You've Come A Long Way Since Bill Cosby

Temple University's fundraising pitches have come a long way since the tv commercials featuring Bill Cosby (who attended the University) with the memorable refrain, "I could have gone anywhere - I chose Temple." While not as high-profile as the Cosby spots, today's fundraising efforts from the University show spunk and creativity, as is the case with this recent email that I received from my alma mater, with the intriguing subject line:

A chair. A camera. 60 seconds.

To be truthful, when I read that subject line, I thought Temple wanted me to make a video for them (a chance to use the camera on my MacBook Pro and maybe get famous?). Silly me! And when the email opened with this personalized message ...

Cynthia,

During finals week in May, Temple students

were given one last test - to convince you

in just 60 seconds to support the university.

Click here to decide whether they passed.

... of course, I had to click to see the video.

I think you'll agree, this video is a great way to bring real faces to a fundraising effort, and what greater way to talk about supporting the next generation of society-molders than having them speak for themselves and the University.

Go Temple!

To give to the University, click here.

Two Takes On Freebies: Redbox and Mars Chocolate

Redbox giveth and Redbox taketh away. 

Maybe you've seen their big red boxes outside your local grocery store, where you can rent DVD movies for just $1 (take that, Blockbuster and Comcast Pay Per View!). It's also where you can get FREE movie rentals every Monday of the week. Or should I say was ...

For quite some time now, on Monday mornings, Redbox would text message people who registered their cell phones online with a FREE Movie promotional code. The code was only good that day to save the normal $1 fee on your Monday rental. Well, yesterday, Redbox alerted their loyal customers, via the email shown above, that their FREE Movie Mondays rental promotion is ending on May 11th. But to be the good guys in this bad economy, Redbox is going to keep the promotion going through the summer, on a monthly basis (not weekly) starting on June 1st. How nice is that?

Actually, is there anything better than FREE? It's "the strongest word in the English language," according to many direct marketing professionals. And it sure makes for hard-to-resist offer copy when you can say, "FREE Trial Offer, no strings attached." 

In an About.com article, "Creating Powerful Promotional Marketing Coupons, Contests & Samples Drive Sales for Business," Darrell Zahorsky has this to say about the topic ...

"Do free samples work? Giving your product away for free may seem profit limiting but consider the case of Seth Godin. Godin released a book called 'The Idea Virus' in 2000. Unlike other authors, he did not charge for the book instead gave it away for free as an e-book. In less than 30 days over 400,000 copies were downloaded. This created a buzz about the book and even through free, people bought the hard cover; making the book #5 on the Amazon best seller list."

And Redbox isn't the only one who gets the power of free samples and is giving stuff away this summer ...

The Mars marketing team is running a FREE chocolate on Fridays promotion with their Real Chocolate Relief Act (and getting a little governmental on us with that name). They've even developed a graphic "seal" for this official business initiative. 

The Mars ad that ran in yesterday's USA Today says, "Every week through September, Mars is giving way 250,000 free* real chocolate coupons for your favorite Mars brands. Authentic chocolate made with 100% cocoa butter. Enjoy one on us today and, for more free* chocolate, visit realchocolate.com on Fridays." 

The promotion, per the ad's disclaimer, will run 5/8/09 through 9/25/09. (I'm checking the website now, and having trouble linking ... is it my browser or the Mars site?) 

A few months back, I wrote about Mars' Dove chocolatiers franchise. I'm extremely impressed with what the company is doing to move forward - in this economy, you'd think FREE samples might be a bad idea, but Mars is going gung-ho with the idea. You can read more about the Mars FREE chocolate Friday giveaways here.

And don't forget to get your freebies! (My favorite Mars brand: 3 Musketeers. Movie: the latest comedy will do!)

Great Email Subject Line

Or Big Brother is Watching?

The subject line for this email from Friends of the US Chamber was, "We Saw Who You Voted For Last Week." OF COURSE that email got opened! The body text of the email read ...

We Saw Who You Voted For Last Week...

Just kidding. Don't worry - your ballot was secret and your vote was private.

But imagine if there was no secret ballot. What would it be like if you had to cast your vote with everybody looking?

Not just strangers - but your boss and your co-workers?

Sound un-democratic?

That's because it is. Unfortunately, the Big Labor Unions and liberals in Congress are teaming up to push a bill that would kill the secret ballot in union organizing elections.

Some news reports say this will be one of the first bills introduced when Congress reconvenes in January.

With no secret ballot, small businesses could find themselves overrun by union organizers before they even knew a campaign was underway. Not to mention, corrupt union bosses can see how American workers vote, leaving them open to intimidation and coercion.

American workers deserve better - and right now, we need to be working to fix the economy first, not fighting over controversial bills like this.

Do you think Congress should fix the economy first ... or push this bill to kill the secret ballot in union elections?

Please vote in our quick poll below:

For more information about this critical issue, visit the Workforce Freedom Initiative's Web site at www.uschamber.com.

© Friends of the US Chamber, 1615 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20062

Point made, and made well!

Orderus Interruptus

How do you keep the sale going when an online order has been "interrupted" and never completed? Here's how Blue Mountain eCards tries to do it ... with an immediate follow-up email AND a special offer.

The opening is friendly and empathetic - "Just when we thought you were going to become a member, you didn't. Maybe you got a phone call? Had to run to a very important meeting? Whatever distracted you from the task at hand, now's your chance to take the ball and run with it."  Then comes the offer - they'll give you $2.99 a month towards two of their e-card services if you click on the link below and finish signing up. Not a bad way to keep an online sale going.