• Beauty Gift Cards Have Transformative Effect
• Distributor’s Wedding Shows She’s Hip to Themed Events

Beauty Gift Cards Have Transformative Effect

Beauty products are all about the quest for transformation, so how do you express that in a two-dimensional gift card? Beauty Brands, a retail store chain, hired Bernstein-Rein Advertising for help, and the agency contacted Jeff Bowles, co-owner of Proforma Promotionally Yours (branch of asi/300094).

“Holographic cards were originally what we looked at producing, but they ended up being cost prohibitive,” Bowles says. “I had recently attended the PPAI show in Las Vegas and taken home samples of some lenticular gift cards produced by Performance Printing/Optigraphics (asi/75155) and brought them in to show the client.”

The agency loved the idea of using animation and came up with various designs and effects that could be used. Performance Printing then created several lenticular animations. “I can’t stress how crucial Brad Bartlett and his team at Performance Printing were throughout this process,” Bowles says. “Translating two-dimensional images into animated lenticular designs is a complex art form and having the right supplier partner on this project made all the difference.”

There are multiple versions of the cards, each featuring a different woman’s face in transition, so Beauty Brands’ customers can choose the design they relate to most. It’s a concept everyone seems to love. “All of the feedback we’ve received has been outstanding,” Bowles says, “from the agency to Beauty Brands and from all of their customers. In fact, the cards were so popular they’re already considering new designs for a second order.”

Distributor’s Wedding Shows She’s Hip to Themed Events

Are you devoted enough to your brand that you would brand your own wedding? Promo Girl – a.k.a. Sheryl Wilk-Wides, creative promotional officer at P & S Promotional Specialties Inc. (asi/288990) – is. Sort of. When she and fiancé Larry Wides planned their surprise wedding – yes, it was a surprise for the guests – they chose a theme near and dear to her alter ego.

“I billed it as an engagement party: ‘The Event of the Century,’ ” Wilk-Wides says. “It was a theme party, ’50s costumes required, of course, since I, as Promo Girl, dress in ’50s attire from Cruisin USA (asi/47743)/Bowlingshirt.com.”

The couple sent out themed “Save the Date” sponges from Americanna Co. (asi/35730), followed up by a record-shaped invitation that a printer friend created. Favors for the party included a playable CD/coaster from Soundline LLC (asi/88241), a disposable camera from Illini (asi/62190), private-label bottled water from Mineral Springs (asi/71350), and cups and napkins from Tranter Graphics Inc. (asi/91880).

“The majority of guests did not know until around 9 p.m. that we were getting married,” Wilk-Wides says. She had the DJ quiet guests for a “special announcement.” Then her fiancé went out onto the dance floor and asked her to join him.

“Larry then said, ‘Since everyone is here, friends and family, why don’t we go ahead and get married?’ ” Wilk-Wides says. “There was dead silence. I asked everyone what they thought – if we should get married. The rabbi came in and asked if someone needed a rabbi. The guests were shocked and clapping and yelling. Some were even crying. It was great!”

The question that remains is: Did the promo products go over well? “The guests loved the favors,” Wilk-Wides says. “The comments we received ranged from ‘Fabulous,’ and ‘Fun,’ to ‘We would have expected nothing less creative from Promo Girl.’”