Australia Post delivers millions of Christmas presents every year. It’s what they do best. But with the stock-standard cardboard boxes, they weren’t delivering any Christmas cheer. So we turned those boring Post boxes into a promotional range of Christmas gift boxes specifically designed to disguise your presents and give the recipient an extra surprise.

Based on the clichéd gifts we are so used to receiving, Disguise Packaging consisted of six bespoke gift boxes, built to withstand the postal delivery process, and six hand-crafted wrapping kits, for those who didn’t need to send their gifts. The range of disguises were sold in every Post Office and through Australia’s largest online retailers, just add a disguise at the checkout for your order to arrive with an extra surprise.

Design was integral to Disguise Packaging. The five cardboard Post boxes, based off clichéd Christmas presents, came in a range of shapes and sizes all designed to hide your gifts. The range included a handbag, Mum’s the Word, a tie, The Tattletie, a sock, The Dad Default, a fruitcake, Same Old Fruitcake Co. The traditional Re-Gift and a pyramid for The Total Mystery. We also created a range of “shortbread tins”, Postman’s Petticoat Tales, baked to overdone perfection.

The wrapping kits were designed to mimic gift-wrapping from our fictional retailers; a handcrafted soap shop, antique books, kitchen essentials, stationery supplies, fishing tackle and a nougat company. Each kit contained adhesive logos, a ribbon and a sheet of A1 paper.

Rothfield Print Management designed die lines and built the boxes with enough structural integrity to withstand the postal system. They also managed the production and distribution of all 1.4 million disguises.

Instead of creating ads, we designed an entirely new product line that sold out in eleven days. In total we produced 1.4 million disguises for only $186,000. With each disguise sold at an average cost of $6, Disguise Packaging netted an additional AU$8.4 million in revenue for Australia Post.

The promotional campaign reached 7.6 million Australians, establishing long-term relationships with new and existing customers. With engagement on social up 72%, Disguise Packaging created deeper connections between consumers and one of Australia’s oldest brands.

Brand sentiment was up 54%, online postage increased 15.4% over the Christmas period and we exceeded parcel our parcel sales targets by 118%.

Finally, 85% of the people exposed to the campaign now associate Australia Post with online shopping.

Disguise Packaging confirmed that Australia Post are central to the joy of receiving and our range of limited edition parcel designs put the surprise back into Christmas.