There's a lot to look forward to during the holiday season, but waiting in a long line to ship your presents isn't one of them.
Former software engineer Kevin Gibbon launched Shyp in 2013 to change the way people think about shipping, and this week his very new-school company launched a rather old-school approach to getting the word out: a holiday season ad campaign, with creative by the San Francisco office of brand consultancy Collins.
Shyp operates on a very basic premise: you have an object you need to send to someone else, and the company wants to help you do it as simply as possible. Just take a picture of the item in question and the company promises to come to you and pick it up within 20 minutes. From there, they'll handle transportation, packing and negotiations with shipping providers FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service.
Shyp has earned a generous share of coverage in tech and business media. But the company, like other such "disruptors" before it, will also introduce itself to the public by way of a campaign designed to get New Yorkers to spend less time in the Post Office and more time roasting chestnuts this year.
The company's app is currently available in five cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. But to make the most of its ad dollars, the startup will be largely focusing its ad buy, especially outdoor, on New York.
Here's the anthem spot "We'll Take It From Here," which will run on Facebook and YouTube throughout the holiday season:
Shyp's head of marketing, Lauren Sherman, tells Adweek "the brand's story wasn't being told," despite all of its earned media through news coverage.
"We wanted to raise awareness of Shyp before the holiday season," she said, "and we thought the best route was to focus on our personality as a different kind of shipping company and a serious competitor in the space."
The company launched a redesign last month, and it chose Collins West as its marketing partner thanks to a connection from another digital disruptor: Airbnb.
Before helping to launch Collins West last month, creative director Matt Luckhurst served as graphic design lead at the room-sharing company, where he connected with Sherman. The Collins and Shyp teams understood one another immediately, he said.
"Shipping is a problem that everyone has," Luckhurst said. Minimizing related headcahes can help consumers "get back to being the strangest, best version of you instead of waiting in the Post Office and losing a bit of your heart and your love for the world in the process."
In addition to the above spot, Shyp has planned an extensive out-of-home campaign focused on New York City with subway placements and "wild" posters all the way from Wall Street to Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
"It's pretty rare for a company of our size to do a big brand spend, so we're focusing on New York so we can do a power test," Sherman said.
Shyp has coverage in 10 percent of the city's subway system, so even typically preoccupied New Yorkers will know the brand's name by New Year's Day after the tiered out-of-home rollout ends.
Shyp and its agency, Collins, plan to continue working together, and Luckhurst calls the partnership "a safe place for us to play as creatives." Sherman tells Adweek that the two teams often joke about a future merger.
But will they ship each other gifts this Christmas?
CREDITS
Client: Shyp
Vp of Marketing: Lauren Sherman
Creative Director: Everett Katigbak
Strategy and Copywriting: Brian Simpson
Agency: Collins
Creative Direction: Matt Luckhurst, Nick Ace
Strategy and Copywriting: Rob Smiley
Design Lead: Christian Widlic
Production: Joanna Hobson
Direction: Nic Heller, Nick Ace
Photography: Mari Juliano
Film Production: Heller Films