Computer direct marketer Gateway Inc. sent out more than 1 million e-mails to its customers last month as part of a multimedia effort tied to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Designed to build brand awareness and promote sales, the Gateway Gold Medal Savings Event campaign also included TV, radio, print advertising, in-store events, radio broadcasts and direct mail.
Gateway was a supplier for the Winter Games, providing 5,500 PCs and servers. It hopes to regain ground against competitors in the PC direct marketing arena, particularly Dell, the company said.
The direct mail and e-mail efforts were sent to existing customers who had recently purchased. On the postal side, the firm sent 500,000 copies of Gateway Guide magazine and less than a million direct mail pieces, said spokesman Greg Lund.
Meanwhile, three TV spots debuted, all showing Gateway co-founder Ted Waitt chatting with a Holstein cow about the cow’s dream of winning gold in the ski competition.
Direct response spots followed, offering desktop systems, processors, monitors and notebooks. Gateway estimated that the commercials would be viewed by 85% of Americans an average of 10 times last month.
In stores, a Gateway CyberSpot kiosk allowed visitors to send free video e-mail messages to U.S. Olympic athletes. Those who sent an e-mail received a branded lapel pin with the Gateway cow riding a bobsled.
Recently, as a result of an ongoing price war with Dell, Gateway overhauled its product line. It dramatically reduced prices on its most popular desktop PCs, notebook PCs and servers, packing in more premium features than ever, the company said.
Gateway suffered a 15% drop in shipments during the fourth quarter of 2001.
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