Objective

Fine Cell Work. A charity that has trained over 8,000 prisoners in the craft of fine needlework, creating the largest workforce of hand-embroiders in Europe. Its impact: reoffending rates of stitchers are at just 2% post-release, compared to the national average of 48%, and their probability of finding work has increased by 300%.

But Fine Cell Work needed to grow. Awareness, customers and revenue. And to reinvest in the business, so that they could positively impact even more lives. One stitch at a time. 

Fine Cell Work's specific objectives were:

1. increased sales and margin, driven by an higher reach, brand visibility and conversion;
2. increased customer repurchase rates;
3. improved marketing efficiency, allowing for increased investment.

Enter addmustard, an award-winning brand, marketing and technology agency that works exclusively with entrepreneurial businesses. 

We set ourselves 4 strategy objectives:

1. focus the brand communications, telling Fine Cell Work’s story in a more distinctive and compelling way;
2. join up their Fine Cell Work’s data across marketing channels, product lines and their online shopping platform; 
3. design and produce changes to the customer experience and technology, to make it a best-in-class and fully optimised online platform;
4. create targeted online and CRM campaigns.

Using our unique “man-message-media planning and execution approach, we aimed to deliver a truly joined-up, highly targeted and performance driven brand campaign.

Strategy

Fine Cell Work. A charity on a mission. A charity to help rebuild the lives of prisoners by training them in the craft of fine needlework, to design and produce beautiful ranges of hand-crafted products, bespoke creations and specially commissioned pieces. Over 8,000 prisoners have been trained, building the largest workforce of hand-embroiderers and stitchers in Europe. 

Enter addmustard, a brand, marketing and technology agency with the skills and talent necessary to weave together Fine Cell Work’s inspiring story and compelling data to reinvent their online shopping platform, increase awareness, revenue and loyalty. 

First. Define the problem. 

Fine Cell Work’s purpose and story are impressive. The execution of this purpose and the ambition of their team are inspiring. Like many businesses, Fine Cell Work had grown through a mixture of strategies: different creative ideas, campaigns, channels, platforms, data insight tools and technologies.

Through detailed data analysis, we spotted two opportunities for growth:

1. to create more focused, joined-up compelling and distinctive campaigns: the brand, communications and messaging needed refining, and
2. to weave all this together into an efficient plan: join up the data with creative, brand communications, user experience and channels to deliver improved conversion, ROI, greater brand share and increase repeat purchase rates.

Step one involved changing the language and focusing the messaging. Fine Cell Work has an impressive range of USPs (and we mean unique) and a compelling story to tell. We helped to focus the communication and make it thoroughly distinctive.

Then, we set about fixing and linking data across marketing channels and campaigns with the brand and shopping experience. This provided exceptional insight into performance opportunities and revealed how to prioritise over 60 quick-win user experience and shopping journey enhancements.

We prioritised website improvements through advanced analysis tools to drive up conversion, marketing efficiency and sales.

Being a charity, money is more scarce than golden-orb weaver silk thread. Spending wisely on the campaigns and customer experience had to absolutely deliver, owing to the scarcity of funding. Failure would lead to shrinkage in the charity and the impact it could make on prisoners' lives.

Once we had created the new campaigns, we secured a Google Ad Grant to fund the media (>£7,000 per month). Using this funded advertising, we got to work on increasing brand awareness, engagement and audience range.

Lastly, we redesigned and aligned CRM data, communications and retention tools to engage repeat customers and grow loyalty.

Working with Fine Cell Work, we have demonstrated the power of creating a clear, compelling and simplified brand platform, consistently communicated and delivered and the impact of having cross channel, performance data to guide marketing decisions.

On a limited budget, we accelerated the growth in sales for Fine Cell Work and gave them the resource to invest directly back in their charity, to train more stitchers and rebuild lives.

As brand, marketing and technology professionals, we are immensely proud of the measurable impact we are having on the lives of people with real struggles and challenges.

Results

Using a commercially-focused approach with integrated reporting and analytics gave us crystal clear and accurate visibility of where the growth opportunities were. (And allowed us to measure the spectacular results and improvements).

• Sales volume growth for the brand experienced a dramatic turnaround: +39% over the nine months since the campaigns launched.
• Revenue attributed to the brand contributed 21% growth, its first growth in several years.

This was achieved by: 

• An increase in brand share of search voice by 7%
• An increase in brand engagement metrics (between 70% and 115%, using a variety of measures)
• Refocusing the brand, which led to a whopping increase in conversion ratio of 15%, over the first six months of the campaign
• Increasing the number of customers who completed a purchase, by 69%
• An increase in email subscribers of 92%
• Increasing sales from existing customers by 76% (reversing a 30% prior year decline), with a 71% increase in spend per transaction, leading to a 524% increase in revenue from CRM campaigns (4 week moving average), in less than a year.
• Being awarded a fully funded media grant of >£7,000 per month from Google.

By reinvesting into the brand, creating outstanding brand communications, and improving Fine Cell Work’s technology, we have been able to increase the awareness for a company disrupting the cycle of incarceration. 

Fine Cell Work’s unique process boosts stitcher’s self-worth, instills accountability, and fosters hope. Hope that transformation is possible - for prisoners, for our communities, and for our society as a whole.

Media