankly mad.
I was recently equally impressed by the Sport Relief door-drop to entice people to sign up to run the Mile, devised in-house by the charity. The highly colourful front, featuring a pantomime horse, is consistent with the trailers on the BBC promoting the event, which will help drive recognition and stand out on the doormat, while at the same time communicating the fun nature of the whole event.
The layout on the reverse of the mailer clearly reinforces the message on the front, and is laid out clearly and concisely.
It’s great to see that the copy is highly localised and written in a fun and engaging way. But true to Sport Relief’s form, it also includes a serious message.
In this case it is in the form of a local case study, communicating how Manchester benefits from this fundraising event. This case study helps to further drive empathy with the aims of the event and so further help to motivate a response. Furthermore, the clear online call to action – a unique URL – makes it easy for interested participants to sign up at home, as well as make the campaign highly measurable.
With door drops delivering a physical presence in the home, evidence shows they are often kept, referred to and actioned at leisure. This is vital in this campaign where consumers will be constantly reminded about the Mile on the BBC and via other media as the deadline to take part inches closer.
Overall, this mailer is a great example of how targeted, localised and responsive door drops should be created. In particular, how they can deliver more in-depth information on an event that other channels would find hard to match.
Philip Ricketts is head of door to door strategy, sales and marketing at Royal Mail
