Public Sector: Royal Mail delivers a first-class operation

Campaign: Royal Mail Christmas Operation
Client: Royal Mail
PR team: In-house
Timescale: November-December 2011
Budget: £20,000

 

Objectives

• To ensure customers understood the £15m investment the business had put in place for the period

• To ensure consumers were aware of key commercial messages around Royal Mail at Christmas

• To expose and engage parliamentarians to full Christmas investment measures.

Strategy and plan

The investment story was pushed to the business press, with a focus on everything from snow shoes for postmen to large-scale investment in the sorting process.

Consumer media were provided with stories around the heritage of the business, and broadcasters were invited to film in the sorting offices to show the scale of the operation. MPs were invited into the heart of the business at key times.

Measurement and evaluation

Twenty news stories were developed for the 2011 Christmas campaign, compared with about six normally. These generated more than 700 positive media articles.

Results

About 300 elected politicians visited delivery offices and mail centres across the UK in the run-up to Christmas.