On the Road to Nowhere
On rare occasion, even loquacious writers of opinion can be left speechless. When the poster-sized insert pictured below dropped out of USA Today – placed there at phenomenal cost by “The New Dodge” – the moment was decidedly mute.
Either this was the opportunity oversight of the year, or the most important new discovery in promotional marketing since green stamps. You make the call.
Admittedly, it did have first-glance resemblance to a promotion. There was borrowed interest, featuring no less than Spiderman as spokesman. There was call to action. Readers who ventured beyond the first fold were entreated to “enter here,” beckoned by a wide-open Caravan door. With that intriguing promotional lure, surely one could expect to read on and find details about a fabulous “Win-A-Van-Vacation” sweepstakes. Right? Not so fast, dear reasonable reader.
Bloody truth, there was no means of entry, nary a prize structure, no promotion. There was only advertising art and copy romancing the opening of Universal Studios’ theme park, with an unclear reference to Dodge’s association with that event.
But wait – there was a toll-free phone number and an Internet address. Perhaps this was an instant dial-in sweepstakes? Wrong again. Callers did engage a nice-but-no-help Dodge person, who remembered “hearing something about that insert,” then directed callers to a second toll-free number which, alas, brought them ear-to-ear with that old familiar refrain: “You have reached an invalid number.” Surfers did reach a Web site, but found no mention of a promotion, not even a link to Universal Studios’ site.
It’s tempting to disparage this effort, but be wary – it just seems too easy a target. Too easy to pontificate about readers feeling robbed. Too easy to feign understanding of the objectives. Too easy to ascribe this to the dabblings of an unenlightened advertising agency. Perhaps we’ve missed the point.
Consider that this insert does have all the lure of a sweepstakes, but with none of the baggage! No icky rules to take up space. No need to post bonds. No fees to pay a judging organization. Best of all, no cost of prizes! Since few people actually enter a sweepstakes anyway, how many consumers could we possibly offend?
Could this be the precursor of a yet-to-be-validated, low-cost promotion technique? For example, should marketers run FSI ads with no coupon? Make premium offers with no address? Mail samples with nothing inside? Stage events with no beer? If so, these cost-reduction opportunities could result in preserving budget, with the result that more can be spent on traditional advertising.
Nah, that can’t be it. Can it?
