Our approach to marketing and PR has helped to generate 10% more entries, 15% more new exhibitors, over 10,000 new visitors through the gates, 10 new key sponsors (including 2 international companies) and support from all the major multiples.

"I never expected the show to be so big – I certainly didn't think there would be this much cheese"
James Martin

"I entered the marquee and just thought there were too many cheeses to believe. I've never seen so much before! I think the show is absolutely incredible and so well organised"
Gino D'Acampo

"I don't mind getting up for the International Cheese Awards – with over 3,700 cheeses in one place – a cheeseboard as big as a football pitch"
Alex James

PCD Agency was appointed to work with Benenden Health on the development of a new website to act as an information platform to provide members of the society with information on potential changes to the organisation.

A hardworking website was required to communicate the proposed changes to the members of the society and furnish them with an online presence to communicate their thoughts on the proposed changes back to Benenden Health. The site had to be responsive and agile to allow the communications team at Benenden Health to update.

PCD Agency developed a website solution for Benenden Health using an Open Source platform with an intuitive and User friendly Content Management System to allow the Benenden Health communications team to be able to manage and update the content as well as respond to member comments and feedback.

The website was developed to include a forum for members of the society to provide feedback and debate a number of hot topics. The website was developed to be able to manage a variety of media within the CMS to provide the target audience with the necessary updates on matters affecting the organisation.

Due to the sensitive nature of the content being discussed on the website and to contain the discussion within the Benenden Health member base and not open up the forum to the wider web, the website had to be made invisible to the search engines as well.

We worked with PCD Agency on a website project for Benenden Health which was integral to the future of our organisation.

PCD Agency's methodology and planning throughout the project to deliver the end product was well considered, well planned and logical. The Content Management System integrated into the website was intuitive and straightforward to use, PCD provided the marketing team responsible for the update of our website with CMS training and were supportive and helpful with any questions we had. The project management team at the agency were personable and gave answers to our queries in layman's terminology.

The team at PCD took the brief and delivered an end product which was creative, on brand and delivered to scope and on schedule. The website was certainly well received both internally and externally and ultimately the end objective for our organisation was achieved.

"I would not hesitate to recommend PCD Agency and certainly intend to work with them again."

Lawrence Christensen, Head of Sales & Marketing, Benenden Health

As part of an on-going commitment to the wider community, the Faith Through A Lens photography competition is an annual faith based event to profile faith in the community. PCD Agency has worked with Congregational & General Insurance on the competition for a number of years now.

The competition is open to members of the general public and visitors to the site are encouraged to vote for their favourite entry.

Voting for the Faith Through A Lens photography competition is made online by visitors to the website. The website solution delivered across the years by PCD Agency has to be able to manage and record all of the entries as well as display and record them in a number of different file formats across the course of the competition. There are typically 5 to 6 distinct stages to the Faith Through A Lens photography competition each year.

The Agency develops a new creative look and feel for the competition each year and then manages the build and development of the website over the distinct phases associated with the competition through to the final awards ceremony.

The website and the accompanying Content Management System needed to be able to handle changing dynamic content and pages from the initial promotion of the competition early in the year through to the voting stages of the competition, the close of the voting, the selection of the final entrants and the awards ceremony to celebrate the winners.

A lot of the build work for the competition website involved the build and development of bespoke code to deliver the solution as required by the Client for the purpose of the competitions online presence.

After a corporate restructure and the development of an accompanying new brand identity by PCD Agency, the opportunity arose to develop a new intranet for the newly christened Iconica Business Services.

The project involved the design, development and build of a shiny new intranet for the team at Iconica within tight deadlines as the corporate restructure happened.

The brief was to develop a creative, contemporary and dynamic intranet solution to replace the existing intranet that had been in place for a number of years at Congregational & General Insurance, the previous incarnation at Iconica. It was necessary for the new Intranet site to have more dynamic elements for the members of staff at iconica to engage with as well as the ability for the marketing team to moderate User comments.

PCD Agency responded with the development of a new intranet for Iconica which the marketing and business services team would be able to manage via an intuitive and responsive Content Management System. An Open Source option was selected as the right platform for the scope of the project and the intranet was developed to synchronise with the Clients existing business systems and protocols. Dynamic and eye-catching content was created to ensure that the internal Users at Iconica would be able to interact more with the intranet and that the internal teams involved with its upkeep would be able to continue to utilise.

PCD Agency was appointed to work with the EDGE Hotel School, the first University in the UK to offer students the opportunity to learn on the job in a fully functioning boutique hotel, on their online presence.

A hardworking website was required to communicate the proposition for the EDGE Hotel School as well as a manageable Facebook platform featuring bespoke modular content. Facebook was selected as an appropriate channel to talk with potential students and the purpose of the website was to act as a platform to convey the proposition to a varied target audience of students, key influencers, sponsors and key stakeholders.

Our solutions needed to meet the primary objectives of engaging with the audience and acting as a recruitment channel. PCD Agency developed the Facebook website for EDGE Hotel School, using an Open Source platform with an intuitive and User friendly Content Management System to allow the EDGE marketing team to be able to manage and update the content. The website featured an online application form, all the information an interested student might require and a plethora of contact points for interested parties.

The Facebook presence was built using the Content Management System developed by the PCD team to allow the Client to be able to manage and update bespoke content and modules which featured on their fully branded bespoke Facebook page including contact forms and the ability to manage variety of media. The Content Management system was accessible by secure web browser via the team at EDGE Hotel School to allow them to manage the content instantaneously and built using an Open Source platform.

As an Aviva roster agency, we were briefed on the campaign launch for the soon to be launched Guaranteed Fund Selection.

Aviva previously had a Guaranteed Fund where 100% of the money invested was guaranteed. As expected, this Fund had appealed to risk adverse investors but did limit growth potential, therefore Aviva planned to launch two more Funds into the portfolio, one where 90% of the investment was guaranteed, the other 80%.

PCD's brief was to come up with an overall concept for the Fund selection portfolio which clearly communicated the differing level of risk and reward, and execute the campaign through sales collateral, B2B IFA advertisements, POS and online banners.

With our understanding of the Aviva brand and our strategic thinking caps on, four creative concepts and rationales were presented back to Aviva. Our winning concept centered around three groups of walkers/hikers: the experienced couple heading for the higher risk, high level path; the intermediate walkers following a more sensible path; and the casual walkers following a safe, low level streamside route.

With the concept approved, we brought the initial scamped visuals to life through a photo shoot in The Lake District.

The list of campaign deliverables was prioritised and project managed successfully by PCD to meet a tight launch date. PCD liaised with Aviva online teams, external publications and print managers to smoothly manage what became a sizeable cross-discipline project.

Market feedback and take-up has been very positive to the Guaranteed Fund Selection with IFAs now having a wider choice of funds to offer their clients and additional sales have increased in line with expectations.

"A really satisfying project to get involved with, from initial brief to completion of a multi faceted, high profile campaign. There were trying times – the heavens opened for three hours on the photo shoot in The Lakes – but the end result was a something that the agency is really proud of."

Tim Barber, Client Services Director, PCD

"Thank you to PCD and the team for all your hard work and helping us keep on track with the Guaranteed Fund Selection project. We're really pleased with the outcome and it has gone down really well internally"

Gwen Warrilow, Senior Communications Consultant, Aviva

PCD had worked with Aviva Investors to deliver Perspective magazine on a biannual basis for three years. Historically, the magazine was distributed with biannual statements to investors to update them on key changes in the market, changes to their investment and as a tool to promote new funds.

From a review of the market, we knew that there was an opportunity to present this information in a more engaging format.

Through new technology which allowed for significant levels of personalisation, we created one personalised statement which combined the content of the magazine and the statement.

Critically, the creative obviously had to follow the Aviva brand guidelines, have the standout and appeal of the former magazine and take into account the design limitations of the statement pages.

We delivered individual artwork for each of the pages within the statement. In addition, header graphics were created for the statement pages and filler pages were created as appropriate.

As this was a significant departure from the previous approach of statement and magazine, we worked incredibly closely with the mailing house and Aviva Investors to ensure absolute success.

Not only was the statement booklet designed as a more engaging way to inform customers of their investment status, but it was also more cost effective with a reduction in overall pagination. The integration of all content into a single piece increased the likelihood of customers reading and enquiring about other Aviva products and the format has been adopted more widely with the Aviva business.

Aviva Investors were sending out their investor statements with a generic customer magazine to the whole of their investor database. They identified a need to communicate targeted content to their investor database, thus engaging with them in a more meaningful and relevant way. They came to PCD with a print solution and our brief was to develop the project from there.

We first looked at the different investor profiles and how and why we might speak to them differently. We began to collate content relevant to each investor type and interesting articles and appropriate advertising was developed for each segment.

PCD Agency responded with the design of a highly personalised A4 booklet with tear out bi annual statements, sitting alongside relevant content specific to each type of investor and the investments they currently held with Aviva. This ensured an engaging and informative read and facilitated cross sell of other Aviva products. Iconic London imagery was sourced and developed as a creative theme to give the piece maximum standout.

The piece was well received across the business and across Aviva Investors' customer base. The statements are now produced in this way going forward and themed to reflect current affairs such as the 2012 Olympics.

Increased customer engagement was achieved encapsulating the Aviva brand positioning of putting the customer at the heart of everything they do.

England World Cup winner and British Lion Neil Back was planning a parachute jump to raise money for Help for Heroes.

With a limited budget, PCD Agency was asked to come up with a strategy to maximize fundraising potential for the campaign, leveraging Neil Back's connections with Yorkshire and the rugby community.

PCD decided on a two pronged attack to initially gain involvement with the sky dive and then to raise extra funds by keeping awareness high post jump.

The whole campaign was branded Back to Earth, and PCD's visual identity was applied to every part of the marketing campaign.

We approached the Red Devils, the Parachute Regiment Freefall display team and managed to book 30 places for a 13,000ft jump, then suggested Neil rope in some of his ex-England colleagues, including Josh Lewsey, Henry Paul and Harry Ellis.

The other 26 places were sold on the basis of a minimum fundraising commitment of £1500 each through a website where people could donate, find out more about Back to Earth or register interest.

We speculatively approached the Great Yorkshire Show about the possibility of a free promotional pitch and The Red Devils parachuting into the Showground as part of the entertainment to present Neil Back and wounded soldier Tom Neathway, a cheque for money raised.

Utilizing favours, PR, social media, viral marketing, free advertising and word of mouth we were able to create a lot of noise in national press, local and rugby circles due to the link with Help for Heroes and Neil Back's involvement.

Twitter and Facebook proved to be great ways of getting word out. We set up and managed Neil Back to Earth Twitter account and Facebook page, generating thousands of followers and receiving re-tweets from the likes of Gabby Logan, Greg from Master Chef and Will Carling!

The places on the plane were all filled including a party of 10 Dubai businessmen coming directly from the Twitter activity.

Managing logistics at The Great Yorkshire Show was a huge undertaking, but fortunately everything ran to plan and the mobilization of a volunteer group of bucket holders, taking advantage of this emotive event, raised an extra £3k in small change!

Ultimately this was about more than a successful marketing campaign.

This was an opportunity for us to give something back and the time and resource we donated was handsomely rewarded, generating over £55,000 for Help for Heroes.

Pulling together an event of this magnitude, with little or no promotional budget, showed how important clever viral and social networking could be.

"A massive thanks to PCD for all their help with making Back to Earth a reality – and especially for Tim Barber in leading the team"

Neil Back MBE, England World Cup Winner & British Lion, Back To Earth

"An unbelievable achievement – beyond all our expectations"

Annabel Bowman, Communications, Help For Heroes

High Street TV have their own TV Channel (Sky 648) selling a wide range of innovative products to make you fitter, healthier, look and feel better and make your life easier.

PCD's brief was to develop an effective web based sales channel and seamlessly integrate into existing payment and fulfilment systems.

Our requirements gathering phase identified the following must-haves for the site: client managed product portfolio, video streaming, quick and easy category and product updates and the ability for the platform to transfer to other countries (there was a subsequent roll out to Australia, Ireland and the USA.)

The site creative was designed as upbeat, dynamic and product focused. Essentially, it needed to clearly establish the relationships between High Street TV and the product brands.

Using best practice guidelines, the site shopping and purchasing was designed to encourage account creation and minimise cart abandonment by making the payment process as easy and intuitive as possible.

We also developed a series of product specific PPC microsites on a payment by results basis.

PCD have developed High Street TV's brand and web presence based on supporting the Sky channel and the tremendous exposure and buyer interest this generates. We have developed innovative strategies to deliver video content and a slick easy user shopping experience and have produced a site which:

• Has a market leading site visitor to purchase ratio
• Has a cart abandonment rate of almost half of the industry standard
• Is well developed and ranked for SEO
• Is capable of dealing with high volumes of detailed financial transactions on a secure and stable platform

Leeds City Council's Leisure Services division wanted to explore digital personalisation for the recruitment and retention of Bodyline gym memberships.

With increased competition from independent gyms, Leeds City Leisure Services had been finding recruitment of new members harder, but had also had noticed more recently that drop off rates for memberships were starting to increase.

In line with the range of different types of member, of differing life stages, using the gym in many different ways, we created 6 key test segments split by age and gender and created relevant messages and imagery for each.

But the key to the success of the campaign would be driving response to a Personalised URL (PURL). This would not only add to the engagement of the initial campaign, but also welcome people personally to their own website where they would be asked a series of questions to identify their specific requirements/interests.

The details of the responders were recorded and passed onto the relevant local leisure centre to arrange a trial and sign them up.

A series of Leeds City Leisure Services branded postcards and emails were created by PCD and sent to data files supplied from Experian.

The launch in the first week of January capitalized on New Year resolutions and the campaign led with lines such as New Year, New You and Your body, Your Bodyline.

The second stage of the project was to make the PURL even more interactive so it became an important part of the retention strategy, allowing the member to set goals, plot fitness, monitor weight and record activity.

As an initial test, the response was 20% above the required break even. The learning gained has allowed us to develop the strategy and fine tune to ensure improved response for future activity.

"The clever use of digital personalization and innovative PURL technology really brought this project to life, dramatically improving response for Leeds City Leisure Services."

Tim Barber, Client Services Director

MPS is the leading provider of comprehensive professional indemnity and expert advice to doctors, dentists and health care professionals with more than 270,000 members worldwide.

Future medical professionals are recruited by MPS as students and are communicated with throughout their medical career.

Their existing communications with students were very corporate and professional and a need was established for MPS to be portrayed as more 'up to date' and in tune with their student members.

We selected Facebook as an appropriate new channel for engagement with MPS student members.

Whilst working within the Facebook pages and core features such as liking the page in order to access content, we needed to establish a balance between the seriousness of the subject and the organisation and the inherently social nature of Facebook.

Our solution needed to meet the primary objective of engaging this audience through a wealth of delivered content, support and resources aimed at the trainee doctor and medical professional and features content relevant to them.

We recommended bright, eyecatching, content rich pages to engage the target audience and create dialogue.

Stepping into the social media arena was a big step for MPS who, traditionally, are a very corporate and professional organisation.

We delivered a standout Facebook site filled with interesting and relevant content for medical students and junior doctors. Everything from free revision material and publications to competitions ensured that the page 'likes' were increasing at an impressive rate and members were posting on the wall and creating the desired dialogue with MPS.

In the context of this niche audience, in the three months post launch, the site attracted an impressive 1,200 likes and has been well received throughout MPS. The social media monitoring agency employed by MPS commented that it was one of the best corporate presences they had seen on Facebook.

PCD Agency was asked to consider how best to control the production of marketing material and direct mail across 300 local NFU Mutual branches. There were clear needs to ensure compliance regulation and brand consistency, and to identify and capitalise on cross sell opportunities to existing branch customers.

Additionally, we were asked to look at improving ease of ordering and production for branches and options for allowing branches to produce their own local advertisements and posters without using Head Office marketing resource.

We discovered that branches enjoyed running independently, so suggested using a system which allowed them to use a comprehensive selection of compliance approved marketing templates.

Each branch was than given a unique log in to access these templates and personalise them with their own unique details, team pictures and local imagery.

They could then upload their data files and order digitally personalised packs which would be produced and mailed on their behalf at the click of a mouse.

We then helped NFU Mutual identify a hierarchy of cross sell messages and opportunities based on customers' existing products.

Working with our strategic partners, Gecko, we re-branded their i-Dink system to NFU Boomerang.

This was uploaded with a wide selection of direct mail, advertising, poster and general collateral templates all based on our strategic thinking, designed by us and signed off by the brand team.

This instantly gave NFU Mutual more effective control over branches, while still allowing them the freedom they so wanted.

Initially the system was tested on a limited number of branches with cross sell response rates averaging out at 4.5% and the roll out to more branches is now underway on a phased basis with continuing levels of success.

Our solution allowed the production of hard working marketing collateral which can be highly personalised for NFU Mutual's branch network, whilst still being compliant and on brand.

We've saved NFU Mutual's marketing team time and resource whilst making life easier for busy branch owners. The new templates and ability for extra personalisation has reaped rewards with response rates exceeding expectation.

"I'm really proud of PCD's involvement with this project. As well as coming up with a marketing solution which benefits all parties we have developed a series of hard working DM packs where response continues to exceed expectation"

Tim Barber, Client Services Director, PCD

NFU Mutual are the UK's largest rural insurer and a mutual organization, run solely for the benefit of their members/customers. They have over 300 branches throughout the country with local agents selling insurance and investment products.

Starting off as a specialist insurer for farmers – NFU Mutual began insuring businesses and individuals outside of farming in the 80's, but have retained the values and brand that saw them become one of the most respected insurers specifically for country and farming folk.

NFU Mututal believe that what sets them apart is how they deal with their 990,000+ customers. The branch network is an important part of this – so people can always meet face-to-face.

The relationship began when PCD Agency speculatively approached NFU Mutual in 2009 with some ideas we had for possible improvements around loyalty, engagement and cross sell.

Our approach to NFU Mutual had come at the perfect time. Frustrated with the lack of control and the varying quality of communications coming out directly from each branch, the Local Marketing support team were keen to find ways of gaining greater control to ensure that all material was on brand and compliant.

There was also a need to give the branches templates for various products/cross sells which could be personalised by individual branch managers.

Our local marketing print management system called Boomerang allows for easier production of personalised communications from different branches.

The system allowed branch staff to access a range of marketing collateral to which their own could be added and which print could be instantly ordered.

PCD reviewed existing packs and produced a range of hard working, direct material which had an immediate positive effect on response.

PCD also helped create various customer journeys dependent on product take up including hierarchy of cross sells.

The success of the local marketing activity led to our input being noticed by the Direct Marketing division and their activity around Home Insurance and Motor insurance.

The banker Home insurance pack had started to show decline in response of what was a one size fits all generic pack. We started analyzing key marketing segments and within the 14 key Mosaic segments, there were a number of distinct groups of people. Our solution was to use variable digital personalization to allow us to target more relevant messages and imagery to the different groups.

With initial test results looking favourable, PCD were briefed to go through the same exercise with NFU Mutual's Motor Insurance product.

We've since been brought in by another different team – which deals with communicating specifically to NFU Mutual's High Net Worth customers.

Given the value of the business to NFU Mutual, the communication to this group of customers is seen as vitally important to the business and requires a different approach to the core work.

NFU Mutual continue to work with PCD across a number of business areas – so we must be doing something right! Joking aside – our work across all areas of the business is accountable – and results continue to speak for themselves.

We have recently started a review of the whole Email process for the Digital and Online division.

Rawlins Paints have been supplying specialist trade paints around the Leeds area since 1892.

As a fundamental part of their business expansion Rawlins came to PCD to develop their new online sales channel. From a greenfield start, we developed a robust and user managed ecommerce solution with would enable them to trade throughout the UK, rather than in the immediate location, and securely accept and process orders.

This new website had to be professional and trade user-friendly and encourage large purchases whilst inspiring further exploration through its product range and manufacturers.

This also presented Rawlins Paints with the opportunity to develop their brand identity ahead of being thrust into the web limelight.

A hardworking website was needed to sell products, grow awareness of the brand and build a strong database to be used at a later date. We therefore recommended a full ecommerce site with a database driven product back end for client managed flexibility. It was also important that this site integrated with existing systems, was scalable to meet future growth and had a full content management system so product updates, amends and additions could be done in-house.

Our work continues well after the specification, design and build phases are complete. Analysis of users' purchasing habits has led to continual improvements to the customer journey.

Today, the site has a dynamic homepage displaying the most visited pages and products, minimising clicks, maximising SEO benefits and creating opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

There's also a product carousel using cookies to remember the pages visited so, on their next visit, relevant images can be used to help in the buying process.

Improvements have also been made to onsite SEO, included the development of mega dropdown menus, brand pages, FAQ pages, case studies and a glossary.

We've even created Online Chat, giving customers an additional way to communicate with the experts at Rawlins Paints.

Since the website's launch, Rawlins Paints has increased its workforce by 300% to cope with increased demand as this impressive new sales channel transforms their business model.

To help grow sales, Rawlins Paints supports the site with in-house PPC Campaigns and with our help have set up Google Shopping and a blog, as well as Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Finally, we have designed and broadcast an email template that can be updated and reused with different promotional items.

"Developing a robust Ecommerce was critical to building our business. We wanted a partner that could deliver the site, but could also help us align the brand and support us through the whole process of becoming an online business. PCD delivered on all fronts."

Ben Pickford, Director, Rawlins Paints

"Working with Rawlins Paints and being involved in establishing a thriving new sales channel has been very rewarding for the whole PCD team. Rawlins are a fantastic client because they are always open to take on new ideas and innovations. We've been involved from the start of this venture and have delivered solutions across the business, with the website at its heart."

Phil Crossland, Managing Director, PCD

Noting a significant segment of account holders who had opened, but not spent on their accounts, we were briefed to develop a campaign which would encourage account activation through direct mail and email, for 5 Travis Perkins Group brands. The overriding objective for all activity was to push the customer into branch to spend on their account.

Naturally, we developed a campaign using creative and a tone of voice appropriate to the audience and brand. The delivery of a direct message was underpinned by a push to branch. In the emails, the recipients' local branch details are set up as dynamic fields populated from the customer database, to ensure the emails are personalised and relevant using Google mapping.

We then developed emails for each of the campaigns – including new customer activation, dormants and lapsed promotions. Some of the campaigns are heavily offer-driven, whilst others are focused around a concept – the appropriate use of copy and imagery is key to supporting each of them successfully.

The activation campaign has yielded a response rate of 19.9% and an ROI of 1:12, the format of direct mail and email has been extended to the dormant customer file and recent results have seen response rates of 34% and an ROI of 1:49.

"I am very happy with the work that PCD have done for Travis Perkins. Not only have the results been successful but the team have followed brand guidelines accurately as well as adding value to the creative and personalisation. In conjunction with the emails, PCD provide email tracking helping us to test, learn and refine our campaigns as they evolve."

Saul Michelson, Head of CRM, Travis Perkins Plc

Travis Perkins Plc currently owns 16 merchanting and DIY businesses, including Travis Perkins, Keyline and Wickes and the majority of our work has been on their Travis Perkins, City Plumbing Supplies, Keyline, CCF and Benchmarx brands.

PCD and Travis Perkins started working together in November 2009 when we are appointed as their lead Direct Marketing agency. Our relationship has developed and we are now their sole CRM agency and our role has been to act as extension to their team – in spotting opportunities, planning and delivering CRM activity, both on and offline.

We have a strong relationship with Travis Perkins which has been built upon strong, open and regular communication including monthly face-to-face WIP meetings (and contact reports), weekly WIP reporting, through report & teleconference), annual and quarterly strategy meetings and annual review meetings.

Our biggest campaigns for Travis Perkins have included the Activation campaign and our customer journey mapping work.

In 2010 we developed a series of email templates to support the offline CRM contact strategy, including campaigns to their activation, dormants and lapsed customer segments.

At the time there was no planned email activity and no access to email results data. The templates were developed to help uplift the results on the CRM campaigns and to set results benchmarks for email communications.

Due to the purchase process on the various Travis Perkins brands, the call to action on the emails has to be 'by phone' or 'visit a branch', rather than click to buy online (the websites are non-transactional).

Despite this, we have achieved success through the templates – one notable result is an uplift of £330k incremental sales attributed to email on the lapsed campaign. Voucher downloads have been used to measure the success of email promotions.

As the programme evolved, we conducted tests on subject line, creative and broadcast time testing and are currently developing a robust testing plan and templates.

In 2011 we introduced an Early development programme for 3 brands (Travis Perkins, City Plumbing Supplies, Benchmarx), based on a recommendation from the customer journey mapping exercise.

The programme begins when new customers have made their first purchase with the key objective of confirming that the customer has made the right decision and to tell them about the additional services that the issuing brand can offer.

Due to different buying behaviours displayed by customers on the 3 brands, the approach was different for the 3 brands. For Travis Perkins and City Plumbing Services we developed a two-stage programme – a reinforcement pack promoting added value services, followed by an offer-based pack with very direct messaging. For Benchmarx, we hit customers with just one pack combining offer and added value messaging.

During the customer journey mapping exercise, we had identified an opportunity to uplift spend and frequency amongst low-spending customers. Travis Perkins had tested a low-spenders promotion in the past, with little success.

Two specific customer segments were identified – inconsistent low spenders and multi-branch low spenders – and we developed direct mail creative to answer the specific needs of these groups. Initial results have been very positive and an internal systems development means Travis Perkins will be producing more advanced versions of the pack creative in 2012.

We have recently been asked to plan and deliver a brand new CRM programme for their own-brand product range.