SNAPNWIN ON THE COVER OF DIRECT MARKETING MAGAZINE
Canadian Invention looks like an Instant Winner
DIRECT MARKETING ARTICLE
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Awhile back, Malcolm Stagg (an engineer whose earlier career included stints as head of R & D for a number of multi-nationals before founding his own company, Norprint Corp., in 1997) attended a seminar that sparked his imagination. One of the presenters there described a fairly elaborate process using database marketing and variable data printing to produce customized postcards for homeowners adjacent to recently sold properties; urging them to list their homes. To Malcolm, this seemed like a lot of effort for a marketing piece that would likely interest only a handful of recipients, since people sell their homes, on average, only three or four times in a lifetime. The problem, as he saw it, was that postcard recipients would be unlikely to retain the information long enough to ever use it.
[I knew that to solve this problem.] "a great idea would be to send a magnet in the mail but the ways of doing it up to that point were very inefficient," he explains. "You would take a magnet, put it on a postcard and then put some special film on it. Then, you had to cut it with a pair of scissors and pop out the back. It was expensive and not amenable to variable data printing either."
Stagg was already pretty conversant with magnets. His company is an Oakville Ontario based wholesale supplier of them; as well as door hangers, key tags, bookmarks and a host of other ad specialties. North American commercial printers, advertising and marketing agencies, graphic designers, brokers and promotional product distributors, comprise Norprint's clientele.
Contest Creation
In January 2007, Malcolm began developing his concept: a card with a magnet that can pass through the mail. One month later, he filed a patent application and by December, he was unveiling his product, which, in its original format, was a 2" x 3.5" business card with a perforated snap-out magnet embedded within it. Both sides of the card, including the magnet, can accept variable data printing on the outside. But what makes the product particularly unique is the ability to print prize information or code numbers hidden from sight at the center of the card under the magnet. This capability naturally lends itself to contest creation.
"We focused initially on the business card size because we thought it would be a perfect handout for event marketing," Stagg emphasizes. "The interesting thing about the product is that fun aspect of it for the end user who is going to find out whether they have won a prize right away."
Dubbed "SnapNwin" the product's combination of attributes opens the door to applications that are almost too numerous to count.
For example, Harmony Printing in Toronto recommended SnapNwin as a means of promoting the opening of one of its client Adidas's concept stores. A celebrity image was printed on the face of the card to increase its value as a collector's item fridge magnet and the Adidas brand and signature black and white colours were also prominently featured. The finished cards were handed out following a major sports event. Recipients who popped out the magnet to discover they were instant winners received credits of $10 to $250 that could be redeemed at the store's opening. A call to action on the cards invited all recipients to register online for the grand prize: a $500 shopping spree. The use of the grand prize incented online registration, thereby initiating the store's customer database, converting unknown sports fans to database members and ensuring ROI.
Direct Marketing Implications
To date, applications for the product include B2B incentive programs, employee incentive programs, trade shows, prospecting, fundraising, event attendance, sales incentive programs, instant win sweepstakes and retail programs. And of course, there's also the entire realm of direct marketing to be explored. Stagg says that Norprint has begun producing SnapNwin in a postcard configuration and many other sizes.
He explains: "One of the things that is consistently mailed out are credit cards that adhere to a piece of cardboard that has no value. If you wanted to keep the paper liner to remind yourself to get a new card, you wouldn't know what to do with it. The interesting thing about this (postcard) is that it can be processed under bulk rates by Canada Post and USPS because it's not magnetic on the outside. You can shuffle them like a deck of cards. As a postcard then, it gets to the homeowner or the business and they can snap out the panel and the instant win is underneath."
Value Added Services
SnapNwin created a lot of buzz at the Graphics Canada show last November. This May, it was recognized for its marketing and trade show promotional strengths; handily winning "Best Promotion" at the CMA National Convention in Toronto.
"We have had a lot of interest (in SnapNwin) and are looking to license the manufacturing and marketing of it." Stagg admits "As this takes off, the demand will outstrip the amount of capacity we have. It's the first major product invention in the instant win market since 'scratch and win' was invented in 1974."
snapNwin Inc. currently has US, Canadian, and worldwide patents pending for both the SnapNwin concept and its processing system.
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