Dairy Farmers of Britain and The Cream

A free customer magazine distributed by milkmen on their early morning rounds. It was an idea as old as, well… the milk float itself, and had been tried – and failed – repeatedly. At least, that was what we were told by industry colleagues when we suggested the idea to our client, the Dairy Farmers of Britain co-operative.

We weren’t convinced. For a start, we understood the over-60s market (our founder having previously published one of the UK’s leading customer magazines for retirees, Active Life). Secondly, we recognised that keeping production costs low was crucial, so we adopted a high-volume ‘thin magazine’ format that was easy to print and package. To ensure the magazines actually reached their intended audience we made the benefit to the milkmen and women distributing them obvious, by including a doorstep order form in every issue.

The results were beyond anyone’s expectations. With no other promotion, non-milk sales increased by more than 180% in test areas. Following roll-out, the magazine went on to become a successful launch vehicle for other product lines, and only came to an end when Dairy Farmers of Britain itself fell victim to the recession.