Adventures in Lightbulbs

A little U.K. shop won a big award with a bright idea.

London-based promotion agency Davies Little Cowley Fiddes took home the first-ever Grand Prix prize in October when the Association of Promotion Marketing Agencies Worldwide presented its inaugural Globes Awards in Miami. Although the campaign was outlined in the November issue, PROMO wanted to take a more-detailed look at the winning program – especially after hearing the insightful presentation partner Hywel Davies gave to APMA members one day after accepting the award.

Lightbulbs are “an unprepossessing category” hampered by commodity status and dominated by “ordinary bulbs,” admits Davies. Philips Lighting attempted to spice things up in 1988 by introducing a Softone line of colored varieties, but until last year had only succeeded in establishing the brand among older consumers who, justified or not, were looked on as “chintzy” decorators by the general populace – and who tended to only purchase the line’s pink bulb.

Looking to capitalize on a surge in home improvement activity in England, Philips commissioned Davies Little Cowley Fiddes to devise a campaign that would generate brand awareness and encourage trial while eliminating negative perceptions about the brand.

TV advertising was unfeasible, because the product’s subtle color tones couldn’t adequately be expressed. A relatively small œ1.3 million budget precluded using a mix of media. So the agency hit upon what Davies calls “a ludicrously simple idea” that would put the product into as many households as possible.

In a campaign called Yes Please, the agency created a bag that could be slipped into letterboxes by one of England’s door-to-door delivery companies. (Unlike the U.S., where laws prohibit anyone but the Postal Service from using mailboxes, the U.K. has an open policy.) Inside the bags were glossy 16-page brochures that described the product, its benefits, and the varying moods that can be produced using colored lighting. The package also contained a coupon for 50 pence off the purchase of a bulb and a five-question survey on lighting needs (added in a quest by Philips to bulk up its database).

The primary offer was communicated on the outside of the bag: recipients willing to give the bulbs a try had only to check off which of seven colors they wanted and hang the bag (with the questionnaire tucked inside, if they so chose) from their outside doorknob. Bulbs were slipped into the bags overnight. The mechanism, a little more unique than the average mail drop, was adopted because “the doormat is quite a competitive media environment” in the U.K., says Davies.

What consumers received was a bulb designed specifically for the promotion containing a thinned filament that would last only 10 hours, a shorter-duration product “just like any other sample,” Davies maintains.

Davies Little mined household databases to target consumers whose demographics and lifestyle preferences made them more likely to accept the offer, and selected “mini-neighborhoods” to cut down on the logistics. In addition to providing a low cost-per-contact, the concept also delivered a message about the product directly into the home.

Two million households received Yes Please bags, and 700,000 requested a trial bulb, resulting in a stellar 35-percent response rate. (In follow-up surveys, 57 percent said they used the bulbs.) Twenty-seven percent completed the survey, which put 540,000 names into Philips’ data banks. And 160,000 (eight percent) redeemed the coupon. The campaign also sent brand awareness levels through the roof. “I don’t think any of us thought that it would work like this,” Davies admits.

Sales in the six-month period following the campaign were double the prior average, and a leading home-improvement chain that had recently dropped the Softone line picked it back up. In a second flight, Davies Little tripled the efficiency of its household selection after analyzing the surveys, focused on neighborhoods near key retail accounts, and scored an even higher rate of involvement. “That showed us Phase One wasn’t just a freak event,” Davies says.

Davies Little Cowley Fiddes is a 45-person agency located in London’s Langham Works section. The shop’s business is 40-percent advertising, 40-percent direct marketing, and 20-percent promotion. “We try to do the whole thing in one go,” says Davies.