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Project Overview
As part of its business strategy to the “Future Ready”, our client Australia Post needed an app that would bring an offline service online. It also needed to connect the brand with the opportunity in a meaningful way. With that in mind, Amnesia Razorfish created Postcards. Postcards is an app that allows people to take a photo, make it into a postcard and arrange to send it via their iPhone. The recipient is delivered a hard-copy, bespoke and beautiful postcard in the mail several days later. The app is the first of its kind launched by a postal service.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Heiko Schweickhardt, Dan Leon Krause, Leslie Nassar, Daniel Gardiner, Peter Segerer, Griffin Becker, Rosalynn Bostock, Carly Adamis.
Project Brief
Australia Post is focused on driving innovation and being a leading presence online. Its overarching strategy is to be “Future Ready.” Additionally, Australia Post was seeking an avenue that would drive growth of its letters business, ensuring it's relevant in a modern context.
To make their objectives come to life, Australia Post approached us to create an app that would bring a service they offer traditionally offline into the online space. They needed an app that would connect with consumers, and demonstrate their services beyond when consumers simply need to send a letter or package.
Our goals were to drive downloads, position Australia Post as a digital leader and build Australians’ – particularly young Australians’ – connection with the brand.
Project Innovation / Need
It goes without saying that creating an iPhone postcard app was a natural fit for the Australia Post brand. It aligns with Australia Post’s traditional services, but is pushing innovation.
Globally, other companies have already launched, but Postcards is the only one developed by a postal company. With that in mind, Postcards provides better rates and shipping times to its users.
How it works:
Postcards is also unique in that if a user is sending a postcard to Australia (from anywhere in the world) they pay the domestic rate as everything is produced in Australia. Postcards offers a lower price rate at $1.99 for cards sent domestically and $2.99 internationally. The postcard is delivered within six days domestically, slightly longer internationally, and the quality of paper and finish of the postcard is a better quality than some competitors.
A note on quality: Australia Post conducted market research on postcards – yes, postcards – to assess the landscape of the quality of paper and images, price range and delivery time. The results enabled Australia Post to ensure the quality of the postcards our app delivered were that much higher.
Postcards supports Australia Post’s strategic direction to become a multi-channel service provider by providing an online ordering capability to send postcards physically.
User Experience
We all love travelling and sending postcards; picking them out, the feel, writing home on them and boasting about what a great holiday we’re having with a belly full of mini-bar drinks.
A postcard is a physical thing: It was important to capture that feeling when you're consciously picking out just the right image to compose your note to. A postcard is a physical, memorable thing. It's not dashed-off email. So to make sure the sender could 'feel' the postcard right from the get-go, we went for a skeuomorphic design that emphasised navigating the front and back of the postcard. Digitally, this offers a great user-friendly operating experience with a step-by-step user flow to complete the application.
Additionally, the app has Facebook integration, allowing users to share their experience on Facebook. In future iterations you will potentially be able to share your actual post card on Facebook as well.
Project Marketing
Postcards has not officially launched yet (it will in October). That hasn’t prevented its initial success though:
1. It has had no media spend or support, yet in just three weeks it has had over 3,600 downloads
2. It’s rated 4.5 on the app store
3. Sydney Morning Herald online has talked about it http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/auspost-apple-battle-on-the-cards-20120726-22sth.html
4. So has Lifehacker http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/australia-post-postcards-app-sends-postcards-from-your-iphone-and-charges-less-than-apple/
5. And Desktop mag http://desktopmag.com.au/news/send-a-postcard-from-your-iphone/
6. After sending the app to some key industry players, we’ve received feedback that this was a smart way to let head-honchos in the industry know about it first-hand.
Utilities
This category relates to utility applications such as text edit, diary, translator, document viewer, industry directory.
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