Royal Mail launches 9am guaranteed courier service

Royal Mail has launched a guaranteed 9am next-day delivery service for businesses.

The service is available through post offices or business collections and will be backed by a television, press and direct mail campaign. It offers customers a track-and-trace and compensation against loss or damage package at a cost of £6.95 for a standard-sized document.

It operates as a courier service that does not go through the normal postal network. It is entirely separate from Parcel Force, which caters for bulkier and heavier items. This is the first time that Royal Mail has directly challenged the courier market.

The special delivery ad comes under the “With us it’s personal” brand campaign, to be launched by the group on Monday, March 1.

It features a postman delivering the word “urgent” to an office worker and was created by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO. It takes the same form as the main brand campaign that shows real postmen and women delivering individual words such as “Love” and “Fragile” through extreme weather, packs of dogs, or a traffic jam.

The eight-week campaign will cost about £8m.