From MediaLife:

Handing out free samples to promote your services is pretty old hat. But then there’s never been a free sample quite like this.
The box itself looks like any other home pregnancy test. But this pregnancy test isn’t for women. It’s for men.

It’s called the ReadyDaddy pregnancy test, and it was distributed on the streets of towns across Israel in May as part of an alternative media campaign for Israeli HMO Clatit, one of the nation’s major medical services.
The HMO wanted to promote its pregnancy services among young couples, but it knew that its message would get lost if it reached out to young women, who are already bombarded with pregnancy-related promotions and advertisements.

“The tests were active, and if a men took the test, the result would always come out ‘not ready’ (unless the man was pregnant),” Eyal Gan-mor, ReadyDaddy was a bit hit with those who received it. A few men actually took the test, and many more logged on to the associated ReadyDaddy web site, which directed surfers to information about Clatit pregnancy services.

“The top sticker is a coupon for $5 off any $20 purchase at CVS. The coupon pulls off to reveal a second sticker, an ad for CVS that stays on the bill when it leaves your wallet and goes back into circulation.”

Well done, very targeted.

There are a few comments to CTR and delivery rates in e-mail marketing.

Taking into consideration http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007192 and http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=110936, it seems that there’s no actual references in general data. The two researches show a big gap (almost 20%) in the delivery rates, which is not understandable.
One should assume that Epsilon was using brand new mailing lists, while Return Path was using scarcely updated lists. 20% is know as the percentage of addresses that become obsolete with one year time. If that’s not the case, then maybe one of the two research firms needs to change parameters or origins.

There’s one more detail which I always didn’t understand, at least when I was in Europe.
All my mailings had an average of 30% as open rate and a 8/10% as click-through rate. And I couldn’t understand how my results were always above all the general statistics … that’s because I don’t presume I’m such a DM guru.
Now that I’m in the US all my statistics returned normal: independently from the message, its tone or content, my result seems an exact replica of those shown by the two above researches.

My final comment is very simple.
As DM had such an evolution in the US, US customers deal much more critically with incoming messages. Those could be more friendly, even more naïve if compared to the seriousness of European copybodies. But the maturity and the higher experience in dealing with a much more intense amount of targeted communication puts the marketer in a more challenging position towards its public.
On the other hand European people is still “new” to such a communication bombardment: they always complain about the huge inbox but they read and interact more.

At the end one could say: if DM is effective in the US (where response rates are lower), no European marketer should complain if its DM campaign didn’t reach the expected goals.
Moreover, one should come here, and find out how any targeted communication is often a start of a thick conversation (quite impossible elsewhere) and how response times are even more different (being quicker) and meaningful.

I think that the current crisis should stop the “forcing to consume” attitude which naturally create more waste than richness. We have the opportunity to “falsely” embrace environmental issues while still forcing our public to buy.

Earlier this year the European Court of Justice ruled that member states cannot ban BOGOF promotions. That was said to Belgium, but later in the UK the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs began to put pressure on stores to target food waste: they ask supermarket heads to offer half-price discounts on perishable foods instead of BOGOF deals.

Now, in appearance there’s no difference between “Buy One Get One Free” and “Buy One Pay Half”. The money transit between shops and customers is the same.

On the other hand, the two options are very different.
Besides the fact that the customer perception of the first one is highly more positive, that one put the client into a buying loop that tends to provoke a double-buy (or the buy of larger-packages) for almost everything possible. Which means, obviously, more turnover for the shop.
So, it’s not so easy to force distribution channels avoid such promotions: you’re simply telling them to cut revenue.

But people are smarter, and even more now they have less value in their pockets.
So, why not:

• make the BOGOF mechanism work with multiple accounts (one consumer pays, another consumer gets the second item)?
• limit these type of promotions to “organic”, “natural”, “environmental friendly” products?
• enlarge the BOGOF to set of products (you buy a toothpaste and get either a tuna can or a pack of cereals or …)?

Marketing has to evolve, give solutions to social problems and embrace the new trends.

Smarter people need smarter shops, who need smarter companies.
I’m not talking about environment, that’s only an excuse.
I’m only trying to suggest an even better way to do business selling a lot of stuff to people.

There’s a bit of English humor beneath this “global” PR activity:This is what we can call “viral” and “corporate”.And I think it reached at least one target: to spread the news of this product all around the world, to make people nod and pass it over, even to make it memorable.Unfortunately it didn’t reach the direct target, with one yelling from the stand and others leaving the room.

[integral article from MediaPost]Bags of Doritos Late Night are functioning as “tickets” to enable consumers to access and interact with virtual, 3-D performances by the bands blink-182 and Big Boi.Specially marked bags of the brand’s Late Night varieties bear markers that are recognizable by augmented reality technology — technology that enhances video imagery with computer-generated graphics in real-time. The concerts are being billed as the first-ever augmented reality experiences to showcase live-action video within a 3-D, interactive environment.Users log onto Doritoslatenight.com and point the printed marker on the bag at a Web cam to launch virtual performances that seem to “pop directly out of the bag.” In addition, the technology allows users to change the video performances experienced (two songs by blink-182, one song by Big Boi) each time simply by changing the way they hold or move the snack bag.Participants can also enter for a chance to win tickets to a live blink-182 show in the city of their choice this summer. The band’s tour, launching July 24 in Las Vegas, will stop in more than 40 cities.The novel online events — described by the brand as “concerts in the palm of your hand” — are the latest in an ongoing series of innovative efforts focused on involving and giving control to fans of the Doritos brand.The PepsiCo Frito-Lay division brand has been structuring its marketing around those concepts and continuous dialogue with its fans since 2006, when a new Doritos marketing team led by Director of Marketing Rudy Wilson took over.Like the spicier, more “uninhibited” flavors in the new Late Night line, which was launched in April, the augmented reality concerts reflect the reality that young people in particular “have different sides during the day and late at night,” says Wilson. “They may eat different foods. What else do they do late at night? They like to listen to music. And they want to be able to control where and when they listen to the music.”The special-edition snack bags will be available for an unspecified, limited time at retailers nationwide in support of the Late Night launch. Whether more such concerts are developed will depend on what Doritos hears in its dialogue with consumers via social media and other channels, Wilson says.Doritos’ most visible implementation of the “giving fans control” concept to date has been its “Crash the Super Bowl” program, which asks consumers to create its advertising for the big game. Doritos became the first brand to broadcast a consumer-generated ad during 2007’s Super Bowl, and launched careers for the winning video creators in 2008 and 2009. Last year’s commercial topped USA Today’s advertising meter for the event.Other programs have included the launch of Flavor Shots, which allow consumers to control flavor intensity with flavor packets; a promotion enabling fans to design the first consumer-generated Xbox Live Arcade game; another that enables consumers to determine which of two new flavors continued at retail and which was discontinued; and another in which consumers were given the chance to name a new flavor of the chips.

Natural cosmetics brand Origins is mounting a nationwide Earth Day campaign that will let customers bring in all their used cosmetic packaging for recycling—even from Origins’ beauty-care rivals—and receive a free sample of Origins’ latest skincare product.

Origins, produttore di cosmetici naturali, lancia una campagna nazionale per il Giorno della Terra invitando i clienti di portare tutte le confezioni riciclabili di cosmetici – anche quelle dei concorrenti – per ricevere un campione gratuito dell’ultimo prodotto per la pelle.

Vespa enlists singers For Calif. ‘experiment’ / Vespa recluta cantanti per l’esperimento California

The two-week tour of the California coastline is intended to raise awareness about global warming.

Giro di due settimane sulla costa californiana, per la lotta contro il riscaldamento globale.

Vespa gets frequent flyer miles / Vespa prende le miglia aeree

In a first-of-its-kind pilot event, Vespa will show its scooters to 3,000-plus employees of Continental Airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport, part of an alternative personal transportation program for the airline’s Liberty-based employees.

In un evento nuovo nel genere, Vespa mostrerà i suoi sccoter ai più di 3000 impiegati di Continental Airlines all’Aeroporto Internazionale di Newark, come parte del programma di “trasporto alternativo” lanciato dalla compagnia aerea.

A window sign instructs them to call a number on their cell phones and create a digital fish for the aquarium using voice commands. Then users receive a thank-you SMS message inviting them to visit online.

Un messaggio istruisce di chiamare un numero e creare un pesce digitale per l’acquario usando comandi vocali. Alla fine si riceve un SMS di ringraziamento che rimanda al sito.