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Client:

Royal Mail
Product:

Mail
Title:

The LOLXperiment
Media:

DM, digital and experiential

Country: UK Date of campaign: Agency: Proximity London Agency address and telephone: 191 Old Marylebone Road London NW1 5DW 02072981000

Creative team:

Debi Bester Nina Lindh Chris Monk

DIRECTORY, 45 Fouberts Place, London, W1F 7QH, UK. Published by Xtreme Information Ltd. T: +44 (0)20 7575 1824, F: +44 (0)20 7575 1809, E: hello@directnewideas.com, Web: www.directnewideas.com

Luke McClure Martin Power Fiona Brown-Hovelt

Production credits:

Other credits:

Brief description of campaign (max 100 words):

We set out to make a co-created advert for the letter featuring 200 real letters written by real teens about their world, and share it live online on Valentines Night. What we did was so much more. Indeed, we inspired leading teen bloggers to create a 7-hour ad reading every letter live and loud. Over 52,000 young people tuned in live. They posted a comment in response to the letters online every single second. And the songs, films and animations they created from the letters proved that the mail could not only be part of todays social media mix but part of teen culture.

Background (Please outline the aims of the campaign in 50-100 words):

The Royal Mail of Great Britain has a problem. In a digital world, young people their future customers dont value the mail. We had to find a way to convince them to re-evaluate the letter. But how, when the sheer weight of evidence said it couldnt be done? After all, one in ten children has never written a letter, and one in five has never received one.

DIRECTORY, 45 Fouberts Place, London, W1F 7QH, UK. Published by Xtreme Information Ltd. T: +44 (0)20 7575 1824, F: +44 (0)20 7575 1809, E: hello@directnewideas.com, Web: www.directnewideas.com

Idea (Please outline the creative solution devised to meet the brief, and any insights that drove the strategy. 100-300 words): We hired a psychology grad to host a different love letter writing challenge on a YouTube every week. He promised to read every single letter received live on Valentines Night. Word of the experiment quickly spread thanks in part to a collection of bloggers wed teased into getting involved the week before (see book). Teens began to discuss on Twitter and Facebook what letters they would write, how they felt about letters, writing and the emotions stirred up by this very personal medium. Over the weeks, our mailbag began to fill with real letters from real teens from Britain and as far afield as the US, Chile, Greece, Australia, even China and we posted every envelope on a blog. We then gave talented young artists across the UK secret login details to the blog so they could read the letters inside and invited them to turn their favourites into art, capture it on video and send it to us to play on the big night. They turned the letters into lyrics and then into songs as well as illustrations, animation and short film. Finally, the big night came. Our host, and some of the artists who appeared as his guests, read every line of every letter, and their readings were live-streamed on a free online TV channel, along with all the music, animations and films theyd inspired. They even took up the audiences challenge to write a song in real time inspired by the most favourited songs of the night. By the end of the evening over 52,000 young people had watched the live show, in an unprecedented 7 hour live advert for the letter. A comment was posted live every single second in what ranked as the second most watched live show on Stickam that night worldwide.

Results: With a budget that wouldnt even buy an ad in a teen magazine with NO celebrities and NO paid-for media the LolXperiment got a staggering QUARTER OF A MILLION views in just four weeks. 200 real teens wrote real letters, demonstrating the power and value of the letter in a way no agency-made campaign couldve Post-campaign research showed the depth of engagement to be a minimum of two hours per letter, totalling 15 days and nights spent letterwriting Young artists all over Britain proved in music, film and animation just how relevant, inspiring and memorable this medium could be
DIRECTORY, 45 Fouberts Place, London, W1F 7QH, UK. Published by Xtreme Information Ltd. T: +44 (0)20 7575 1824, F: +44 (0)20 7575 1809, E: hello@directnewideas.com, Web: www.directnewideas.com

 Over 30,000 young people posted comments about, and in response to, the letters and hundreds wrote asking for the experiment to be repeated next year The LolXperiment was even picked up on nationwide BBC and campus radio And the Teachers Post, read by teachers responsible for over 40 million children, featured the experiment as a cover story some teachers even wrote to tell us theyd used our videos as teaching aids, running the challenges in class!

Target audience: British teenagers. Volume/size of campaign:

DIRECTORY, 45 Fouberts Place, London, W1F 7QH, UK. Published by Xtreme Information Ltd. T: +44 (0)20 7575 1824, F: +44 (0)20 7575 1809, E: hello@directnewideas.com, Web: www.directnewideas.com