ANSWERING THE CALL
This year’s Dialog Award winners prove phonecard offers can get customers talking.
With everybody and their grandmother e-mailing the bejeezus out of each other these days, you’d think a tactic as hackneyed as a phonecard giveaway would be as passe as a rotary phone.
Think again. These little plastic cards still serve up a lot of perceived value, which is why so many brands are still using them for everything from on-pack sales incentives to customer rewards and Internet traffic builders. Heck, phonecards – which don’t have to be cards anymore, because a simple PIN number on a sticker will do – still offer enough motivation to even inspire jaded brand managers to return a sales call (as we’ll see below). They still produce results, not to mention measurable results.
The phonecard craze of the mid-1990s may be over, but the use of phonecards as a motivating tool is not. And judging from the winning entries in PROMO Magazine’s fifth-annual Dialog Awards, which we unveil below, the innovation that has long been found within the tactic still thrives as well.
This year’s winners all exhibit one common element. They were able to spur a response from customers, whether that was a purchase or a simple visit to a trade show booth, a trip to a Web site or a full read of the product brochure. They turned what otherwise could have been a stale marketing pitch into a dialogue with the target audience. Put simply, phonecards are interactive, even though that phrase may be cliched.
Cliched, but not passe.
Campaign: Launch Of Revolution Client: Pfizer Animal Health Supplier: Imagine Telecom Marketing Agency: Targeted Media for Medicine (TMM), Colle & McVoy
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, New York City, was looking to inject both creativity and technology into marketing efforts to back the release of Revolution, a drug that prevents heartworms, fleas, and mites in pets.
Jersey City, NJ-based TMM brought in telephony partner Imagine Telecom, New York City, to help develop a program that would introduce the drug to veterinarians nationwide and guarantee that pet care professionals would learn the virtues of the product.
About 115,000 marketing pieces were developed with copy informing recipients about Revolution’s launch, provided all relevant information, and directed vets to an enclosed five-minute phonecard. The pieces were hand-delivered by the Pfizer field force.
Recipients called a toll-free number to initially activate the card, but also heard a recorded message offering additional minutes if they took a quiz about the drug. The quiz asked four questions based on information from the marketing piece, and offered five more minutes for every correct answer.
That let Pfizer know if its marketing collateral was informative and effective – and if pet care pros were taking notice. “The [interactive elements] let us fine-tune the marketing,” says Imagine Telecom senior vp-marketing Cory Eisner. “We knew immediately if vets understood the product.”
Results: The program launched last summer and will run into 2001. As of Sept. 1, 40 percent of the cards in distribution had been activated, and 94 percent of quiz takers answered questions correctly. In addition, 90 percent of activators also confirmed customer information, which helped keep Pfizer’s database clean.
Campaign: Castrol Oil Change Client: Castrol, Inc. Supplier: PhoneCard Express Marketing Agency: Regional Marketing Group
Looking to increase the number of oil changes at Volkswagen dealerships in the Oklahoma area, Wayne, NJ-based Castrol last fall worked with Volkswagen on a regional effort that put VW owners in the driver’s seat. Castrol agency Regional Marketing Group, Boulder, CO, teamed with PhoneCard Express, Hollywood, FL, on the program.
Castrol tapped Volkswagen’s customer database and conducted a direct-mail campaign encouraging oil changes at nearby VW dealerships. The mailing included a 15-minute phonecard keychain shaped like a Beetle that could only be activated after the oil change was completed. “Dealerships liked the promotion,” says Castrol territory sales manager Kurt Ackerman. “It was simple to use, and the materials looked good.”
Results: Oil-change sales spiked 10 percent during the promotional period among participating dealerships, says Ackerman. Plans are in the works for similar efforts in other parts of the nation.
Campaign: Claritin Power Circle Client: Schering-Plough Supplier: Karis Communications
Schering-Plough enlisted La Mesa, CA-based Karis Communications to help it generate higher levels of awareness for allergy medicine Claritin’s seasonal remedies.
About 75,000 direct-mail packages were sent to general practitioners and allergy specialists last June. The packs included a Power Pass card featuring a PIN doctors could use to set up individual Power Circle accounts online. By logging on to a special Web site, the medical pros could request samples, clinical studies, and patient education materials. The Power Pass card came with 30 minutes of phone time and could be recharged with an additional 10 minutes each time the doctor used it online. (Up to 30 extra minutes could be “earned” each month.)
The program helped move samples and inform doctors about Claritin. “We had a good feeling about this program,” says Karis vp Frank Gutierrez. “Simplicity helped make it successful. Sometimes, less is more.”
Results: Since the program’s launch, more than 10,000 doctors have enrolled in the Power Pass program. The effort expires at the end of this month, but Kenilworth, NJ-based Schering-Plough is looking to repeat the initiative next summer.
Campaign: ITB Kickoff Client: Self-promotion Supplier/Agency: iTelsa/24 Carat Promotions
ITelsa and 24 Carat Promotions, Coral Gables, FL, took interactivity a step farther with “ITB Kickoff,” a self-promotion that introduced consumers to the company’s Internet activation program.
Each 20-minute phonecard delivered in a direct-mail piece came attached to a four-color product flyer directing recipients to iTelsa’s Web site, where they completed a four-question survey to activate the card.
“We felt the need to create a new product and get more involved with the Internet,” says senior vp-marketing Bruce Price. “Our competitors had virtual phonecards, but we wanted to combine the tangibility of a phonecard with Internet activation.”
Result: To date, the ITB effort has generated a 22-percent return. Customers were able to learn how the new product works while gaining insight into the company. “I think we’re most proud of the results, but also the technology,” says Price.
Campaign: The Magnet Group Trade Show Phonecard Client: Magnet Group Supplier: PhoneCard Express
In order to drive booth traffic at the largest trade show in its industry, The Magnet Group – parent company of Hollywood, FL-based PhoneCard Express – sent a mailer to all pre-show registrants.
The mailer featured a phonecard with no dialing information or PIN on the back. Recipients were instead told to collect the missing information by visiting one of Magnet’s booths.
PhoneCard Express set up phones at booths to save visitors from those long pay-phone lines at trade shows, and to give them a chance to use their cards. “We wanted to get people to come to our booth, and at a trade show like this, many people need a way to call home,” says director of marketing Jennifer Gannon.
Results: The effort generated a 36-percent response rate, as 1,800 of the 5,000 pre-registrants visited a Magnet Group booth to pick up their PINs. Magnet says site traffic reached record levels.
Campaign: ClubExpress Client: Self-promotion Supplier: PhoneCard Express
Looking to introduce its new ClubExpress customer program, PhoneCard Express created a “trip” motif and designed a direct kit to look like a suitcase, with information inside and out resembling a ticket jacket containing all relevant information about the club. The box’s interior looked like a packed suitcase, complete with clothes, toiletries, and the requisite phonecard.
A sweeps overlay continued the travel theme by dangling two free roundtrip airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S. to recipients who signed up for the club by a specified date. For an additional incentive, the company offered free shipping on all orders for the remainder of the year to clients who registered by that date.
“We wanted to further our relationships,” says Gannon. “We wanted to acknowledge the people we work with and invite others to join the fold.”
Results: ClubExpress boasted a 33 percent sign-up rate. PhoneCard Express also gained new contacts at existing clients, who were prompted to boost both quoting activity and place more orders.
