The work is a large outdoor mural that says “This could have been an email”. Coming from an email marketing company, this is cheeky way of challenging the outdoor medium itself, and showing the superior value of email marketing.

This Could Have Been An Email is a hugely popular internet meme. It’s a response to the many long and unnecessary meetings that plague office workers. The meme usually consists of an image of a bored office worker, a cartoon character facepalming- even a United States Senator sleeping- coupled with the text “This could have been an email”. In the context of an outdoor board from Mailchimp however, “This Could Have Been An Email” becomes a fun way to demonstrate that personalized email marketing is superior to OOH.

Situation:

In the summer of 2023, Mailchimp was hosting their first marketing conference in London called From: Here, To: There, wherein attendees would learn how personalized email marketing is often more beneficial than traditional marketing giving marketers greater ROI.

Brief:

The outdoor board promoting the event had to accomplish multiple objectives:

Increase low brand awareness and understanding of Mailchimp in the UK market and

Demonstrate that Mailchimp’s email marketing is a superior option to traditional marketing vehicles.

Objectives:

Drive potential customers to the event and increase sign-ups

Create an outdoor board that would get marketers talking and curious to learn more

The use of the popular internet meme “This Could Have Been An Email” created an impact far beyond what we usually see for a traditional OOH piece. Attendance at our marketing event From: Here, To: There exceeded objectives by almost 20%. Of those attendees, over 60% were prized “high-value” customers and sign-ups exceeded objectives by exactly 100%.

But the effects of the billboard carried far beyond the event. On LinkedIn, Global Marketing Directors, Heads of Media, and advertising pundits praised it, asking “Is email marketing the real champ compared to OOH marketing?” and saying “That’s a nice brief for OOH: Make it so good it becomes social media.”

Total Impressions: 3.5MM

Perception of Mailchimp in the UK market has increased by 92% since the billboard launched