Allow me, my name is Nike!
Attention, ambient media trend-spotters: The new advertising buzzword is “hand-to-hand marketing.” Mediabox turns business cards into advertising mediums.
Ambient media trend hunters watch out: The new advertising slogan is hand-to-hand marketing. Mediabox turns business cards into advertising media What's on the back of your business card? Nothing? That doesn't have to be the case. The marketing agency Mediabox puts an end to this waste of space. It prints advertising on business cards and distributes them free of charge.the offer is called Cards4you and is not aimed at business people, but at young people. On the website www.cards4you.ch, they can choose from a maximum of ten different advertising motifs. They enter their address details and receive a set of 25 cards within a week.
"We assume that around twenty of these cards are actually passed on," says Florian Biafori, co-owner of Mediabox. After all, cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses have to be exchanged all the time these days. This turns the users of Cards4you into brand ambassadors: they link their identity to a product that they have chosen themselves. In addition, people who have received a Card4you often order a set of cards themselves - a snowball effect.
Advertising customers book modules of 500 to 2000 card sets with Mediabox. Brochures, catalogs or samples can be added to these to enhance the effect. If a subject is sold out, it remains online for at least four weeks. During this time, visitors to the website can send it as an e-postcard. The medium has already been used by Nike, H&M, Stimorol and Buena Vista International, among others.
Inspiration from Holland
The idea for Cards4you came from Florian Biafori himself. It was inspired by the Icecards from the Netherlands, but Biafori made some changes to the concept. For example, Icecards no longer offers a choice of different brands. The cards are sold directly by the advertising customer. In addition, the Icecard sets contain different subjects, which increases the risk that they will be hoarded instead of distributed.
Once the concept was ready, Mediabox looked for a partner. "One of the cornerstones of our business policy is that we do not operate any media ourselves," explains
Biafori. "This is how we guarantee our neutrality towards customers and providers." Cards4you was to be operated by an independent company and only marketed by Mediabox. The obvious choice was to make an offer to Masani's Ambient Media, which was already successful in the market with free postcards. This company also showed interest, but the partnership did not materialize. In the end, a newly founded company, Loop Media in Küsnacht, took over the promotional business cards.
Cards4you was launched in mid-August without much fanfare. According to Biafori, around 600,000 cards have been delivered since then. That corresponds to 24,000 orders. "The penetration is not huge," admits Biafori. "Cards4you is not a wide-reach medium. But it is pepper for the media mix." Teenagers in particular can be targeted. In the first phase up to January 2004, 40 percent of people who ordered cards were between 14 and 16 years old. Over 20s accounted for 22 percent.
Florian Biafori is convinced that Cards4you can become a basic medium like free postcards: "Not next year, but in the next five years." At the moment, demand from users is far outstripping supply: new subjects are selling out in no time at all.
The big brotherThe Cards4you are modeled on the Cards for free from Masani's Ambient Media. Masani's has been distributing free postcards in trendy locations since the end of 1994. Initially only in Zurich, since 1996 in 26 cities throughout Switzerland. Cards for free was already in the black in 1997. "The medium really established itself in the advertising market from 2000," says Nadine Hoffmann from Masani's.
Last year, around 5.5 million cards with around 320 subjects were produced. This corresponds to around 135 orders. To increase the attractiveness of the range, Masani's works with art schools to produce six series with six artistic subjects each year.
A hit with young people: business cards with their favorite brand
Stefano Monachesi
"We assume that around twenty of these cards are actually passed on," says Florian Biafori, co-owner of Mediabox. After all, cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses have to be exchanged all the time these days. This turns the users of Cards4you into brand ambassadors: they link their identity to a product that they have chosen themselves. In addition, people who have received a Card4you often order a set of cards themselves - a snowball effect.
Advertising customers book modules of 500 to 2000 card sets with Mediabox. Brochures, catalogs or samples can be added to these to enhance the effect. If a subject is sold out, it remains online for at least four weeks. During this time, visitors to the website can send it as an e-postcard. The medium has already been used by Nike, H&M, Stimorol and Buena Vista International, among others.
Inspiration from Holland
The idea for Cards4you came from Florian Biafori himself. It was inspired by the Icecards from the Netherlands, but Biafori made some changes to the concept. For example, Icecards no longer offers a choice of different brands. The cards are sold directly by the advertising customer. In addition, the Icecard sets contain different subjects, which increases the risk that they will be hoarded instead of distributed.
Once the concept was ready, Mediabox looked for a partner. "One of the cornerstones of our business policy is that we do not operate any media ourselves," explains
Biafori. "This is how we guarantee our neutrality towards customers and providers." Cards4you was to be operated by an independent company and only marketed by Mediabox. The obvious choice was to make an offer to Masani's Ambient Media, which was already successful in the market with free postcards. This company also showed interest, but the partnership did not materialize. In the end, a newly founded company, Loop Media in Küsnacht, took over the promotional business cards.
Cards4you was launched in mid-August without much fanfare. According to Biafori, around 600,000 cards have been delivered since then. That corresponds to 24,000 orders. "The penetration is not huge," admits Biafori. "Cards4you is not a wide-reach medium. But it is pepper for the media mix." Teenagers in particular can be targeted. In the first phase up to January 2004, 40 percent of people who ordered cards were between 14 and 16 years old. Over 20s accounted for 22 percent.
Florian Biafori is convinced that Cards4you can become a basic medium like free postcards: "Not next year, but in the next five years." At the moment, demand from users is far outstripping supply: new subjects are selling out in no time at all.
The big brotherThe Cards4you are modeled on the Cards for free from Masani's Ambient Media. Masani's has been distributing free postcards in trendy locations since the end of 1994. Initially only in Zurich, since 1996 in 26 cities throughout Switzerland. Cards for free was already in the black in 1997. "The medium really established itself in the advertising market from 2000," says Nadine Hoffmann from Masani's.
Last year, around 5.5 million cards with around 320 subjects were produced. This corresponds to around 135 orders. To increase the attractiveness of the range, Masani's works with art schools to produce six series with six artistic subjects each year.
A hit with young people: business cards with their favorite brand
Stefano Monachesi
