The Campaign

Christmas is about joy and excitement. But how often have you guessed your gift based on the wrapping alone? Australia Post decided to bring the surprise back to giving, by turning our standard, cardboard post boxes into a range of present disguises. Based on the clichéd gifts we are so used to receiving, Disguise Packaging consisted of six bespoke gift boxes, built to withstand the postal delivery process, and six hand-crafted wrapping kits, for those who didn’t need to send their gifts. The range of disguises were sold in every Post Office and through Australia’s largest online retailers, just add a disguise at the checkout for your order to arrive with an extra surprise.

Creative Execution

We engaged Rothfield Print Management in September 2015 to produce Disguise Packaging. By the end of October, we had 1.4 million units to distribute. We engaged popular bloggers and online retailers to promote and sell Disguise Packaging to their audiences. We even added a new checkout function to the e-stores, giving consumers the choice between standard or surprise shipping. The disguises were sold at all 4000 Post Offices and on the Australia Post website. Disguise Packaging out by December 1. With still a month to Christmas, and thousands of Australians still to engage and surprise, we created online tutorials showing everyone how to create disguises of their own. People loved Disguise Packaging so much, they even started sharing ideas, creating ads for us and promoting the idea to their family and friends. By the end of the campaign, nearly every Australian had a disguise under their Christmas tree.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Instead of creating ads, we designed an entirely new product line that sold out in eleven days. In total we produced 1.4 million disguises for only $186,000. With each disguise sold at an average cost of $6, Disguise Packaging netted an additional AU$8.4 million in revenue for Australia Post. The promotional campaign reached 7.6 million Australians, establishing long-term relationships with new and existing customers. With engagement on social up 72%, Disguise Packaging created deeper connections between consumers and one of Australia’s oldest brands. Brand sentiment was up 54%, online postage increased 15.4% over the Christmas period and we exceeded sales targets by 118%. Finally, 85% of the people exposed to the campaign now associate Australia Post with online shopping. Disguise Packaging confirmed that Australia Post are central to the joy of receiving and a promotional range of present disguises put the surprise back into Christmas.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Disguise Packaging, turned Australia Post’s stock-standard, boring cardboard post boxes into a limited edition range of promotional gift boxes that disguised your presents, keeping them a secret until Christmas morning. By selling the disguises wherever people bought or sent their Christmas presents, we engaged consumers, drove immediate purchases and as a result Disguise Packaging sold out in eleven days. Disguise Packaging gave people a new reason to interact with one of Australia’s oldest brands. The promotional campaign gave Australia Post a new life at their busiest time of year, by simply bringing the magic and excitement back to Christmas.

Online shopping continues to see major growth in Australia, representing a growing business for Australia Post. However, before our Christmas campaign, the vast majority of Australians didn’t associate the brand with online shopping or the joy of receiving. The campaign needed to change the ways Australians aged 25 - 54 interacted with Australia Post. And without the budget for broadcast media, we were limited to digital, social and a small amount of in-store media to reach both regional and metro audiences. We started by considering the role of Australia Post at Christmas. We quickly realised that as Australia’s largest postal service, they are responsible for getting more presents to their intended recipients than anyone else (bar Santa of course). We translated this into our single-minded proposition: Australia Post delivers the magic of Christmas.