I often get promotions from Google Engage, the division charged with boosting AdWords sales to agencies. They spare no expense to make sure their message gets across. They’re one of the last big users of dimensional mailers, and they take extra care to be sure the package arrives in pristine condition. This mock pizza box, for example, had corners protectors spot-glued to protect it and was further protected by shrink wrap (which I’ve removed).
Inside, we have a promo that uses the built-in stage management of the pizza box effectively. This is a competition of some sort, and there’s an involvement device (the wheel), a box with rules, and a $40 gift card to pay for pizza since you’re going to be spending a lot of late nights in the office planning your AdWords campaign. The message on the gift card says “Late Night Pizza. Sound Familiar?” Very clever.
However, the first picture doesn’t show the package as first saw it when I opened the box; the second one does. There’s an ugly security notice across the gift card that hides the copy message, promotes the issuer of the card, and announces a $4.95 a month service fee if it’s not used quickly.
I can’t believe this was what Google intended, and I’m sure at least one of of the project managers threw him/herself off the San Mateo Bridge on seeing this. (Why they chose an obviously cut-rate card company, after spending so lavishly on the other components, is a separate matter.)
The cure for this is to first, assume nothing. Don’t just order the cards, ask the issuer exactly how they’re going to look when they arrive. Second, do a check in the mail production house… this blooper could have been caught at that point, though I’m not sure what could have done since this is a time-value promotion. And third, address several pieces to seed names (without telling the mail house) so you can see it in the mail as your recipient does.
This promo arrived several months ago, and I can’t remember if a “please excuse the egg on our face” follow up was sent. I don’t think so, since it would have arrived Fedex like the original package and I would have noticed it and put it aside for later review as I did with this package. Too bad. It would have been fun to write that letter.
P.S. In case you can’t read it on the security sticker, the card issuer is incentivecardlab dot com. As of now, they’re not on my short list for suppliers.
Wow, Otis…I can’t believe they didn’t check this before sending it out. We would have scoured a thousand proofs before letting anything this impactful go out the door! Thanks for the important reminders.
That’s right Ernie. A lot of bucks were spent on something that had nowhere near the desired impact, since eyes went immediately to the money, i.e. the gift card.