Jon Bell

on November 17, 2008

category: direct marketing

Senior Copywriter

Breakthrough insight: people like stuff

I like stuff a lot. And I like a lot of stuff. I imagine other people do, too. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was George Carlin who said that "home is where you keep your stuff, while you’re out getting other stuff."

Knowing that, it was hard to keep a straight face when I read in Adweek that a survey was needed to discover that people really like it when advertisers give them stuff. If the stuff has the advertiser’s name on it, people remember the advertiser. They may even buy something from said advertiser.

The icing on the gateau? The survey was done by the Advertising Specialty Institute. They’re an organization that helps bring advertisers and tchotchke vendors together. Not exactly the least biased of all sources.

It’s fun to mock them but, of course, they’re right. Marketers wouldn’t use these branded items if they didn’t measurably increase results. And if marketers didn’t use them so much, there’d be no need for an Advertising Specialty Institute.

One clarifying point. The best use of promotional swag is not to get the target market’s attention. That’s why "clever" agencies and advertisers don’t often go for the idea. And if they ever try, those agencies and advertisers rarely know how to make the swag work for them.

In direct marketing, we don’t give this stuff away without a plan. We call these items "offers" and we use them to get the action we desire from our target market -- from giving us their contact information to closing a sale.

Branded stuff, promotional swag, tchotchkes, offers . . . whatever you call it, it’s a direct marketer’s secret weapon. I’m not too worried that the secret is out. Most Adweek readers won’t understand.

 

Comments:

12/20/2008 at 4:02 p.m.
Great Affirmation
What a great article, I couldn't agree more. I am amazed everyday by the utter lack of understand of how powerful these items are. Both internally as well as externally. I know a gal at the local yellow pages that has every piece of swag the company has given her over the last 20 some years proudly displayed in her office. I especially like your comments about their use to promote action. Why just give swag away at a tradeshow, make the prospect earn it! Thanks for giving us tchotchke dealers a little kudos.
>>Steven Paul Matsumoto, Bellevue WA11/19/2008 at 3:58 p.m.
Ouch...
Nicely put.
>>Tara, Seattle WA

Spyro Kourtis

on November 10, 2008

category: integrated marketing

President and CEO

Vindication! Sort of.

Back on June 16, I posted a piece about better targeting for cable television advertisers in response to a Wall Street Journal article. The article’s writer was concerned about tighter targets meaning less advertising dollars going to cable. I thought this was short-sighted. If I may quote myself here:

I see this as an opportunity for cable companies to keep their audience -- the audience that’s turning to the Internet for entertainment -- and perhaps turn the cable medium into something different from broadcast TV.  Perhaps, with targeted audiences and higher prices, cable companies can provide more entertainment with fewer commercials than the big networks.  The argument for higher prices would get marketers both a tighter audience and more attention.  Without ten or twelve other commercials in every pod, your ad will stand out more.

Now The New York Times has a piece about Hulu, one of the new online video sites. Apparently, Hulu sees it my way.

In the place of the long commercial pods that TV viewers have become accustomed to, only one ad is shown during each segment break on Hulu. Fewer ads make the ones on the site more memorable, Hulu executives say, allowing the site to charge higher prices for the ad units.

Hulu isn’t cable TV, so my idea about this happening off the Internet didn’t happen (yet). But I have to say, I think they’re brilliant.

“The notion that less is more is absolutely playing out on Hulu,” Jason Kilar, the chief executive of the site, said. “This is benefiting advertisers as much as it is benefiting users.”

As I said before, win-win-win.

 

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