It’s a Monster Mash

Each quarter, the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Marketing Association hosts an after-hours event called the MofO Mashup (MofO is an acronym for Marketer of Oklahoma). Members invite other organizations to join them, and the event typically features free appetizers, drink specials, door prizes and raffle items to benefit a local charity. For October, the event was dubbed the “MofO Monster Mashup”. ROBYN Promotions (asi/309656) was asked to sponsor the event and offered to send out invitations to the 600- plus members of the different associations. ROBYN Promotions is active in all the marketing and communications professional organizations in Oklahoma City.

“We wanted to send something that was not only a ‘cool’ invitation to the bash, but also showcased our creativity as well as some of our core capabilities: campaign development, sourcing amazing products, warehousing, assembly (or ‘kitting’) and shipping,” says Brian Blake, director of marketing for ROBYN Promotions.

The sourcing department found corrugated cardboard coffins that were built to be mailed. “We designed a custom die-cut insert with a scary vampire face printed on it that fits perfectly into the box. There are two slots cut into the insert for glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. We added some candy corn and black crinkle paper to dress it up and sent the coffins via USPS,” says Blake. ROBYN Promotions spent $3,500 to produce 700 of the coffins.

The primary goal of the project was to raise awareness for the event, which ROBYN Promotions certainly achieved. There was a great deal of chatter on Twitter and Facebook when the coffins started arriving. “People were posting pictures, sharing stories of how their kids argued over who got which part of the piece. There were even a couple blog posts about the coffin mailers. We received many e-mails thanking us for the great direct-mail piece and fielded several calls asking if we could do something similar for their company,” says Blake.

The event was held in early October, but ROBYN is still feeling the impact of that campaign. “People approach me at events and tell me how much they liked the coffins. It’s been a big win for us,” says Blake.

The promotion was so successful that ROBYN asked to sponsor the annual December event, The Freezin’ Season Jingle Mingle (aka the Ho- Ho-MofO). “For this one, we sent 12-inch tall candy-cane tubes filled with assorted jingle bells and peppermint candies to the same mailing lists, plus a slew of people who asked to be on our list,” says Blake. Again, ROBYN is seeing tweets and Facebook posts about how cool the invitations are. “A couple of companies have contacted us to see if it’s too late to get candy-cane tubes for them, too,” he says.

Change your focus

“While most of our competitors are sending catalogs and taking orders for ‘swag’, we’re focusing on positioning ourselves as marketing campaign partners. We don’t want to intrude on an agency or marketing department’s turf in terms of taking over their creative; we want promotional products to be part of what they are doing, not an afterthought,” says Blake.

Perfect Harmony

A connection goes a long way. Michael Bistocchi, senior vice president of CleggPromo, Inc. (asi/45450), is a friend of Ricky J, a pop artist based out of Montreal and Los Angeles. Bistocchi turned Ricky J on to a local distributor to purchase some of Clegg’s products that would get the crowd excited during his evening performances.

“Ricky J uses everything from light-up rings and bracelets to necklaces and party wands to help promote his brand,” says Bistocchi. The products are now part of the overall concert experience.

Ricky J has also utilized Clegg’s custom sound for his press kits. “When you open his press kit, you hear 10 seconds of his new hit single, ‘Whatta Night.’ We’re already working on his next press kit for his new single, ‘Waitin’ 4 You,’ ” says Malia Anderson, a member of the marketing team at CleggPromo.

Ricky J’s concerts draw anywhere from 500 to 5,000 people, mostly in Canada. At any given concert, most attendees get an imprinted product. Ricky J believes in imprinted products so much that he announced his endorsement of CleggPromo’s sound and light merchandise by filming a short video with his favorite light-up items. “People love Clegg’s light-ups. It enhances my concert experience. I’m all for bigger and brighter,” says the entertainer.

Follow their lead

If you’re looking to work with clients in the entertainment business, stay focused on the artist, not the products. “The artist should have a huge say in how he or she would like to be promoted. Make sure to have mockups and specs done with the artist’s logo. Products that have a keepsake value will be much more attractive at concerts for both the fans and the artist. The concert experience is meant to be fun. Don’t stress about reinventing the wheel when deciding what products to use,” says Anderson.