Situation: In logistics, immediacy dominates consumer expectations, but that's nothing new. Logistics companies, especially the big 3 (DHL, FEDEX, UPS) have been talking about speed of service for over 50 years. And that's not to mention the aggression of the huge local competitor Aramex who have taken a huge slice of the market in the MENA region in recent times.

Brief: To reclaim position as the number one delivery service in the region.

Objective:

-Disrupt the norm and challenge traditional perceptions of delivery speed by introducing a groundbreaking concept that increases brand awareness and puts DHL out in front in the race to be the fastest.

-Showcase DHL as an innovative brand that can deliver globally faster than the competition.

- Display DHL couriers as efficient, professional and can rise to a challenge.

- Highlight different DHL transportation methods and hubs to showcase how big their global logistics network is.

As a never-been-done before one-off stunt we knew that this was a creative idea that would get attention. But the attention it got was far greater than anything we could have anticipated.

Using time zones and the international dateline, we transcended speed of delivery in a fun, clever, never-before-done way by delivering a parcel to the day before it was sent.

The goal was to highlight not only DHL's speed but also innovation by delivering a parcel back in time.

The tone and delivery of the PR was crucial in getting people to engage. 'DHL send parcel back in time' who's not going to be curious about that?

Truth - People want their parcels as soon as possible.

Key Message: When it comes to speed, DHL is the fastest at delivering what is important to you in fast seamless way.

Target audience - everyone, but especially individuals in the Middle East region where DHL are not top of mind.

Creation and distribution of assets -

First, 2 Influencers with a combined follower count of almost 1million to tell people to go watch live on flight tracker sites as a DHL plane travels back in time.

Ten we documented the Yesterdelivery and our journey 'back in time' which we filmed and shared with various journalists and news stations.

Then the PR strategy was set in 3 waves starting with mass media, then business media and finally Influencers and sharing it with broadcast channels that ran the story.

It started with a challenge: Everyone claims to be the fastest offering same day delivery. next day etc. So we thought; wouldn't it be amazing if we could use time zone and the international dateline to actually deliver a parcel to the day before it was sent.

We used an actual DHL flight as the media which could be watched online via various flight tracker apps and websites.

The stunt took place over just 1 day from Jan 26th to Jan25th 2024.

We found that there were a few countries where we could pull this off, all in the Pacific ocean which is where the International Dateline comes into play.

Working with the client, we found that DHL already operate 52 flights between Tokyo and LA.

Then in a colossal feat of co-ordination, we worked with logistics teams in both cities, along with film crews

Thousands of people jumped online to witness our DHL flight travel back in time via various flight tracker apps and website which was followed by a comprehensive 4 week PR campaign.

524+ articles

800k Social Media Impressions

46 countries

4.7 Billion Reach

131 Million USD PR Value

43M USD Ad Value