Unboxing campaign success stories: How top brands are winning with personalisation

Today, creating meaningful customer experiences is essential for brands to stand out. One of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, opportunities for engagement is the unboxing moment – the point when customers physically interact with their purchased products. Leading brands are tapping into personalised unboxing campaigns to drive success, building customer loyalty and boosting repeat purchases.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some inspiring unboxing campaign examples and show how top brands are winning with personalisation.

1. Bird & Blend Tea Co. – Turning gift recipients into loyal customers 🎁

One of the most innovative examples comes from Bird & Blend Tea Co., which focuses on creating a memorable experience for its gift recipients. By integrating their Shopify store with Penny Black, they automatically print personalised gift messages to include in every unboxing. These notes aren’t only heartfelt messages, but also strategic touchpoints that invite recipients to take the brand’s tea quiz.

This quiz collects recipient data for future engagement and sends personalised product recommendations based on the quiz results. This turns what could have been a one-off gift recipient into a long-term customer.

2. PAUL VALENTINE - Encouraging repeat purchases with a welcome offer 💸

PAUL VALENTINE, a German-based jewellery brand, implemented a highly successful unboxing campaign that targeted new customers. Each package included a thank you note paired with a 15% discount on their next purchase, and a QR code for easy redemption.

This strategy transformed the first purchase into the start of a longer relationship, helping to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers. The combination of a personal touch, an easy-to-scan QR code and a clear incentive boosted reconversion rates. 

As a result of this campaign, PAUL VALENTINE achieved a 2.5% conversion rate on their discount campaigns with more repeat purchases coming through their unboxing moment.

3. Yepoda - Increasing AOV through product recommendations 📈

Yepoda, a Korean skincare brand, successfully leveraged personalised unboxing campaigns to introduce customers to complementary products. Each unboxing insert contained personalised product recommendations based on the customer’s previous purchase, along with a discount offer to encourage immediate re-purchasing.

By incorporating social proof, such as customer reviews and testimonials, Yepoda not only boosted immediate sales but also strengthened customer trust in their recommendations. These inserts saw a 2.5% conversion rate, with customers expanding their orders to include complementary products​.

4. SURI - Generating referrals through personalisation 🪥

SURI, a sustainable toothbrush brand, tapped into the power of unboxing campaigns to fuel its referral program. Each customer received a personalised referral code with their order, offering 15% off their next purchase, with the same discount applied for the friend they referred.

This clever strategy turned the unboxing moment into a tool for customer acquisition, generating 20,000 referrals with a 2.4% conversion rate.

5. Warner’s Distillery – Driving subscriptions with a personal touch 🍸

Warner’s Distillery used unboxing campaigns to convert repeat customers into subscribers. Their strategy involved a personal letter from the founder, explaining the benefits of subscribing, including a 20% discount and free delivery. This personal touch not only connected emotionally with the customer but also communicated the practical value of a subscription.

6. BigVits – Capturing contact information for long-term engagement 💊

For Big Vits, the goal of their unboxing campaigns was to collect contact details from customers who checked out as guests. This meant any customers who hadn’t opted in to get emails would be re-engaged with post-purchase marketing and would even be motivated by a discount to opt into emails. By integrating with Klaviyo, Big Vits set up automated email flows to nurture these new subscribers, driving future engagement. These campaigns saw a 1.3% conversion rate – building long-term customer relationships.

7. Kollo Health – Boosting loyalty program engagement ✨

Kollo Health used unboxing campaigns to motivate customers to join their loyalty program. The insert highlighted the benefits of their loyalty program, including earning points for every purchase. This initiative aimed to increase customer engagement and make sure shoppers returned to the brand long-term. 

The insert clearly showed the recipients the perks of joining the loyalty program, helping them immediately see value. As a result, they achieved a 15-20% scan rate and a 4.5% conversion rate, boosting loyalty program engagement and LTV.

8. Bird & Blend Tea Co. – Educational content for enhanced retention 🎓

Another successful campaign from Bird & Blend Tea Co. involved using unboxing campaigns to provide educational content to customers. Using Penny Black,  they segmented customers by the specific tea purchased, allowing inserts with tailored recipes to be automatically printed and included in each order. This approach offered customers new ways to enjoy their purchases, adding extra value to their experience and increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases.

9. Zooki – Driving user-generated content with UGC campaigns 📸

Zooki, a supplement brand, created an unboxing campaign focused on encouraging customers to share user-generated content (UGC). They prompted customers to share progress photos of their collagen product, which helped demonstrate the product’s effectiveness over time. By offering a discount in exchange for UGC, Zooki successfully incentivised customer participation, building trust.

Why personalised unboxing campaigns work

What sets personalised unboxing campaigns apart from other channels is their 100% visibility – every customer who receives a package sees the personalised message. Compared to email, SMS, and other digital channels, unboxing campaigns are uniquely positioned to re-engage customers at a critical moment, making them 5x more effective than post-purchase emails and 24x more effective than SMS messages

These campaigns seamlessly blend digital insights with physical experiences, creating personalised touchpoints that increase loyalty, boost repeat purchases, and grow lifetime value.

Conclusion

The unboxing moment is a critical opportunity to engage customers, and brands like Bird & Blend Tea Co., PAUL VALENTINE, Yepoda, and SURI have shown how powerful personalised unboxing campaigns can be. By leveraging personal touches, offering discounts, driving referrals, and delivering educational content, these brands have turned the unboxing moment into a strategic touchpoint that drives real results.

If your brand hasn’t yet explored unboxing campaigns, now is the time. By adding personalised elements, you can not only delight your customers but also significantly improve engagement, loyalty, and revenue.

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Get your copy of the Owning the Unboxing Moment ebook

Fill out the form below to unlock your personal copy of the ebook.

Get your copy of the Owning the Unboxing Moment ebook

Fill out the form below to unlock your personal copy of the ebook.

Get inspired by examples of unboxing campaigns 

Fill out the form below to unlock your personal copy of the ebook.

Owning the unboxing moment ebook

Get your copy of the Owning the Unboxing Moment ebook

Fill out the form below to unlock your personal copy of the ebook.