customers

Project:

Midnight delivery of sixth Harry Potter novel “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” via Österr. Post AG’s parcel service

Contractor:

Österreichische Post AG – Business Division KEP (Kurier.Express.Paket)

Agency/Implementation:

communication matters

Project Period:

1st October, 2005

The project had two main goals. Firstly, creating consciousness in the population and in customers about the innovative services and competitiveness of KEP - with the new flexibility the main focus. Secondly, to increase employee identification with the company and its services.  

Strategy

A special KEP delivery service was chosen to create the publicity needed to reach these targets. Thus, partners were selected who could make “parcel delivery” an experience and exciting. A midnight delivery of the sixth Harry Potter novel “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at the earliest possible time of 0:01 a.m. on 1st October was planned with the book-store chain A&M. The campaign should also be carried out for the company employees, as well as part of efficient media work.

Implementation

The midnight delivery of the Harry Potter novel on 1st October was in two parts: on the one hand, a party was organized for employees (by KEP) and, on the other, the delivery of individual parcels was accompanied by journalists (media work supported by communication matters).
KEP organized a Harry Potter party for postal staff and other employees in the nostalgic Orient Express Hall at Südbahnhof train station on the night of 30th September to 1st October. At exactly midnight, postal workers began swarming out of the Orient Express Hall into Vienna with their yellow delivery wagons to the sound of euphoric music to deliver the new Harry Potter book.
communication matters suppported the media work for this event. There were targeted, personal interviews with journalists from print media, radio and TV, firstly at the employee party and later as they accompanied individual postal workers during deliveries.  To ensure there was enough camera footage, the agency organized a Harry Potter party in a private home with ten children waiting for the delivery after midnight, along with an ORF Team, editors from the radio broadcaster 88.6, the “Wiener Zeitung”, “Die Presse” and the “Kronen Zeitung”. Journalists from ATV plus, “Falter” and a further ORF Team accompanied other postal workers during their night’s work. An interview with the radio broadcaster Antenne Wien and intensive contact with editors from the “Kurier”, which had organized its own Harry Potter party, rounded off the media work.