PR NEWS gives two enthusiastic thumbs up to the following mail promotions that were just too cheeky to ignore:
A Jazzy I/R Approach. I/B/E/S, a financial intelligence firm, was having trouble being "heard" over the din of competitors vying for the attention of institutional investors.
So it burned a CD of jazz bits (featuring Duke Ellington and George Gershwin tunes, among others), called the collection "A Celebration of Jazz for the New Millennium" and mailed
the music freebie to its target audience, along with a matching, CD-sized, spiral-bound calendar. Each calendar month features factoids about I/B/E/S, along with trivia about
different jazz instruments. ( NAK Group, 800/778-7005)
A Toast to College Financial Aid. In preparation for its site launch, freescholarships.com (a Web destination featuring insights on education issues and daily chances to win
free scholarship money) mailed a wooden, wine bottle-sized box to its press contacts. The box was imprinted with the company logo and the words, "Let's raise a glass to all those
who are trying to pay for a college education." Inside the box we found Easter grass, a plastic cup and a box of Alka-Seltzer. ( FitzGerald Communications, 617/494-9500, x245)
Flowers from Cyberspace. The upcoming ilounge conference, slated for March 23 in La Jolla, Calif., is positioned as not just "another boring tech-weenie event," and exhibitor
proflowers.com didn't want to be perceived as just another boring online flower delivery service. So for Valentine's Day, they sent us a 16-inch tall bouquet of proteas - the
oddest (well, ugliest) flowers we've ever seen. After we got over the fear that the blooms might come alive and eat us, we enjoyed their quirky presence in the office for a
couple weeks. (Contact 800/PROFLOWERS)