We received a little package yesterday from the folks at Royal Mail. The organisation has developed a direct mail package called ‘Matter’. Essentially, this is a little box of branded goodies. People opt-in to receive the package (you can sign up here) and then the Royal Mail sells space within the box to brands. The treats inside range from mini-versions of available products to specially-designed promotional goods.
The box we saw was targeted at affluent men and contained:
- A Wii wristband from Nintendo
- Some brightly coloured Play-Doh from Sony Bravia
- Some Top Trump cards from Evo magazine
- a 50ml bottle of Original Source shower gel
- An ‘I love music’ monster mobile phone charm from Sony Ericsson
- Some soap crayons from Nissan
- A little metal badge from Stolichnaya Vodka
- A calendar from Virgin Atlantic
- Jordans Superfoods Muesli sample pack with Penguin books branding.
So…..will this be enough to turn around the fortunes of the UK’s postal service? Not quite, but we think it should create a nice niche little business for the brand. We especially like the Jordan’s Superfoods/Penguin idea (it’s that classic ‘reading the back of the cereal box’ concept), which was apparently developed by ad agency Mother.
Our only concerns are that the Matter box is only as good as the brands inside, the goods they offer and the careful targeting of the right consumers. That is something which Royal Mail will have to evolve and fine-tune over time. If we were a brand manager, we’d only want to appear in the box with certain other brands that fitted our own identity, so curation of the goods inside will obviously be a political issue.
We also think there is a bit of a waste issue here. Even though people request this box, so it’s not junk mail, the amount of packaging involved is pretty hefty. Not only does Royal Mail need to make sure that the brands involved cut down on unnecessary waste, particularly with potential regulations coming in on amounts of household rubbish generated, but it could offer those consumers who don’t want a physical box something more virtual. For example, why not create ‘No matter’ or ‘Anti-matter’, which is the virtual online version of the box. The vodka people could give you tokens to spend in bars or a cool viral to forward to your friends…..
What do you think about this concept? Let us know…..more pics of some of the goods inside the box below.
