PostNL -- the oldest and largest mail service in the Netherlands, which had been privatized in recent years -- was struggling with rapidly declining mail volume, as much as 12% each year. As its customer-base grows older and smaller, young people can be found online, communicating digitally. A service like PostNL has little relevance to them. And if the target doesn’t visit a post office, it’s hard to create a connection. Much less recruit younger staff to work and make their careers at PostNL, and help revitalize its image.

PostNL continually innovates with new digital services, but we needed to do something unexpected and out of character to raise awareness, show a new side and new value to traditional mail service, and create a more contemporary brand image that would command the attention of a younger generation.

We created series of vibrantly colored stamps honoring the 5 greatest Dutch DJs as voted in “DJ Mag Top 100 DJs Worldwide,” then embedded each stamp with an invisible code allowing purchasers to play the music of each DJ just by scanning their stamp with a smartphone. We forged relationships with the DJs, encouraging their participation and social media promotion, gave the exclusive announcement to the Netherlands biggest newspaper, launching DJs and fans to activate their peer-to-peer social network, and partnered with Amsterdam Dance Event, the biggest electronic club music festival in the world, for our major launch announcement.

Considering that 17 million people live in the Netherlands, the 160 million+ earned impressions we generated gave DJ Stamps and PostNL unprecedented media exposure, and a vital new connection with an untapped generation. We established widespread awareness and enthusiastic brand associations for PostNL among millennials, and the dazzling celebrity-infused campaign renewed pride in the business among current PostNL employees. The mail service is now committed to embracing a variety of socially progressive national heroes in the future.

Earned Media Results:

• 999 social posts reached 151,006,398, not including Instagram and private Facebook posts

• 87 articles appeared online reaching 2,964,163

• 37 articles ran in traditional newspaper and magazine media reaching 5,516,224

• 15 TV and radio broadcasts aired to 2,646,101

Overall, the campaign produced 163,578,624 earned media impressions. Ninety-nine percent of coverage and social posts carried key PostNL brand communication messages on the DJ stamps, and 86% of reports and posts were positive in tone.

Most importantly, 1 out of every 3 DJ Stamps sold was scanned with the smartphone Cee app, confirming high-level user engagement.