NHA Design Briefing » Miscellany

Selling An Unusual Idea – How?

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:06:04 +0000

During recent months we’ve developed a promotional system that’s proving very successful with our existing customers but incredibly difficult to sell to the rest of the world – those who don’t know us from Adam.

The user feedback has been very positive which is just as well. Without it we could easily have concluded there just isn’t the demand.

It’s a simple promotional scratchcard system that replicates the interactivity of a conventional printed scratchcard but does it online. It’s a lot cheaper than a printed promotion, can be set-up within a matter of hours and can be delivered via a link on a website or via e-mail so there are no distribution costs to consider either.

We’ve tried all the usual marketing activities: Email campaigns, direct mail, word-of-mouth, networking – but none has shown a significant return.

What makes it even more frustrating is the reluctance of people to accept that they can actually win something for nothing. As you would imagine each of our campaigns features one of our own scratchcard promotions with several prizes of discounts against promotions and a handful of main prizes of a completely free promotion.

Of the five big winners in the past six months, only one has taken up the offer – very happy with the results they were too. So much so, that they have since paid for a second promotion for another of their products.

When compared against the accepted industry practice, the e-mail campaign stats are the most puzzling. We’ve tried an assortment of message combinations: with and without images; html against plain text; alternative colour schemes. The results have been pretty consistent with between 8 and 13% openings and 3 to 5% click-throughs. So the messages are obviously presented in a way that encourages people to, at least, look at them, and often play the game.

So it must be something to do with the system itself. Is the idea incomprehensible? Is it a lack of imagination as to how a promotion can be used? Is it all too much trouble or too technical?

Have a look for yourself, try the system out and let us know what you think: http://www.promotionalscratchcards.co.uk

Staff Motivation and Employee Engagement

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:41:54 +0000

The problem: increasing productivity without spending a fortune or upsetting the status quo.

One solution: an online scratchcard promotion

We’ve developed an online promotional scratchcard system that fits the criteria to a “T”. Scratchcards can be delivered via e-mail or a web page link and have the same promotional benefits and user enjoyment as a printed one yet cost significantly less (and are less messy!).

The game can be completely personalised and branded so they make an ideal way to broadcast internal messages.

People do like a scratchcard – it’s to do with the interactivity – and the chance of winning something. So, using an online scratchcard promotion to motivate your staff increases the likelihood of a successful result.

You can try our promotion for nothing to see how it works – the main prize is a free promotion so you could end up getting yours for nothing. Give it a go>>

For more information on how it works >>

A few ideas for using them:

Incentivise your sales force
Say “Thank you” to your employees
Transmit corporate messages in an entertaining and involving way
Motivate employees to become stakeholders

Scratchcards – The Perfect Promotion?

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:25:09 +0000

Scratchcards or Scratch Cards? Whether it’s one or two words doesn’t really matter. We think they’re one of the best promotional vehicles in existence. We’ve been producing personalised scratchcards for many years now – have to hold up a hand and confess to producing thousands and thousands of the little beauties for a timeshare operation in Central London (but it was in the late 80′s so please excuse us) – and in that time we’ve produced all sorts of games.

Why Scratchcards?

Interactivity: for a start people just love them; give someone a scratchcard and they’ll have the latex off before you can blink, especially with the added frisson of winning something for nothing.
Memorability: interactivity provides an attractive bonus in the form of memorability. People just appear to be better able to remember a promotion/brand when they’ve had do something mechanical
Adaptability: with nothing coming “off the shelf” the game, the design and everything else can be tuned to provide a completely personalised promotion to support any marketing activity you like and enhance brand values.

They’re Cheaper than ever

Historically small print runs of just a couple of thousand cards have looked disproportionally expensive. There are three separate processes involved, each with its own minimum charge, so economies of scale didn’t kick in until you produced 5000 or so cards.

The introduction of more modern machinery and techniques has seen the production costs fall so that the minimum cost is now getting on for half what it was ten years ago.

Nowadays you can have your own personalised scratchcard promotion, with a game tailored to your exact needs for well under £1000.