People are addictive collectors. Sometime the promotions that make people collect stuff work as planned. Sometime however they result in mass hysteria that makes some happy, makes some laugh, makes quite a few sick and many just shake heads in disbelief.

It was back in 1998 when McDonald’s in Hong Kong came up with a brilliant idea. They took the popular Snoopy character and dressed the poor little dog in costumes representing 30 different countries. The promotional campaign that was to last for 30 consecutive days could begin. Every day for 30 days in a row people could get with each Happy Meal or set meal and extra 50 cents (in US money) one Snoopy. Different Snoopy every day for 30 days. The goal of this promotion was obvious - to make people come back to McDonald’s.

That was the plan. Reality was very different. People went totally mad and collecting frenzy followed. People queued every day for hours to make sure they not miss out on any Snoopy. Failure to get Snoopy was worse than loosing money on a stock market (this was 1998, days of the Asian financial crisis). For few days people would actually also eat the McDonald’s meals. But those who have seen the Supersize Me movie would know, that eating McDonald’s food for 30 days non stop is a very difficult task. It only took few days before meals started to get thrown away. Get to the line, wait for 2-3 hours, get the Snoopy, throw away the meal and back to office or back to school or back to the line for another Snoopy.

Those days the meals were around USD2.00 - 2.50, to get Snoopy people had to part with extra 50 cents. Even with the cost of the throw away meal added to the price of the Snoopy, people still found it to be good deal. No surprise when people who missed out on Snoopies from McDonald’s were willing to pay even 50 US dollars for them …

If increased sales were the goal of this promotion than it was definitely success. It however also resulted in lots of food wasted and thrown into garbage bins. It also did promote not exactly the healthiest eating habits while targeting the young. I would not be surprised if many who diligently went to McDonald’s every day for a month would not set their feet to the place again for a long time. At the same time many McDonald’s regulars had to change their diet for a month or line up with the Snoopy mad crowd.

There however were at least two winners - the company producing all the Snoopies and the homeless camping around the McDonald’s outlets getting free food from those who had no intention eating the meals.

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Not only corporations but sometimes also the governments need to be liked by people. They also use giveways to achieve that. This task is always easier when then government coffers are swelling with cash.

In the weeks before the budget speech by Hong Kong financial secretary there was quite a big pressure from the community to return some money back to taxpayers. The predicted budget surplus of almost USD15 billion made many people feel that they are simply taxed too much. That somehow is not the case in Hong Kong but with a surplus like that, some tax concessions were widely expected.

The government clearly is in a big need to be loved by people because what the budget brought was beyond expectations. Lowering the income and corporate taxes by 1% (to 15% and 16.5%), raising the tax free allowance (exempting another 75,000 people from paying taxes) and introducing one off tax refunds are all very good steps and save quite a lot of money to those who have to pay the taxes.

But what an unexpected free gift was added to all of the above - the import duties on beer and wine were abolished with an immediate effect ! There are duties imposed pretty much only on tobacco and alcohol in Hong Kong, with the latest figures at 40% import duty on wine and 20% on beer. This is gone now . The official reason is the intention to turn Hong Kong into major wine trading hub.

I believe the purpose of this cheap booze giveaway is to keep us all merry . In any case, I am not complaining. So, cheers !

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Many companies, especially event organizers, like to motivate their potential customers, participants or visitors to make up their mind quickly. The sooner the tickets sell the better. And so they come up with all sorts of early bird incentives. The most common ones are the Early Bird Discounts. When people know they can save if they buy early, they go and buy early.

Some companies go the other way. They offer no discount but throw in something extra instead. When people know the price is the same today as it will be tomorrow, they will buy today if they get some extra early bird value.

The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix organizers have a neat way to motivate people to purchase the tickets early. The early birds become their GP Advantage Members. It probably does not cost them too much money but it certainly does the trick. It did work on me . I only found out about this “something extra” by chance when I went online to check out the tickets. (OK, not letting people know about the promotion is not exactly a sign of great marketing from the organizers) I realized that I have only a day or two to grab the early bird value. And so I did. The ticket would cost me the same if I waited few days. But it would not come with a 4 days access to the trackside bar and a pit straight walk pass for the morning before the race. OK, I admit, I am an F1 freak.

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Few days ago I found in my email box photos of goodies and amenities given away by Singapore Airlines to first class passengers on the first Airbus A380 flights. Well it is not first class, it is class beyond first - the Singapore Airlines Suites. The flight was from Sydney to Singapore, the only route the Superjumbo is serving at the time of the writing.

I was not there on that flight and there was no description attached with the photos. I can only guess that there were 2 kinds of freebies. One a gift set to take away, the other a collection of stuff to be used on the flight first and then taken away.

From what I can see on the picture and from the bits and pieces I found at different aviation forums the goodies bag was very impressive:

- a Mandarina Duck briefcase with a personalized A380 inaugural flight luggage tag
- an A380 model
- a pen set from Rolls Royce ( I assume the engine supplier)
- a Mont Blanc leather luggage tag
- a SQ desk calendar
- a booklet on the Airbus A380 Superjumbo
- a luggage lock
- a clear plastic cosmetic pouch (compliant with the safety regulations)

The travelers were also presented with complimentary noise canceling BOSE headsets - a very fancy gift by itself. If somebody gives me only that, I would be more than happy.

There is also what looks like Salvatore Feragamo cosmetic set - even if you do not use it all, this would make for a great present for somebody.

The rest of the items are likely special edition in-flight magazines and “First To Fly A380″ certificates - definitely great souvenirs whether you are an aviation freak or not.

One has to give it to Singapore Airlines, they know how to impress … Well, it comes at a price. The ticket price for return ticket from Singapore to Sydney, one leg on B-747 Jumbo in First class, the other leg on A380 Superjumbo in Suites costs about USD7,200.

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Wherever you look you see collection of something on display. OK, maybe not wherever, but collecting stuff is something that people definitely like to do. They do not even mind if the stuff is not useful. A thing looking OK would often do. Sometime they do not even have to look OK, as long as it is cool to collect them .

Marketing campaigns quite often exploit this human inclination to collecting things. Look around the shops, supermarkets, restaurants and see how often you see some sort of “Collect them all !” or “Get them all !” message on a poster or a board. Well, this is because these things do work if done right. And so promotional products are often made in sets and meant to be collected.

One of the first projects we handled after setting up our business about a decade ago was a set of retro design coasters. The idea from client (or his agency, that I do not remember) was simple. What would people do if they see a really nice coffee coaster attached to the pack of coffee in a supermarket? There is a chance they choose that pack of coffee to get the coaster. And what if they come back to the supermarket again and see the same coffee but with different coaster ? And next to it a poster announcing few more designs coming out soon ? The “collector mentality” would very likely kick in. People may feel that by drinking what they always drink anyway (but sticking to the same brand) they may collect a nice coffee coaster set. And so our client went for it.

The original plan was a set of 4 coasters. The coasters were made of offset printed tin with cork backing and frankly, they looked great. Moreover the coaster is light and flat product, perfect for attaching to the pack of coffee. The campaign turned out to be a huge success and after only a month or so another 4 designs were added. Later on the best collectors received also a storage box for the coasters, also in retro design. All together almost 2 million pieces of coasters were produced. I sure did not complain …

Promotions like this can work miracles and usually do. But that does not mean they always turn out well . More on that in part 2.

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