Come Friday, before the tryptophan has even fully left our systems, we’ll be listening to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on repeat, getting properly festive for the holiday season. Most of America will be doing the same, considering you can’t turn on the radio between Thanksgiving and New Years and not hear the song.
There’s one person, though, who probably won’t be participating in this most beloved of annual traditions: Mariah Carey herself. That’s because she’ll be too busy watching season four of “The Crown,” the Netflix drama about Queen Elizabeth II.
We know this, as we know all things, from a tweet:
Well done you, @TheCrownNetflix, dahhhlings! ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/MSzNGao0zQ
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 17, 2020
That there is a video of Carey, apparently a huge fan of “The Crown,” opening a promotional gift box sent to her by the show’s creators. It appears the box is designed to look like ones used to deliver official documents on the show. Inside is a reproduction news article about Prince Charles and Princess Diana, a letter addressed to Carey, a bottle of whiskey and a fancy decanter.
“I don’t know what to say,” Carey says at the end of the video. “If you haven’t watched ‘The Crown,’ you are missing out! Go watch season one—watch it through now! I don’t even do this type of thing! I never do this! It’s the best! I can’t wait! I’m so excited!”
That’s a lot of exclamation points! And we can see why. The box is well done: simple, elegant, designed to make you feel like you’ve been transported into the world of the show. The small details, like the shiny foil text on the underside of the lid, really make it feel royal. Plus, no one’s going to argue with a free bottle of Dewar’s.
Now, it’s certainly possible that Carey has never actually seen “The Crown” and this unboxing video is part of a paid social media promotion. Or maybe Carey is a fan, and the show’s creators set this up with that in mind. Carey has worked with Netflix before, after all. There’s nothing wrong with a little marketing synergy through celebrity influencers.
But that’s all besides the point, which is that this promotional gift box was done exceptionally well and was effective in its ultimate goal of promoting the show. Carey’s video has more than 448,000 views and 2,300 people talking about it on Twitter. We’ve never seen a minute of “The Crown,” and now we know all about it. A lot of other people now know about it, too, even if they didn’t get a cool gift box. Mission accomplished.
Promotional gift boxes like this one were a thing long before the pandemic, but there’s no question this sort of thing has taken off lately. Kitting multiple items together for maximum promotional impact is smart. Delivering those items directly to audiences’ doorsteps is even smarter.
That should be an easy sell for your customers. If it’s not, just tell them even pop super-mega-stars love promotional products. If they need proof, you can show ’em the video.
