Objectives

In 2022, talks of a brewing global financial crisis grew, as part of the aftermath and fallout of the covid-19 pandemic.

At Purolator, our goal is always to find a way— whether we are delivering packages to/for our customers, enriching our communities through corporate social responsibility (CSR)  programs, advocating for our employees, or by making a positive sustainable change in our world.

That is why we approached the annual integrated Holiday campaign theme with sensitivity to our environment and the people we serve.

Our campaign goal was to meet people where they were at—during such a pivotal time in history, we wanted to humanize and showcase the brand as one that truly cares, providing customers with savings and surprises during the Holidays.

Because we understood what Canadians and the world were going through, we helped bring people together in these difficult times under an umbrella concept “Holiday Spirit Delivered”.

The campaign theme is directly related to Purolator’s core values— reaching people, customers, employees, and communities with relevant, engaging, and timely support.

With the Holiday Spirit being diffused through special savings and surprises, Purolator truly brought to life the campaign tagline, “everybody deserves something special” across multiple integrated touchpoints.  

Strategy and Execution

To bring the concept “Holiday Spirit Delivered” to life, we created an integrated campaign that targeted multiple audiences ranging from employees, retail customers, grass root communities and small businesses. This campaign kicked off on October 3, 2022, and ran till January 31, 2023. Below is a snapshot of how the key message was adapted for different audience segments and media channels to foster brand affinity: -

Employees

Purolator offered an increased employee discount, made available to all employees, their friends and family. Typically, this discount band is 50%, however, the campaign core team encouraged the increase to 75% off, which was well received with excitement by employees.

Retail customers

1. For our retail customers, we created multiple opportunities for them to enjoy not only up to 50% savings on shipping prices at all retail locations, but also introduced a Holiday specific Flat Rate Box allowing customers to send packages to their loved ones.
2. In addition to passing on savings to retail customers, the campaign gave customers an opportunity to win many exciting prizes on us! We had a surprise offering at select partner locations within our retail network, such as Michaels locations, GO Transit stations where we interacted with the community through on-site surprise and delight, giving them a chance to win Presto Transit Cards, Michaels gift cards, amongst other branded Purolator Swag.
3. Finally, our TV and Online Video Spot featured select locations across our retail store network, where we asked a few customers to randomly select a Purolator delivery truck for a chance to receive a gift. Their responses were priceless, as Purolator gave lucky customers four airline tickets for a trip home to be with their loved ones post-pandemic lock downs, as well as 70-inch Smart TVs to enjoy the Holidays with.

Community

1. Purolator incorporated specially designed Holiday shipping boxes as part of their package offering. These were designed by 13 diverse artists from across all provinces and territories in Canada. The designs were inspired by holiday traditions, representing families and communities coming together post-pandemic, sharing meals and spending time together—a scenario the world longed for at the time.
2. To support the campaign, Purolator also donated $65,000 to provincial and territorial food banks through the company’s Purolator Tackle Hunger® corporate social responsibility (CSR) program initiative. Our campaign  microsite page also included a call-to-action on the CSR initiative, giving site visitors a chance to donate.

Small Businesses

Small businesses were greatly affected by the pandemic lock downs. As such, we also ran a contest highlighting our legacy True North Grant program winners, allowing them to amplify the message by paying it forward, and encouraging other viewers to enter a contest.

Sales Enablement

The campaign was also well integrated across the sales field team and leveraged the same tone, look and feel in all customer communications.

Challenges

Like many other shipping companies, Purolator faced unprecedented pandemic volume surges, with an influx of traffic into our retail stores at the same time the core team was huddling to create a heartfelt campaign that will roll out at the stores. The core team also faced budgetary and internal resource constraints, however, the team worked to find creative solutions to still bring the integrated campaign to life.

Results

A 360-degree integrated campaign focused on cohesive messaging across multiple points of customer contact, the key KPIs for the campaign were to:

1. Stand out in a cluttered seasonal holiday market and breakthrough with emotion-led creative.
2. Brand Health tracking along with awareness performance tracked through a YouTube Brand Lift Study (measured by consideration, favourability, recommendation, and action intent)

Results

• Aided brand perception of Purolator increased by 11% during the video campaign flight duration.
• Over 3MM impressions across all video properties to date
• $65,000 donated to food banks through the CSR program
• 2X increase in annual retail promotional revenue
• 20M media impressions and hits on the holiday boxes

Media