Solution

A DM piece ‘Excuses, Excuses’, was created based on the insight that lapsed members create their own reasons or excuses, for no longer attending WW meetings.  The piece addressed each reason in a positive and empathetic way, while providing a solution to the excuses and focusing on ways to help the member with their personal success, as well as providing them with a teaser of content from the WW programme.

The style of the DM was developed to integrate with other WW communications, featuring sumptuous food shots and lifestyle imagery.  A real member testimonial was also used to demonstrate that everyone does lapse and affirm that WW works. 

Three vouchers were included to act as an incentive to return: 'Free Registration and Free Eating Out Guide' and two 'Introduce a Friend'.  The DM featured a strong call to action to call or click to find your nearest meeting. 

To measure the creative impact and success of the mailing, it was tested against the previous best performing pack for WW – ‘The Little Book of Excuses’ (LBOE), originally mailed in September 2006.

The mailing achieved an average response rate across six segments of over 3.5%.  Response rates in two of the segments actually exceeded 7%.  Comparing the results to the original LBOE mailing the average response rate has increased by over 1%.  The cost per response for Excuses, Excuses outperformed the previous year by £2.71.