Quadient

Spark and Quadient: Uncovering the scourge of “porch piracy”

An award-winning low-budget, high-impact, repeatable campaign that consumerised a B2B tech solution by uncovering the scourge of “porch piracy”. The data-led campaign positioned Parcel Pending by Quadient’s parcel locker network as the solution to a £200m problem that impacts consumers, retailers and couriers alike. Generating original data with FOI requests made to every police force in the UK, backed by a targeted national, broadcast and trade media relations strategy, Spark demonstrated that Quadient’s parcel lockers are the future of deliveries.

Objective

To create a platform for demonstrating how secure parcel lockers can help prevent package theft across the UK – using original data to create thought-provoking content, support PR and marketing campaigns and deliver quality media coverage.

Story

Creativity was critical to maximising ROI, meeting the campaign's objective, and reaching multiple target audiences. The Spark team came up with the idea of using Freedom of Information requests submitted to all UK police forces. The FOIs were designed to generate novel porch piracy data that could support a targeted media relations campaign.

Combining the analysis with other police data, Citizens Advice Bureau figures, and ONS population data, Spark created multiple “cuts” of the data to deliver regional and UK-wide results. This allowed the team to calculate the size of the UK porch piracy economy, producing data points such as the average value of theft by region, “worst” areas for theft, and common times of day theft occurs.

The research launched two weeks before Black Friday 2023 with the knowledge that journalists would be covering parcels and deliveries ahead of the festive shopping period. The team designed bespoke angles and pitches to appeal to the audiences of broadcast and radio outlets, national press, regional press and vertical media.

The campaign is fast becoming a mainstay of the UK news schedule – Spark and Quadient repeated it in 2024, using updated angles and fresh data to show how the scourge of Porch Piracy is evolving.

Results

Led by the PR team, this campaign's real success was realised through close integration with Quadient’s marketing team. Content, including blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, and infographics, supplemented the PR and thought-leadership outreach to maximise the impact.

The campaign generated more than 50 pieces of unique coverage, reaching a combined circulation of more than 758 million. The story spurred multiple inbound requests from journalists, which still continue, and secured coverage in a “who’s who” of national and regional outlets, broadcast programmes, influencers, and trade media – including BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC ‘Rip off Britain’, ITV This Morning, The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, and Daily Mail. The story even prompted Avon and Somerset Police to issue advice to local citizens about porch thefts around Christmas.

The campaign has helped assert Quadient’s position as an expert on “porch piracy”, and raised awareness of the value of parcel lockers and Quadient’s Open Locker Network.

The campaign’s success has continued unabated in 2024: it won the PRCA Award for 'Best B2B Campaign', and the updated version is already making waves with coverage from ITV News, Good Morning Britain, LBC and The Times.

  • 50+ pieces of unique media coverage including BBC Radio 5 Live, Financial Times and Daily Mail
  • LinkedIn campaign created 219 reactions, comments, reposts; 2,621 video views; engagement of up to 16%
  • Discussed by media and celebrity influencers including Rylan Clark, Harry Wallop and Kirstie Allsopp