We travelled over 1,000 miles on UK trains to source the best fatherly advice.
THE BRIEF
UK card company – thortful – were looking for a piece of stand-out, national coverage that would cement them as an exciting card company that cares about its consumer, making the company thortful by name, thoughtful by nature.
THE CHALLENGE
Create a feature opportunity within a national title that positions thortful as being different to the competition and for it to clearly stand out within the market place in advance of Father’s Day.
The client’s target was a full page spread in the Daily Mail.
THE SOLUTION
The team brainstormed in advance of Father’s Day and proceeded with the idea of thortful asking the nation “What is the best piece of advice that your father has given you?” Our intention was to source a mixture of funny, heart-warming and shocking pieces of fatherly advice that would attract a Daily Mail journalist, whilst showcasing thortful as a fun, caring and innovative brand.
The team set out on trains all across the UK asking the nation’s train passengers to submit their father’s advice. They were encouraged to write it down on a branded thortful postcard so that the answers could then be uploaded to a designated thortful landing page – this then provided visual assets that could be submitted alongside the story.
thortful created a limited edition range of Father’s Day cards that had the best pieces of advice sourced from around the UK. This then provided us with further visual assets and a strong reason for why the brand had undertaken the activity. We created a one-off film that showed people discussing the best pieces of advice they had received which included a mix of outrageous and heart-warming responses. This asset was then used across the thortful social media channels to support the project and it enabled us a further coverage opportunity with the Mail Online reaching even more people.
A strong press release was created with a founder quote and this was then pitched to the Mail Online as an exclusive story with the bank of visual postcard submissions, unique landing page, exclusive film and the limited edition card designs.
THE OUTCOME
This activity resulted in some amazing Father’s Day coverage with the Mail Online that was published a few days in advance of Father’s Day. The exclusive film was also featured on the Mail Online video news section. It was negotiated that the coverage would appear in advance of Father’s Day to enable the readers to have enough time to purchase their own Father’s Day card from thortful and increase sales.
