Create a piece of DM as a follow-up to ‘The Times’ mailing in-keeping with the ‘Thinking Ahead’ concept and also keep HSBC’s offer of an Individual Review in the minds of the Near Retired audience. To provide something more easily stored and referenced than ‘The Times’ mailer and provide a brief reminder of the benefits of planning ahead with HSBC.

The grocery receipt from the future raised several questions. What will tomorrow be like for you? What does it cost to enjoy happy and fulfilling later years? Will you be prepared for the opportunities the future brings? The mailing was packed with little hints about what may lie ahead. Amazing, expected, unexpected, daunting... and almost certainly, expensive. A subtle ad on the back reminded our audience what was required of them - action today to ensure a better tomorrow, with free financial future planning.

The piece provoked an unprecedented initial response and the client had to stop the mailing, leaving us with incomplete results (since more people received the control cell than the newspaper).

A bias was therefore generated to give an idea of response, which was calculated at 0.8%.