How nice it was to see Amazon.com, fresh from its second quarter of operating profits, represented at the New York Premium Incentive Marketplace trade show last week. The Seattle-based online retailer's appearance marked its first participation at any premium forum. Welcome to New York City, guys: Pull up a stoop and have a cup of our coffee.
Amazon was touting discount coupons to its site, which could be used as premiums. Gift certificates have a basic flaw. One interaction (if redeemed) and they're gone. Amazon may end up with the recipient's business, but the marketer offering the certificate doesn’t get anything out of it.
Most vendors at the premium show are quite happy to put a company's telephone number or URL on just about anything. They do so regardless of whether the product is erasable, inappropriate or edible.
Here's a rule for marketers: Your message does not belong in your customer's alimentary canal. Can't generate a response from there.
A few items had direct marketing potential. Take PromoScents, which bills itself as "The World's First Billboard Air Freshener." A PromoScent freshener comes with a little hook, allowing it to hang vertically. A marketer's message probably isn't going to be obscured, as it would be if it were on a mouse pad, as long as the customer can stand the eye-watering scent of laundry detergent.
So what does make a great DM premium? How about custom-designed puzzles from the Windsor, ONT-based Stak-Its Toy Company. The company's offering is part toy (think flat Legos), part puzzle and game card, and part online puzzle. The latter consists of rebuses, which can spell out a company's ad campaign tag or slogan. A campaign based around this would be interactive and memorable.
There were a few noticeable absences from the show. Two of my favorite vendors from last year – the guys who offered the talking postcards and the outfit with the computer keyboards that had one-button connections to key suppliers – were no-shows.
This leaves three vendors out of more than 400 that readily suggest direct marketing use. Perhaps it's my untrained eye: What premiums have proven especially effective for readers? Cleverest story wins a detergent-scented air freshener. It's slightly used, but still highly potent.
To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact rlevey@primediabusiness.com.
