An odd-shaped door drop delivered perfect results for oddbox

Background

Oddbox, the subscription service that delivers misshapen fruit and vegetable, had been using door drops successfully to acquire customers for several years.  They had spread their net wide and garnered useful learnings. So, in a ‘less is more’ approach – fitting with the sustainably-minded brand– Oddbox set out use their data insights and learnings to greatly reduce the number of postcode sectors they targeted, ultimately reducing the number of door drops they sent.

The aim was to:

• To increase response rates
• Reduce wastage 
• Improve the CPA 

Solution

Working with their partner &You agency, Oddbox re-profiled their most loyal customers and then combined this new Mosaic profile with Open-banking data to identify sectors with best coverage of people with active interest in sustainability and food subscription services. 

You then overlaid existing customer levels to ensure they were hitting sectors that had larger existing Oddbox communities and higher levels of social media interactions and buzz about the brand.  This identified 250 postcode sectors for the test campaign plus a roll out potential to a further 2,500 sectors and potential for huge growth from the channel. 

With a more focussed targeting strategy in place, Oddbox set out to make their door drop creative more focussed and impactful.  The control creative was busy, with all the right brand messages, but almost too much for the reader to take in. To achieved greater impact on the doormat, Oddbox took the bold step of using an odd-shaped format, cut out in the shape of an aubergine. It had no headline, just the offer, creating intrigue and cut through. They also took the bold step of stripping back messaging to just the core brand messages – this ensured that the offer shone. The aim was to let the fruit and veg do the talking and get attention!  If it worked it also became a scalable idea allowing for multiple future campaigns to the same postal sectors using a range of odd-shaped fruit & veg... squash... cucumbers... or bunch of bananas!

Multiple ways to respond were included including a QR code to help drive important traffic to the website where conversion to subscription was already good. And, to ensure that only the creative and targeting were being tested, all offers were kept the same as previous campaigns and the control.  

Results

Oddbox’s focussed segmentation and messaging delivered exceptional results instantly, validating door drops as a highly efficient and scalable channel. CPA was £42 – well under the target of £100 and nearly as low as the days of lockdown.  The campaign reached new postcode sectors, allowing Oddbox to spread their odd-word and increase traction for the brand compared to digital only activity in the previous months.  Traffic from the QR code increased by 600%, delivering a response rate of 0.6%

These results have given Oddbox the confidence to extend their targeting into the 2,500 new sectors identified in the initial segmentation, meaning c5 millions homes could now be targeted to become new Oddbox homes.

Source: DMA Award Entry 2025, Unaddressed Print and Door Drop