Financial Times Elusive Breeds direct mail campaign

UK newspapers have been struggling to persuade media buyers to buy advertising space in their publications. The Financial Times wanted to remind this difficult-to-impress audience that the FT is an essential media choice for reaching high net worth individuals.

Touch DDB came up with ‘A Complete Spotter’s Guide to the Word’s Most Elusive breeds’, a B2B mailer which uses a bird spotting theme to profile FT readers.

With classifications such as ‘toppus doggem’ (opinion leader) and ‘money baggus’ (high net worth individual) the beautifully illustrated booklet reveals the FT’s knowledge of its readership in an amusing, memorable way. More importantly, it helped information-overloaded buyers to quickly navigate their way through audience data. 

Around 300 of the FT’s existing contacts received a pair of FT branded binoculars along with their booklets, and a further 1,000 booklets were mailed to media planners and buyers across the paper's other key markets - Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The campaign increased overall visits to the FT advertising website by 350%. It also scored well for Touch DDB at the annual MCCA awards in March 2010, winning four awards including Best Small Budget Communication Campaign, Best Writing, and the Best Communication Campaign Featuring Direct Marketing.