Every once in a while, a gizmo grabs the public’s attention and fuels, widespread activity in the business community.
We recently supplied a teaching agency with a consignment of promotional flash drives, pre-loaded with a video and letter. These drives were quality units that were branded and could be reused by the recipients if they wished. At a conference, the agency’s staff accessed the hall the night before and taped a flash drive and chocolate to the underside of every chair.
During the session the next morning, the teaching agency MD gave a commanding speech that was well received, and as he turned to leave the lecturn, he paused, then said “oh, I forgot to mention….we’ve left you a present under each of your seats”. The delegates found the promotional Flash Drive stamped “Play Me” and a chocolate marked “Eat Me”.
The video contained on the flash drive reiterated the company’s new service offering and guaranteed a reduced agency rate upon mention. The chocolate’s purpose/fate was fairly much a foregone conclusion but it served as a tangible goodwill gesture.
By surprising the attendees while they were in the moment, the agency hit them with a further moment of truth (gifting a giveway), then the message contained within would be reinforced yet again upon watching the video and learning of the financial incentive at the end. Clever, out of the box marketing and illustrates that just giving a promotional gift in itself is great but when you build it into a value-add strategy, you supercharge your marketing effort.
Apart from the widespread instant recognition; laughter and applause, when the promotional flash drive was revealed, the biggest kick for our client got was watching his competitors’ faces out in the audience as they realised they had been out-manouvered big time… They ate their chocolates though and even remarked on the clever idea – there’s no point making enemies in business, you never know where the next surprise will come from!