Building Web Site Traffic

A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American

Game Piece Moves Web Site Traffic in the "Right Direction"

NCL Graphic Specialties produces more than 400 million labels/coupons a month for a variety of industries including food and bottling. The company's Web site gets a lot of traffic because it offers information about promotional options, marketing ideas and more.  But NCL wanted to know more about those who make up its visitor base. So the company initiated "NCL - The Right Direction Contest."

To showcase its capabilities, NCL created a complex die-cut, miniature-folded, scratch-off game card that is overwrapped in clear material, (above). Visitors to NCL's Web site can fill out a form to obtain the special game pieces. Players have an opportunity to win Garmin® Navigation Systems, Tervis® Tumblers, coffee mugs or compass key chains. Every game piece is a winner.

According to NCL, many Web site visitors are taking the time to provide company information, product needs and email addresses. NCL is winning right along with its prospects.

To obtain a game piece go to http://www.nclgs.com/ Go ahead ... you gotta win something.

Preventing Generations for Generations

From AdAge: Trojan distributed its first newspaper freestanding-insert coupons recently with offers ranging from $1 off the Trojan2Go card to $2 off vibrating products. The company's foray into coupons was part of a major Valentine's Day retail promotion to boost lagging sales.

Though some other marketers claimed seeing a trend toward "recession sex" last year as people with more time on their hands got frisky, Trojan wasn't seeing things that way. Trojan's tracking research showed signs of an actual decrease in sexual activity.

Regardless, it's good to know that when it comes to "safe sex" there's now a coupon for that.

Palm Readers

Former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was the featured speaker at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN. During a question and answer session she snuck a look at notes she had written in ink in the palm of her hand. Needless to say, the media jumped all over that.

So I did a little searching on the web and guess what? There's a product for people who write on their hands ... really. The To-Do Tatoo is a temporary tattoo with lines, and a skin-safe washable gel pen. You can have Amazon deliver one. (Maybe they should re-name it, "The Sarah Palin Memory Method.")

If you're going to write on your hand, at least you can be neat about it.

Marketing Hand Notes

Here's another positive spin on "hand notes." Those annoying stamps you get on your hands at clubs can actually be life savers. At some clubs outside the U.S. hand stamps contain "Do not drink and drive" messages and the phone numbers of local cab companies. This new form of advertising has received praise from both police and liquor establishments.

It's probably just a matter of time before hangover remedies start paying to be included on hand stamps as well.

H.O.G. Heaven

Being from Milwaukee, these caught my eye.

If a loved one was really into Harley's, you may want to look into The Harley Davidson hearse. It belongs to Kevin Brennan Familly Funeral Home, in Topeka, Kansas. For $795, a driver will take the dearly departed from the funeral home to the house of worship, then on to the cemetery ... compared to $475 to $575 for a lift in a traditional hearse.

I wonder if Dale will let me convert his Harley Davidson Springer into something practical like a "Mannequin American Mobile Home"?

Harleys & Hollywood

Speaking of Harleys, the Harley Davidson Museum is currently running a special display, "HarleyWood - The Harleys & Hollywood Exhibit."

From the museum: "The Harley-Davidson Museum tells the story of how motorcycles impacted pop culture and "Harleys & Hollywood" shows examples of this ongoing fascination."

Visitors to the museum can see bikes from the movies G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Star Trek and Wild Hogs along with bikes owned by Clark Gable, Steve McQueen, Ludacris and Jesse James. The exhibit ends this month.