WE HAVE NEVER understood why more direct marketers don’t use compact discs in their promotions.
They’re cheap and easy to ship – as America Online has proved. They can be downloaded when a prospect is ready to look at the information. It’s an interactive infomercial. And if the technology allows a link to your Web site, so much the better.
With one caveat, Food & Wine magazine’s interactive CD is a good case in point.
The compact disc, produced by InterActive Publishing Inc. of Putnam Valley, NY for New York-based American Express Publishing Inc., was distributed as a premium to encourage magazine sales.
Once the CD is loaded and you’ve clicked through to the main page, you’re greeted with a casual painting of, well, food and wine, with perky music on the audio track. A menu displays such choices as “food,” “wine,” “chefs” and “recipes.” Also offered are “explore” and “pasta” – the only food with its own category.
Click on “wine” and you get a second menu with an intro, as well as some specific wine types. Choose one of those and a video clip starts, featuring a balding, bespectacled man who explains what the characteristics of the wine are.
“Chefs” offers such celebrity figures as Jacques Pepin and Emeril Lagasse as well as food writer and educator Patricia Wells. Her video clip tips the target audience of the piece. Going on about what she likes about Food and Wine magazine, she notes its casual approach that’s suitable for a younger audience.
“Pasta” offers an interactive game in which you match the name of a pasta to a picture. Get it right and you link over to a page featuring the pasta family and a voice-over giving information about those pastas.
“Explore” and “recipes” include clips that pitch other American Express products like Food and Wine’s guide to wines and Travel and Leisure magazine. Toll-free numbers are featured prominently.
However, no URL was given, and we were unable to find the link to Food and Wine’s Web site that the CD was promised to have.
And that’s our caveat: The link should be easy to find. Other than that, a good job.
Network
