Direct mail case study: Reyka’s themed stereoscopes

In the face of a wearied consumer landscape that had witnessed countless tried and tested party themes in the name of vodka, Reyka was looking for a unique touch for its launch event.

Reyka – a handcrafted and small-batch Icelandic vodka – sought to enter the premium vodka market with an immersive and unique experience to intrigue guests. The idea was to put across the inventive Icelandic culture as a point of differentiation and drive brand preference.

With the help of its creative agency Goodstuph, key influencers from various creative industries were invited to create a cascading effect of brand preference to the rest of the consumers. These people are at the forefront of cool and are highly courted by brands. A good idea and impeccable execution was needed to get their attention. When you live on the edge of the arctic, you need to know how to have fun.

The solution was to use Iceland’s unique culture to create a space that would allow consumers to experience Reyka very differently – not just through the act of tasting the vodka, but also through a sensory encounter with the brand and its stories.

Therefore the entire premise of the experience was to create an unexpected, inventive wonderland that provided a view into Iceland and its quirkiness. With this, it knew the run of the mill printed paper invites wouldn’t cut it for such a unique event.

It created a view into Iceland with an inventive analog toy – a stereoscope. The stereoscopes were customised with the Reyka branding and 3D reels were created containing the fairy tale storyline of the creation of Reyka and the details of the event. These branded stereoscopes were then packed into plastic toy packaging and hand delivered to a targeted guest list.

The results

The brand received an 80% response rate to invites sent out, with more than 250 creative opinion leaders attending the event, and an additional 45 media guests participating in the media preview hosted by its Reyka regional ambassador.

During the event, the team saw:

• 750 or more trials of the product with positive feedback.
• 156 social media posts about the event were also made, of which 14 were celebrity posts, equating to an outreach to 193,014 followers, with total estimated PR value of more than SG$70,000.
• Total estimated PR value of more than SG$141,954 for both online and print coverage.

What was most encouraging was the overwhelming response and positive feedback received at the event, with more than three mentions of the Reyka encounter being “one of the best launches” of the year.

The writer is Felle Lim, regional brand manager, William Grant & Sons.

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