ADVERTISEMENT

PlumChoice Paints the Town Purple
When you're one of many technical support services looking to stand out at industry events, it helps to be colorful. PlumChoice has recognized this simple fact and chosen to firmly embrace its color of choice – purple. They have created "purple brick roads" leading from the speaker podium directly to the PlumChoice party, where they serve Plumtinis made from grape juice and vodka.

PlumChoice founder Ted Werth says, "Everyone wants to know why I chose that as the name. It simply means the best. Deep plum is a regal color. Our view is that we provide the best service in the industry, bar none."

To drive home this point, PlumChoice hands out fake syringes filled with purple liquid at events, inviting prospects to give themselves a technology booster shot, along with pill bottles containing plum-colored M&Ms with labels telling people to call PlumChoice in the morning.

Sticking with this theme, the company also created a cruise with Jimmy Buffet-style entertainment that attracted more than 50 retailers that had previously refused one-on-one meetings with the company. Each received a direct-mail piece that included Tylenol in a purple foil envelope and the pledge that PlumChoice can "solve your technology support headaches."

"There is so much noise in the marketplace. You need to really differentiate yourself to get anyone's attention," says Michael Phelan, executive director of marketing at PlumChoice. "These quirky promotions have helped us generate leads, frequently with prospects who refused more conventional overtures. The promotions alone don't sell our services, but they help get our foot in the door. And, sometimes that's more than half the battle."

Boone's Bets the Farm on Branded Shirts
Was that Kim Kardashian in a Boone's Farm T-shirt? Yes, it was. The socialite is just one of many trendsetters to sport a T-shirt touting the quirky brand. Boone's Farm, the fruit-flavored, inexpensive wine launched in the 1960s, is in the midst of a revival.

Three years ago it launched its "Bring Boone's Back" marketing effort. The goal was to make the brand relevant among influencers. Its marketing tool of choice: the T-shirt. Style-conscious celebrities, deejays and members of the press were seeded with a high-end logoed shirt, which is also available at upscale retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue.

"The branded Boone's Farm T-shirts are an effective marketing tool because they serve as walking billboards for our brand," says Kammy Dosanjh Chahal, assistant marketing manager of E&J Gallo Winery, which owns Boone's. "Simply using posters and serving product is great, but easily ignored by consumers."

Looking to broaden its tongue-in-cheek outreach, the brand partnered with the '80s-inspired, Tony-award-winning Broadway musical Rock of Ages. As a sponsor, Boone's was integrated into pre- and post-show activities.

This year, Boone's Farm also struck a sponsorship deal with the 2009 Air Guitar Championship. The tour traveled throughout U.S. cities in search of the person who can "rock out the hardest on an invisible guitar." Samplers clad in hot pink Boone's Farm shirts handed out drink cards promoting Boone's Farm and its newest flavor, Sunshine Pink. The "Boone's Farm Girls" also swept balloons, confetti and other debris from the stage in-between acts. Contestants received the shirts as well as samples of the product, which they were seen chugging on stage, backstage and on the tour bus.

"The presence of the samplers moving through the crowd in bright pink T-shirts was impossible to ignore, and it helped to have the hosts, a focal point of every show, wear the shirts as well," says Chahal. "Air guitar talent wore the T-shirts on TV appearances, which extended the Boone's Farm presence. It created a common theme and made our presence and co-branding undeniable."

 The Power of Audiobook Download Promotions - In today's tough economic times, cost efficient promotions that deliver measurable results are more important than ever.  The Audiobook Download Card benefits include:

• Drive web traffic to the brand's site – redemption process can be linked off any web page. 
• Facilitate the capture of marketing data – add a custom survey... you provide the questions and CFS handles the rest. 
• Low-cost, high-value promotion – a $25 value as low as $3.99 
• Target hard to reach demographic – research shows audiobook listeners are 30+ years old, well educated, and are professional or business people. 
• Choose from over 60,000 top-selling titles.
• Download to a Blackberry, MAC, PC, iPod, or other portable device.

Exclusively from CFS Promotions for Now! (ASI/42989). Ask about CFS' environmentally friendly production options, 5-Star ASI distributor rating, low minimum quantities, and quick production times.

For other new and creative products,
visit the Product Central section on ASICentral.com.