The tough economic climate was making it hard for UK newspapers to maintain their advertising revenue. Media buyers had to justify every penny of their clients' budgets and were under pressure to back up each medium with hard facts and figures. But the expansion of media channels meant buyers were swamped with information - often presented in a very dull way. The Financial Times wanted to remind media buyers that the FT was still an essential media choice for reaching high net worth individuals, in print and online.

To remind media buyers that the FT was still an essential media choice for reaching high net worth individuals. Here was an opportunity to find an original way to present all this data in an engaging way, allowing buyers to dip into it daily.

Touch DDB's 'A Complete Spotter's Guide to the Word's Most Elusive Breeds' campaign used a bird spotting theme to profile FT readers. The direct mail pack contained a guide that identified six audience 'breeds'. Using avian analogy and fun wordplay, it named breeds such as money bagus and toppus doggem, demonstrating the FT's knowledge of its readership in an amusing and memorable way. The campaign began with a teaser email, which hit media buyers' inboxes a week before the packs were mailed. The FT mailed 1,000 booklets, 300 of which also included FT-branded binoculars.

The campaign exceeded all expectations in driving traffic to the website, increasing overall visits by 350% - an extra 6,767 visits. These visitors were also keen to pass on the message, giving the campaign a peer-to-peer engagement ratio of 1:4. And the audience breeds continue to attract attention, having been incorporated in to the paper's website, FT Advertising, with a new online toolkit.

Who says B2B mailers can't be fun? This one brings a heavy subject to life with such aplomb that it creates a buzz with its target audience and beyond. For everyone that received the mailer, four of their peers visited the website. The campaign has an extra-long shelf life, too, in the form of the booklet and the integration of the breeds into the website.