Soak Up These Self-Promo Ideas
Selco (UPIC: SELCO) offers an interchangeable custom-designed watch system, Switch, with modules that can be “switched” out among five different colored straps. To introduce the line, Selco created a self-promo campaign that was honored with a 2015 PPAI Pyramid Award. “The goal of the campaign was to engage distributors prior to meeting with them at upcoming shows,” says Selco President Mark Abels, MAS.
“A couple of weeks before each show, we mailed one of the brightly colored straps to each distributor with a note requesting they bring the strap to their meeting with us. About 75 percent of distributors remembered to bring their strap.” At the meeting, Selco presented each distributor with a fully-customized module embellished with the distributor’s company logo. “Distributors raved about their logoed watches and most put them on immediately and wore them throughout the show,” Abels adds.
McCabe Promotional Advertising, Inc. (UPIC: MCCA0001) went retro and bought a 1967 Ford Falcon van to use at client and community events and as part of its social media messaging while launching a new motto this year: “Get Away From The Ordinary.” As a self-promo holiday gift, the distributor chose to partner with Canadian supplier Redwood Classics and give McCabe clients upcycled mittens made from ugly holiday sweaters destined for the landfill. “These ugly mittens fit into our story right now,” says Michelle Merrifield, McCabe’s VP of operations. “The promotion gets us away from the ordinary, and the fact that each mitten is unique and retro—all of that fits with our theme.” The mittens include a logoed woven label and are packaged in eco-friendly craft paper with a company-created hangtag.
