Turning direct mail into digital discovery

The challenge

Great Western Railway’s new multi-channel myths and legends campaign was designed to inspire more leisure travel across its network, using folklore, myths and legends to give audiences a compelling reason to discover somewhere new. The Line to Legend Land, an illustrated book and map bringing together seven myths and legends from across the GWR network, served as a key asset within the wider campaign.

As part of the campaign, a targeted door drop was created to reach selected households across London. Informed by detailed audience profiling, it focused on households identified as being more likely to engage digitally and travel by rail for leisure. The activity needed to do more than generate reach and awareness – it needed to turn that attention into meaningful action.

Working in partnership with Paragon, the challenge was to enhance that physical touchpoint with a digital experience that could bring the campaign to life in a new way. It needed to capture attention, encourage exploration and create a seamless route from inspiration through to ticket booking and GWR Rewards registration, while remaining simple and accessible for a broad audience.

The process

We developed a browser-based WebAR experience, accessed by scanning a QR code on the illustrated door drop using a smartphone or tablet. With no app download required and clear onboarding guidance, the experience was designed to be as frictionless as possible from the outset.

Using the campaign artwork as our foundation, we transformed the illustrated map into an animated 3D landscape featuring seven legendary locations from across the GWR network. Each was brought to life through a combination of animation, ambient audio and interaction – from a sleeping dragon gently breathing to a glowing sword in the stone and a mythical horse emerging from the landscape. A simple progress mechanic showed users how many of the seven myths they had explored, adding a light layer of gamification and encouraging further discovery.

The experience was developed using markerless WebAR, allowing it to work beyond the printed mailer. Content was carefully optimised to balance visual ambition with reliable performance across mobile devices. As users explored, they could discover more about each destination before continuing seamlessly to book tickets or register for GWR Rewards. Event-based tracking was also built into the experience to provide insight into how audiences engaged with the content and moved through the wider journey.

The outcome

Delivered to more than 100,000 households across London, the experience extended the campaign beyond print and turned the door drop into the starting point for a richer, interactive journey. 

The campaign achieved a 1.57% response rate – 6.5 times the JICMAIL UK Door Drop benchmark. It generated 1,589 individual responders who were associated with 3,368 bookings during the evaluation period, as well as 323 GWR Rewards registrations. The physical-to-digital journey delivered an average of 1 minute 16 seconds of tracked active engagement, with 21.1% of users returning to the experience. 

The project demonstrates how WebAR can enhance traditional marketing activity, adding a layer of interactivity and discovery that helps build brand awareness while creating a more engaging and measurable route to ticket bookings and loyalty sign-ups.

Interested to discover how immersive storytelling can elevate your next marketing campaign? Get in touch.