With companies increasingly realising the power of social media, the Post Office has launched a holiday initiative that it hopes will win it back market share.

With rising competition in the parcel delivery market, the Post Office has seen its market share nosedive in recent years. Partnering with key social media channels, however, it hopes its  ‘Pass the Parcel’ campaign will encourage users to consider it again.

The scheme will also be used to promote large and smaller packaging sizes, as well as advertise the longer opening hours that local Post Offices introduce at this time of the year. It will also promote the guaranteed next day delivery the recently privatised service still offers.

In a novel approach, which it hopes will really get into the minds of users, the firm will use a crowdsourcing-style campaign.

The initiative taps into the growing use of video content online, which firms and organisations throughout the world are realising can really gain them traction. The Post Office Pass the Parcel campaign, which is running on Vine, hopes to achieve that.

Working with the community on Vidsy, a series of six second videos will be created. These will feature parcels being passed from the left-hand side of the screen to the right. Here the next video will pick up, and subsequently create a social pass the parcel game.

The social media manager for the Post Office, Darren Jones, commented:

“It’s a great way to showcase the products and services available to make it easier for customers this Christmas, in a way that’s also engaging.”

Instigating conversations on other social media platforms is hoped to be achieved too.

With the firm hoping that an engaging and witty campaign will see transactions and conversations increase, the final video will reveal the contents of the parcel. The #AllWrappedUp hashtag will be used to tap into social chatter at this point.

Richard Bell

Richard has a First in English Literature and Creative Writing, and has experience writing fiction and short stories (which he has published both online and in magazines).