The Sweetest Rings

Posted on December 1, 1999 by Chief Marketer Staff

The phonecard promotion is fundamentally simple: Buy them, pass them out, and smile at the slippage rate.

Consumers love phonecards because they offer for free a service that most people feel is overpriced. Marketers love them because they love the consumers who love them, especially the ones who tuck them into their wallets until well after the expiration date.

A strategy so simple and effective often can’t help but be over-utilized and under-strategized. An estimated 60 million promotional phonecards were distributed in each of the last two years. That’s a lot to love.

Never fear. Ubiquity is the aunt of invention, or something like that. Smart marketers already knew that the most successful promotions demand more than temps passing out logo-ed phonecards on street corners. They require a fully integrated plan that will present the brand message, enhance the brand image, and ultimately sell the brand either immediately or in the future.

Winners of promo Magazine’s fourth-annual Dialog Awards were recognized as much for the integrated programs they built around – or into – their phonecards as they were for the card promotions themselves (and maybe even more so). They created intricate campaigns for which the phonecard served as the catalyst, the tangible component that got into consumers’ hands and triggered everything else.

Not that the simple handout isn’t ever effective. A few award winners met their objectives quite nicely with basic programs that entailed little more than a giveaway or the promise of one. But many others found ways to instill the power of an entire marketing strategy in a tiny little phonecard.

And you’ve got to love that.

Platinum Winner

Self-Promotion: The PhoneCard Lunchbox

Supplier/Client: PhoneCard Express

Every business-to-business marketer dreams of creating a promotion that makes potential clients stop long enough to digest the pitch. PhoneCard Express took that concept to near-literal levels by mailing a phonecard lunch to its hot-prospect list last September. The company shipped a bagged carryout container replete with phonecard burger, pickle, and brownie (the fries were just a photo; the ketchup was real) offering 30 free minutes, and a faux menu listing some of the most tried-and-true strategic uses for the cards. Each phonecard had a distinct voice prompt that offered free shipping on orders until the end of 1999, but required callers to state, “I’ll have fries with my burger” to qualify. Half of the 400 recipients called within a week, and PhoneCard Express’s September sales jumped 120 percent. The company reports that several clients have even asked about regurgitating the concept for their own programs.

Gold Winners

Healthcare: Mom’s Treat

Supplier: Sprint FonPromotions

Client: Ruder-Finn Healthcare/Novartis Pharmaceuticals

A little guilt never hurts a promotion. Switzerland-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals, makers of the Miacalcin Nasal Spray used to treat post-menopausal osteoporosis, teamed up with Proflowers.com last spring to offer a special Mother’s Day bouquet package called “Mom’s Treat.” The bouquet came complete with a greeting card, a brochure about the disease and the Novartis product, and a business-replay card for additional information. Purchasers received a 10-minute phonecard and a reminder, “Don’t forget to call mom.” The partners eventually renamed the bouquet “May’s Treat” and continued to offer the package after the holiday.

Entertainment: Call of the Wild

Supplier: PhoneCard Express

Client: American Trails West

American Trails West has been sending students on summer travel adventures for 34 years. For the last six years, the Great Neck, NY-based outfit has offered check-writing parents rechargeable phonecards (with free minutes) they can plant on Junior to make sure he stays in touch while answering the call of the wild. This summer, American Trails distributed 15 free minutes on cards presenting a picturesque glimpse of the travel program, and added a voice-mail system that parents could use to remind Mary to take her allergy pills. Parents recharged $43,000 worth of phone time in ’99, and half of them utilized the voice-mail option.

Beverage (non-alcoholic): Dew Crew Live

Supplier: SportsCom Inc.

Client: PepsiCo

A two-minute phonecard doesn’t usually classify as a premium with high perceived value. But it does when those two minutes give rabid NASCAR fans a chance to tap into scanner communications between drivers and their pit crews (through NASCAR’s FanScan Audio Cards). PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew offered four peel-off cards (one for each of the drivers in the brand’s new Dew Crew racing sponsorship) on 24-can cube cases in the motorsport hotbeds of North and South Carolina. In addition to activating the Dew Crew sponsorship, the program helped sell the cube packaging – traditionally distributed only through convenience stores – into such leading grocers as Winn-Dixie and Food Lion.

Computers/Peripherals: No Worries

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/ Jack Nadel Inc.

Client: Hewlett-Packard

Rolling out new Enterprise Storage Solutions software, Hewlett-Packard hit upon the slogan, “We’ll manage your business stress-free for you.” The company armed its sales force with 10-minute cards depicting relaxing images such as sailboats, scuba fins, and Zen gardens to reinforce that message. One judge called the cards “understated, simple, and classy.” HP liked the results enough to repeat the promotion, and is considering a third go-round.

Utilities: Here’s Your Piece of the Action

Supplier: GTE Card Services

Client: GTE

This promotion scored points just for using cards made out of genuine basketball leather. GTE also nimbly leveraged its status as the “Official Telecommunications Consultant to the NCAA” by passing the 30-minute cards to customers who signed up for Internet and long distance service in the month preceding the NCAA College Basketball Final Four. The company gave away 250,000 cards and reported strong usage as well.

Retail: Get Skechers and Scratch It

Supplier/Agency: Communications Design Group/The Creative Couch

Client: Skechers, Inc.

Skechers went account-specific with The Sports Authority this fall to present a 10-minute key ring card as a gift-with-purchase. The phonecards were packaged with an instant-win gamecard/sweepstakes entry form. Customers who used the phonecard could enter the sweeps by phone after supplying Skechers with their names, addresses, and phone numbers. Radio spots and more than one million circulars supported.

Financial Services: Bank Online

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/Boise Marketing

Client: LaSalle Bank

LaSalle targeted Internet-savvy college students by pitching its online banking services. “We know you have better things to do than run to the bank. Like talk on the phone,” read the marketing collateral, thereby introducing a 15-minute card that was distributed via welcome kits at Chicago-area universities. Visits to the bank’s Web site spiked and 4,000 new accounts were opened in the six weeks following the drop.

Electronics: Visit Shimadzu

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/The Ad Solution

Client: Shimadzu Scientific Instruments

Shimadzu’s trade show strategy is to promise free gifts to targeted customers who come to the booth with the direct-mail piece they received a few weeks earlier. In this case, 10-minute phonecards were awarded to visitors who brought a copy of an ad that ran on a trade publication CD-ROM connected to the show. The card’s graphics matched the company’s overall marketing campaign, including the design of the booth.

Beverage (alcoholic): All Vodka, No Pretense

Supplier: Communications Design Group

Client: United Distillers & Vintners

No pretense with this promotion, and no extra components either: The effort stood alone as a simple gift-with-purchase, distributed by a neckhanger on bottles of Smirnoff vodka. Card copy and graphics were consistent with print ads for the brand, and had an “upscale” look in line with Smirnoff’s desired image. United Distillers repeated the promotion with several other liquor brands.

Packaged Goods: Sunflower Seeds

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/ Jack Nadel Inc.

Client: Nestle USA

David Sunflower Seeds commissioned two distinct phonecards, one to introduce a new nacho cheese flavor at its annual sales convention, another to strengthen relationships with retailers. Brokers and reps received 10 free minutes “just in case” they wanted “to call a friend to tell them about” the new flavor; retailers were schmoozed with 60 minutes to help them “celebrate 70 years of roasting perfection.”

Restaurants: Bell Ringer

Supplier: SCA Telecard Services

Client: Taco Bell

The Tricon Global Restaurants chain uses 30-minute phonecards labeled “You’re A Champion” as one of several incentive premiums offered to employees at Irvine, CA, headquarters. Acknowledging the demographics of its employees, the company allots 10 minutes of time for international calls to Mexico. The cards have proved to be the most popular premium; 40,000 were ordered during the most recent quarter.

Nonprofit: Hey Boys & Girls

Supplier: Karis Communications

Client: Boys & Girls Clubs of America

The 139-year-old nonprofit distributed five-minute phonecards to attendees of its 93rd annual national conference, held in San Diego in May. Supplier Karis Communications got into the spirit of things by donating half of the 2,000 cards that were ordered.

Media: The VIP Card

Supplier: Sprint FonPromotions

Client: promo Magazine

promo knows that getting subscribers to answer surveys can be a daunting task. So it enlisted Sprint to send a 60-minute phonecard to 1,000 readers, who were asked to participate in monthly surveys over a six-month period. The cards were “refreshed” with 30 more minutes for every survey the user answered. Respondents were also entered into a sweepstakes to win additional prizes. Response rates of eight percent to nine percent gave promo insight into the thoughts of its audience.

Silver Winners

Computers/Peripherals: Ideas Get There Faster

Supplier/Agency: PhoneCard Express/ Palmer Promotions

Client: Structural Dynamics Research Corp.

Beverage (non-alcoholic)

Coca-Cola Key Ring

Supplier: Communications Design Group

Client: Coca-Cola Co.

Entertainment: Let’s Play

Supplier: PhoneCard Express

Client: Hasbro, Inc.

Beverage (alcoholic): Ring in the Summer