Give to sell
By Gena Tuffery,
The frocks have gone back to the workrooms, or been soaked in Deutz and turfed. Fashion Week is over—at least for the journos, buyers and TV3 newsreaders—and no one’s sorry. Not that there wasn’t fun had, see the aforementioned Deutz reference, but four days is time enough to look at clothes you can’t even buy for another year.
So we won’t talk about them.
We’re all about immediate gratification, so let’s talk about the goodie bags and what was in them: advertising. Stacks of it. Which was welcomed when escorted by a useable sample of the advertisee, but did more harm than good, when simply saying ‘hey I know you were expecting a voucher or something, but surprise! Here’s an unabashed and unaccompanied plea to buy our jeans/skincare/jewellery. Just because.’
There are many relevant places for advertising: TV, sure, magazines, of course, billboards, we’ll see. But inside a gift? Imagine your Christmas present all resplendent in its gold foil and bow, which falls away to reveal … a Farmers catalogue. You may have been very fond of the department store up until that moment—hell, you may have even been a shareholder—but either way your feelings for Farmers are all of a sudden quite muddy.
Goodie bags are a great marketing opportunity. You know who’s going to open them, mainly people in the media, people who write things—and not just blog rants. You have a chance to reach far beyond the immediate recipients, so say something nice, like: here.
This is not a plea for free stuff, completely, it’s just a point in the right direction—your stock. Give a bit of it away and people will use it, talk about it, write about it and, if it’s good, probably buy it.
That’s all. Oh, except if your skin’s a bit dry I’ve just discovered this great all-natural moisturiser called Origin Organics. Brilliant. Good marketing behind it too.
Comments
David MacGregor
Last November I had an astonishingly similar experience. Your article reminded me. I wrote this on my blog:
"[b]1. Motorola MOTOKRZR[/b]
I went along to the launch of a new phone. Weird, but true. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. In a funny sort of way I guess I thought I might learn something. Given that it was Motorola I though there might be some innovation.
Stupid, naive boy. It was a cocktail party.
The idea was to create a photo opp for Charlotte Dawson and other 24-hour party people regulars. In the absence of innovation (the phone has a glossy, reflective case), —play the fashion card. I don’t know the retail price, but I am guessing it comes at a premium. Yet it doesn’t even have G3 technology built in.
I did get to meet some very interesting people that I wouldn’t usually have encountered. Tanya Thompson and Steve Hodge were interesting company (Tanya is the artist A.K.A. Misery who graced the cover of our best selling edition of Idealog).
The promo pack I was given as I left was an equal disgrace. I’ve never seen anything as wasteful. Shrink-wrapped outer box. Lift the lid—reveals a mirror, which reflects a second lid, printed in reverse—.woooo, so you read it in the mirror. Lift the second lid and there is. In all its glory. A CD with God knows what on it.
There were also some hard candies in the bag and scented candle. Hmmm—
I’m baffled. I don’t think I can play that game."
The PR for Motorola in Australia contacted me and offered me a phone. I declined. The point was lost - with the opportunity.
Matt Cooney
It's amazing how much free crap some vendors send out. I remember the PR company who sent me a pitch with an old-style computer mouse in the package — something that wouldn't even work with my not-that-modern PC. Thanks, guys, something else to throw out or find a new home for; how very caring of you.
Even worse, earlier this year I received a promo pack with a beautifully-produced brochure and an interesting story about a paint company with an environmental focus, all contained within a large, otherwise empty, paint tin. More rubbish! For me, that company lost its green credibility right there.
Free stuff can be nice; it makes no difference to whether we'll cover something, but at least you know immediately what the product is and whether you're interested. But free crap is just a waste of time and money.
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