The company partnered with Howard Hunt to produce litho and digital print for a campaign aimed at lapsed customers. It printed the same offer on mailings, but the digital version used variable data about the customer while the litho featured images of the clothing collection.

Boden's head of graphic design and production Claire Gibbon said: "Personalisation is more expensive than standard litho and doesn't provide the same economies of scale. The response rate must be higher to justify the extra spend."

The company mailed 130,000 of both the litho and digitally printed mailings.

"The digital had to generate 0.1% better response than the litho to justify the cost increase – and it has exceeded this," she added. "Interestingly, lots of people passed the mailing onto friends and people are starting to re-engage via the website."

The personalised mailing featured messages from founder 'Johnnie B', which included: "Can it really be 6,720 days since we last spoke?" and "I'm sure it's all my fault. I can't help wondering how you got on with your stonewashed logo sweatshirt."

This is the first time Boden has produced a personalised campaign using specific data on customer history.
 
"We had to choose our data carefully," Gibbon stated. "We excluded products that had been returned and needed to carefully screen data to exclude the deceased."

Neil Warburton, customer relationship manager at Boden, said: "Howard Hunt understood we wanted to be genuinely innovative and creative and not just showcase the technology. They worked hard to make the vision of our creative guys work."

Also see:

Very bright Boden