Stocking the Mailbox
TWO RECENT creative packages used foodstuffs to try and cut through the mailbox clutter.
Boston’s Direct Response Group developed a campaign to generate leads for InterSystems in Cambridge, MA. A box of cereal was the staple of choice to promote the “post-relational database provider.”
The package is a send-up of cereal box art, while the box itself contains about 10 servings of cereal and a contest entry form for a free trip to Switzerland. Even though chocolate would have been a more obvious (and tasty) tie-in to the trip, the campaign was successful, with a response rate approaching 5%.
The cereal box was fun to read. Dubbed Cache, the cereal’s tag line is “The database of champions.” Subheads spoof the single-minded dementia of back-of-the-box copy with the likes of: “Satisfying scalability that helps you grow” and “A healthy database for healthy applications.” The cereal itself is healthy too: of its 110 calories per serving, only 10 are from fat.
The theme is well developed and humorous, but the box and packaging are ultimately unwieldy. Even with the contest, this likely goes straight to the office kitchen and out of the relevant executive’s sight.
Arm & Hammer also didn’t send chocolate. Not surprisingly, it sent baking soda. To be precise, it sent a series of postcards and a box of baking soda in a new package design.
Essentially, this is part of an integrated marketing campaign to introduce a new orange-and-blue box with removable panels that turns it into a “flo-thru freshener” for one’s refrigerator or freezer.
The teaser campaign features a series of postcards leading up to the punch line, “The new box for an old product.”
The first card shows blue gemstones on a woven blue background. “Timeless…” the copy reads, “tried and true blue.” In the upper right-hand corner is Arm & Hammer’s logo. The flip side says, “Blue. Sparkling ingenuity,” and “New blue from an old friend.”
The other cards are similar. One of blue jeans says “Long-lasting” on the front and “Hard-working. Reliable” on the back. Another of blue ice cubes melting on a blue cloth starts off with “Cool…” and repeats the slogan “tried and true blue” at the bottom of the card.
The Payoff The last card explains it all. Well, sort of. Blue refers to the mainly orange box that is replacing the yellow box, hence “New blue from an old friend.”
Clears things right up, doesn’t it?
Of course, products that have been around for 150 years or so-as has Arm & Hammer baking soda-last because they deliver what customers want and expect. Marketing can only do so much. However, that has never stopped marketers and agencies from trying to gild gold and paint lilies.
But this campaign doesn’t create interest, it causes irritation. Each successive postcard came off as Arm & Hammer postponing the announcement. The actual announcement was just anticlimactic.
Baking soda for the fridge. Wow, what a concept. Is there a household in the United States that doesn’t know this trick?
Remember: Next time, send chocolate.
Please.
