Welcome to the second edition of our new column, My Best Promotion. Each month we’ll be showcasing a promotion that a distributor thinks is one of his or her best, and sharing some of his or her insights, thoughts and advice on the project. This month’s article features Dan Livengood, senior sales manager/talent acquisition—Western region for Newton Manufacturing, Newton, Iowa.
THE PROMOTION
Livengood and his coworkers designed a deck of cards to educate fourth-grade children on ways to avoid brain and head trauma. It was a standard deck of playing cards, ace through king, and usable in conventional card games like poker, Go Fish and solitaire. Each card was fitted with fourth-grader friendly images and text, such as things like rhyming phrases and colorful artwork, to express the desired safety lessons.
The decks went through a 1,000-unit prototype phase that included various child care, educational and health care professionals. Some revision and readability changes were made before an additional order of 3,000 decks was placed, mostly related to tweaking and otherwise improving the copy for the fourth-grade demographic. The Iowa Department of Health distributed the cards to all elementary schools in the state, as well as to select health care and other appropriate institutions. The safety tips and recommendations on the cards were all verified by credible medical sources.
WHY IT WAS THE BEST
Livengood chose to showcase this promotion because it fit into his philosophy of selling solutions to clients, a favored methodology that he’s been following for the last 15 years.
“My best promotion is really my favorite category of selling,” he said. “Being resourceful and creative is one of the best combination strategies in solution-selling.”
PITFALLS TO AVOID
Running a promotion so reliant on copy and artwork can create some proofing issues. “No matter how many sets of eyes you get on a project like this, inevitably you’ll see letters transposed or you’ll see a typo, and it has to be corrected,” he said. Livengood and his team used the time between the prototype and larger-release phases to proof and fine-tune the copy, taking particular care since the items were meant for the classroom.
SELECTING A DEMOGRAPHIC
“The reason we went to the fourth grade first is because again, they’re that age group where they’re old enough to understand, but they’re young enough to be cooperative and heed warnings that these are potential dangers,” said Livengood. He noted as well that because the children were so young, reaching them with the promotion had the effect of “cutting them off at the pass” before they could be realistically engaged in most of the dangers warned against in the cards.
DESIGNING PROMOTIONAL GAMES
For those attempting any type of game-based promotion, Livengood stressed the importance of intensely focusing on the promotion’s intended objective. “What it really comes down to is, ‘Is it fulfilling a purpose?'” he said. Livengood explained that while the creative details involved in a game’s design are important, they should be formulated around the promotion’s objective, and not the other way around. “The most important thing is [to] really look at the objective and provide accurate information.”
Want to be considered for a future segment of My Best Promotion? Contact Michael Cornnell at [email protected] or (215) 238-5449 for a list of questions and other details.
