We told a story. The whole thing was written in the second person (you). This forced us to put the customer right at the heart of the adventure. It was all about those wonderful and unexpected things that can happen when you go with the flow. The happy accidents.

It brings to life the idea that you can un-plan your adventure and let everything come together. It's that wonderful sense that you start every day with no idea where you'll end up. And the freedom and choices start the moment you step on board.

We set the copy free (like our customers) so it could flow anywhere, even to the back of the letter. The tone was full of charm and intrigue and it worked in perfect harmony with the design.

Our target audience might well have kids at college, or even in work - which gives them the time and freedom to explore. Now they can focus on themselves.

We could have emailed them as they're comfortable in the digital world (even if they're keen to escape it for a bit) but they still enjoy the special intimacy that comes with mail.

And we wanted to be very targeted. Mail was the perfect solution. It let us reach out to 110,000 people.

As always deadlines and budgets were tight. Nonetheless, we wanted something unexpected, that bought to life the freedom to explore in a way that had never been done before. That was surprising.

And even though we didn't ask for engagement in social channels, we got it. We even got emails and beautifully written letters from potential customers.

The week the letter dropped, visits to the P&O Ferries website went up by 32.2% (from same week in previous year). The following week we had a 21.7% lift (from same week in previous year).

Even better, we had a 17.8% spike in revenue for Dover to Calais and a 10.3% spike for the North Sea (our primary routes).