Whistl Doordrop Media Takes Clean Sweep at the DMA Awards

The Whistl Doordrop Media team celebrated an evening of unprecedented success at the 2025 Data & Marketing Association (DMA) Awards, having been awarded a clean sweep in the Unaddressed Print and Door Drops category.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Wins at the DMAs

Having been nominated for four entries, Whistl Doordrop Media came away with each of the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

The top prize was presented for our work alongside Go Inspire on delivering a bumper crop of new online customers for Waitrose.com. Silver was awarded for slashing customer acquisition costs for Oddbox, while Bronze was achieved as a result of exceeding first-order response for Ocado.

Gold for ‘Door Drop Delivers for Waitrose.com’

Waitrose set a clear, operationally grounded objective: "Increase new Waitrose.com customers without cannibalising in-store sales".

The results were exceptional, with customers recruited 287% above target.

Waitrose needed to disrupt the status quo by driving online acquisition whilst protecting physical store performance. To achieve this, a carefully targeted door drop campaign was introduced.

The creative approach was distinctive yet simple: a die-cut Waitrose delivery van paired with three time-sensitive vouchers worth £40 in total.

Every element was tested for clarity and impact to encourage repeat purchases and build lasting habits

The campaign delivered impressive results:

• 287% above target
• ROI of 6.21:1
• 32-day average stay in-home
• Strong repeat spend indicating long-term behaviour change.

This was more than a campaign. It was a data-driven, creatively executed growth strategy that delivered real commercial impact without compromising the brand's physical presence.

Silver for ‘Think Outside the Oddbox’

Door drops had been the lead acquisition channel for Oddbox since the Covid-19 lockdowns. But recently performance had dropped. They teamed up with &You London to review the targeting strategy and develop new creative to test against a control area and improve campaign response tracking.

The goal was straightforward: return the cost per acquisition (CPA) for door drops to under £100 for a new customer.

To kick-off, the &You Zebra system was used to combine customer Mosaic profiling with Open Banking data to identify high levels of spend on sustainable products and subscription services.

Plus, overlaying high penetration levels of loyal, existing customers to finalise our selection of around 250 postcode sectors. This gave us 600,000 homes to target with door drops, with 100,000 homes protected as a control area to compare results.

The creative was a much simpler, but hugely creative two-page execution to test against the control format of an A5 four-pager. The key difference being our new creative was an ‘odd-shaped’ cut-out of an aubergine, which was designed to stand out on the doormat.

As well as door drops, a smaller batch of Partially Addressed Mailings targeted at sectors with less audience coverage was tested. 

With regards to tracking, combined direct clicks from QR codes alongside subscription uplifts in targeted areas were compared to the period directly before the campaign.

Again, the results demonstrated a highly effective campaign:

• CPA dramatically dropped to just £42 for the new 2pp aubergine cut out creative, almost the same levels as in lockdown. PAM delivered a respectable CPA of £109.
• The campaign delivered a 1,648% uplift against the previous performance of the newly targeted postcode sectors.
• Over 3,500 web visits driven by the QR codes.

Bronze for ‘Delivering Sticky Acquisition for Ocado’

As a challenger brand in the grocery sector, Ocado faced a familiar challenge: how to acquire customers in a crowded, promotion-led market without sacrificing long term value to voucher vultures.

Competing with industry giants, we couldn't outspend on reach, so we had to outthink the competition with our intelligent targeting.

Using Ocado's proprietary targeting model and Mosaic segmentation, we identified high value households while excluding low value segments.

By focusing on fallow areas with growth potential and applying geo-demographic insights, we ensured efficiency and margin.

JICMAIL insights played a crucial role in shaping and validating our approach.

We began by analysing the competitive landscape: supermarkets were heavily present on the doormat, with Farmfoods dominating share of voice. This confirmed both the opportunity and the need for Ocado to differentiate.

JICMAIL format data also guided creative choices. While die-cut formats showed strong engagement, we prioritised efficiency. Opting for A5 allowed us to reach significantly more households.

This decision was underpinned by JICMAIL's proven 1.05 reach multiplier, ensuring that impressions and secondary readership amplified distribution and essentially allowed us to really play to the channel's strength - reach!

Creatively, Easter was the perfect moment. Seasonal design and playful copy highlighted Ocado's range with urgency and relevance.

Crucially, the promotion was structured to encourage customers through to a fifth shop, ensuring retention was embedded within the acquisition strategy.

Function took precedence with the practical A5 format balancing impact and accessibility.

The results spoke volumes:

• First-order response exceeded target by 20%.
• Customers completing five shops outperformed average by 45%.
• Predicted first-year LTV rose 26%.
• Highest ever ROI for an Ocado door drop.

The campaign also delivered positive halo effects across Paid Search, Social, and SEO, proving door drops' strategic role.

What are the DMA Awards?

Labelled as ‘refreshingly hard to win’, the Data & Marketing Association Awards represent the gold standard for creative and data-driven marketers.

Categories are broken down into: Industry Sectors, Channels, Campaigns, For Good, Data and Tech, and Craft, with the headline prize going to the Grand Prix winner.

Whistl Doordrop Media has enjoyed a slew of prizes in recent years, including 2024’s Silver for its growth-focussed campaign with Majestic Wine. In 2023, the Doordrop Media team took home Silver and Bronze for winning work alongside Abel & Cole and Princess Cruises respectively.

About Whistl

The Whistl Group is a £820m+ revenue delivery management company that provides fulfilment, parcels, mail, leaflet advertising, and contact centre services in the UK and internationally. 

Whistl Doordrop Media is the UK market leader in audience targeting and leaflet services.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Paul Donlon: 020 3355 0959 or email pdonlon@owlms.com