Out-of-the-Rectangle Thinking

Posted on December 1, 1998 by Chief Marketer Staff

The winners of this year’s Dialog Awards for phonecard promotions are tangible proof that prepaid cards can be highly effective motivators, both in the consumer and the business channel arenas.

In this third year of the Dialog program, winners conceived of new ways to use cards in promotions beyond the traditional delivery means. Not that the on-pack route has become passe, by any means. Fuji teamed the high-perceived value of a phone card with a peel-off game to great effect on its film and camera business.

Yet more marketers in diverse industries continue to find new ways to employ the cards and reach consumers with their value offers.

WrestleMania used a phonecard offer to help disperse call-in orders for a pay-per-view event and avoid order abandonment. Health care companies have found cards are great advertisers, as well as premiums, especially for patients who can benefit by staying in contact over the phone. Sankyo Parke Davis employed a card promo to increase awareness among doctors of its new diabetic treatment.

Philadelphia-area McDonald’s restaurants scored a big mac of a hit when they offered phonecards with the purchase of Happy Meals.

Cards can be used in tandem with other prizes, as Dell Computer did to incent its sales reps.

When Pepsi-Cola needed to tell its story of 100 years in business, it created a limited collectors’ edition of phone cards. It makes you wonder whether phonecards might some day become collectors’ items like baseball cards.

This year’s top award went to a phonecard company promoting itself. Continental Plastic Card Co. wanted to advertise its abilities at one of the industry’s major trade shows. The phonecard 1/2rm 1/2rst sent pre-show mailers containing cards to persons registered for the event. Then it offered show attendees a folder with a musical theme and phonecards inside shaped like phonograph records, an approach that allowed Continental to demonstrate its graphic and manufacturing skills.

Call it out-of-the-rectangle thinking. It’s an example of cards remaining exciting and effective premium values.

Platinum Winner Self Promotion All Hits . . . All the Time!

Supplier/Client: Continental Plastic Card Co.

Continental used a musical theme in a phonecard promotion commemorating Telecard World ’98 in New York. A pre-show mailer with a five-minute card was sent to registered attendees. Once at the show, they could pick up a plastic foldout holder containing three cards shaped like 45 rpm records worth 15 minutes of phone time each. Gag song titles on the discs included Don’t Lose That Number by The Operators and Static On My Line by the Fuzzies. The designs helped showcase Continental’s printing and die-cutting capabilities.

Gold award winners Beverage (non-alcoholic) 100th Anniversary of Pepsi-Cola Phonecard Collector Folio

Supplier/Agency: Karis Communications/Vertical partners

Client: PepsiCo. Inc.

Karis and Vertical produced a folder featuring the Pepsi story, a history of the soft drink maker’s early years in business. It included four new PepsiCo licensed prepaid cards illustrating the new Pepsi logos on Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Pepsi, and Wild Cherry. A limited edition of 500 live sets were made, along with 100 test sample sets.

Transportation Caterpillar Doing it Right

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/MRP

Client: Caterpillar

To involve itself more deeply with its national network of dealers, Caterpillar designed a quiz that would measure their product knowledge. If players scored 80 percent or better, they won a 100-minute phonecard as first prize. Second prize was a briefcase, third prize a thermos and mug set. The campaign was “a great way to increase motivation and morale,” according to the company.

Electronics Fuji Peel-A-Deal

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/Kolins Group

Client: Fuji Film

Fuji wanted to develop a co-op promotion with Meijer stores to increase film and camera sales, as well as store traffic. Kolins and PhoneCard Express created 85,000 Peel-A Deal phonecards that were delivered as in-pack premiums over two months. The promotion combined the high perceived value of phonecards with the proven strength of peel-off coupons, which included a Peel-n-Win contest.

November 1997 film and camera sales doubled from the same period the year earlier.

Media WrestleMania Phonecard Promotion

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/ Team Services Marketing

Client: World Wrestling Federation

To help promote a pay-per-view cable event in which boxer Mike Tyson mixed it up with a professional wrestler, Team Services developed a campaign for WWF’s WrestleMania consisting of local tactics and a national overlay with Toys R Us. Team Services produced a turn-key marketing plan for cable television systems that included a collectable phonecard offer to fans if they ordered WrestleMania prior to the day of the event.

Communicated by vehicles including direct mail, radio, and on-air spots, the offer won the support of local pay-per-view managers because it helped disperse calls that create bottlenecks and order-abandonment on event day. More than 30,000 cards were distributed and the Tyson Wrestlemania was the biggest non-boxing pay-per-view event in history.

Computers Dell’s Zoned In Phonecard

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/Ad Ventures in Texas

Client: Dell Computers

Ad Ventures in Texas helped Dell Computers push its sales reps to bump up production by offering a wide variety of enticing items, including a colorful 15-minute phonecard, a CD case, an embroidered cap, and a trip to Hawaii or Colorado. When Dell raised the bar after sales increased 30 percent and the original goal of 8,000 unit sales was met, a new goal of 12,000 was put in place and was achieved in only three months.

Financial services Park Yourself in Front of a Phone

Supplier: SmarTalk

Client: Geico Direct

Geico is a national insurance company that boasts it can save consumers 15 percent off their auto insurance bills. Radio ads promised those savings along with 15 minutes worth of free phone time besides. Consumers were encouraged to call Geico for an estimate on their car insurance rates, and those who did got a free 15-minute phonecard featuring a picture of a snazzy little red sports car.

Nonprofit Close Up Foundation Phonecard

Supplier: PhoneCard Express

Client: Close Up Foundation

Close Up sent phonecards with five minutes of free long distance to teens’ homes before one of its summer kids’ tours to Washington, DC.

The It’s Like Change in Your Pocket promotion included a card decorated with photos of the White House and a card carrier featured a space for parents to note the 800 number and PIN numbers of their child’s phone card for recharging later.

Entertainment Radio City Music Hall Christmas Phonecard Spectacular

Supplier: SCA Telecard Services

Client: Radio City

Radio City Music Hall teamed with SCA Telecard Services, a division of SCA Promotions, Inc., to produce its very first Christmas spectacular phonecard. The phonecard was a promotional premium and handed out to the first 5,000 Christmas Spectacular attendees. It was such a hit that Radio City plans a second-year run for the promo.

Healthcare Rezulin/Sankyo Parke Davis Phonecard

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/Corporate Advantage

Client: Sankyo Parke Davis

The pharmaceutical company decided to use a phonecard promotion as a creative way to increase awareness for its diabetic treatment medicine Rezulin among key decision-makers. Sales reps gave doctors scored and folded GiftCards that promised a free phonecard if they called in and requested more information. Respondents got cards with 30 minutes of free phone time and the Rezulin name printed on them.

Reps found the effort so successful that all of them placed multiple reorders for the cards.

Beverage (alcoholic) Let’s Talk Turkey

Supplier: SmarTalk

Client: United Distillers & Vintners (Wild Turkey)

Liquor retailers gobbled up information about Wild Turkey besides gaining some free phone time in this dealer loader offer. Dealers were invited to complete a four-question survey which – while playful in tone-imparted real information about the whisky that United Distillers hoped stores might pass onto customers to help sell the product. Those who completed the test received a bird-emblazoned Lets Talk Turkey card packing 20 minutes of phone time.

Restaurants McDonald’s Philadelphia Breakfast Meal Promotion

Supplier/Agency: SCA Telecard Services/Alliance Consulting

Client: McDonald’s

The promotion was offered throughout the Philadelphia area and was the surprise hit of the year, according to McDonald’s. With the purchase of a breakfast Extra Value Meal, customers were able to purchase the 10-minute phonecard for 99 cents, at any participating McDonald’s in the Philadelphia region.

The promo increased the sales of breakfast items by more than 15 percent over the previous promotion period. SCA Telecard Services along with Alliance Consulting provided McDonald’s with the program, helping operators pull off a national-promotion within local budget confines to work within their budget.

Retail Rockport/Macy’s Holiday Phonecard Promotion

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/Promotion Concepts

Client: Rockport/Macy’s

Macy’s teamed up with Rockport to target men’s shoe customers last holiday season. The phonecard was a creative and unique way to enhance their advertising and get the Rockport logo in front of the customer. Rockport was allowed to use its logo in Macy’s ad circular during the duration of the promotion period, something not usually allowed.

The Opportunity Days mailer of Dec. 1997 informed Macy’s customers of the promo. The phonecard was distributed to 85 stores on the East Coast to be presented when the customer purchased the shoes.

Rockport sold 10,000 pairs of men’s shoes, generating $700,000 for Macy’s over the 2-week period of the promotion. It represented a 30 percent sell-through of items featured in the promo. Rockport and Macy’s will repeat the program.

Packaged Goods Q-Tips

Supplier: Sprint FonPromotion

Client: Unilever HPE USA (Q-tips)

Q-tips earmarked 1.8 million Sprint prepaid cards worth 10 minutes of free long distance for an in-pack promo in the first quarter. It worked so well Unilever put 2.4 million more cards in packages during the third quarter.

Silver award winners Beverage (alcoholic) IDV North American

Products Phonecard

Supplier: SmarTalk

Client: IDV North America brands

Christian Brothers Brandy, J&B Scotch, Goldschlager, Jose Cuervo

Beverage (non-alcoholic) Hawaiian Punch and Sunny Delight Phonecard

Supplier: PhoneCard Express

Client: Procter & Gamble

Computer: Cleantex Phonecard Supplier: Interactive Marketing Group/PhoneCard Express

Client: Cleantex

Electronics Canon Tradeshow Phonecard

Supplier: SmarTalk