THE CHALLENGE: Creating a low-cost, high-impact promotional vehicle.
THE SOLUTION: Screensavers.
Screensavers? We know what you are thinking: Oh, they are so 1990s! In this age of podcasts and wikis and Bluetooth and Blackberries, a screensaver seems as hip and
cutting edge as a Vanilla Ice 45 rpm record.
Well, we're not talking about the screensavers with the flying toasters or Sports Illustrated swimsuit babes. We're talking about branded screensavers that are used as
PR tools.
Case in point: The Stanley Works in New Britain, CT. The company was in search of a high-impact promotional tool that called attention to its sponsorship of the Stanley
Racing Team in NASCAR.
"I was at an industry roundtable and were discussing different marketing vehicles for Web sites," recalls David Morgan, the company's Internet marketing manager. Morgan had
distinctive needs: A vehicle that had mass appeal to his target audience and provided the "sticky" element to draw and keep attention. The solution came via branded
screensavers.
"There is a very high level of non-standard screensavers on most people's computers," observes Morgan. "Most people replace the standard Windows wallpaper and screensavers
with what they have an interest in."
For the company, having a branded screensaver featuring the racing stars of the Stanley Racing Team offered a bounty of promotional opportunities (ETR Consulting
developed the product on behalf of the company). Not only would it be available directly from the Stanley Motor Sports Web site, but it could even be linked into the e-mail
promotional campaigns and listed on high-traffic sites such as Screensaver.com. Furthermore, it could also be burned on a CD and included in gift bags for the Stanley
dealers and distributors who are guests of the company at NASCAR events.
However, a new aspect to screensaver technology helped sell Morgan on the concept. "Today's screensavers can be dynamically updated," he observes. "You can provide new
content automatically to people's computers, and even set up which dates for material to come on and come off. We just updated our screensaver the other week with new images of
the Stanley Racing Team drivers."
Morgan is taking the screensaver vehicle further, not only to promote the company's industrial tool line, but also by taking it in-house to aid its human resources department
as an internal communications device.
"We're really just getting started with screensavers," says Morgan. Contact: David Morgan, [email protected].