A few days ago I came across this article on Mashable (aka my favourite “news” source and the only one I have on my RSS) about Heinz running a promotion in the UK enabling people to send cans of soup to sick companions with “get well” messages written on them. Heinz joins what appears to be a growing trend of companies taking online content and turning it into physical/tangible products in “real life”. Some other examples: Apple’s recently announced Cards app, GetGlue’s check-in stickers, Kiip’s sponsored gaming rewards, and Lockerz’s virtual points prize redemption system.
And I think this trend has great potential to be big. As Apple has been given credit for playing a part in reviving the music industry, people are now calling the same thing for greeting cards. The Cards app model is the same as the Heinz promotion: you pay a little bit more than if you went to the store and bought the can of soup/card there, but for the extra price you save yourself the convenience of both the product purchase and personal delivery to your intended recipient. So, I don’t see the price being a hurdle (~$3 to send the personalized can of soup) – on the contrary, I’m more interested to know if that price covers all of Heinz’s variable costs of printing individual labels and delivering the cans (or paying a shipping company to).
This trend represents something even bigger in the marketing picture – ROI. With the emergence of e-marketing and social media in the past few years, the biggest question/catch has been determining their contributions to the bottom line, and I think this trend is one step in that process. The internet is enabling marketers to go one step further: instead of presenting a virtual advertisement, it’s getting products into people’s hands, which is all the more likely to build brand loyalty. I’m a big fan of the concept, and it’s a trend I’ll be watching closely.
Leave a Reply