To: Washington State
Destination Marketing Organizations
From: Amy Spain,
Executive Director, Snohomish County Tourism Bureau
Subject: Referral -
ImagineCDs.com
To my colleagues around
Washington State,
I have had the pleasure
of working with ImagineCDs.com, to create a
new meeting facilities guide and packaged travel guide
for the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. As we developed
our board goals for 2009, one of the objectives focused
on using cutting edge technology as a marketing tool to
increase tourism to Snohomish County.
Printed pieces are
out-of-date practically from the moment you print them.
While many companies still use and rely on printed
pieces, we found that more and more of our event
planners and packaged travel companies were gravitating
to electronic media for their searches and planning
purposes. While at trade shows, we would present both
CD’s and printed guides and found that we brought back
the printed guides and the CD’s were gradually becoming
the media of choice.
Enter ImagineCDs.com. I
met with them last year and that meeting planted the
seed of change. His patent-pending technology allows for
a user-friendly experience for the event planner, and an
updateable collateral piece for the Snohomish County
Tourism Bureau that does not require ‘throwing out the
old’ piece; saving money, providing updated information
to the event planner without a new print run, and was a
green initiative. This does not replace our online
presence, but augments it. We will launch this new CD at
the upcoming Meeting Professionals International Western
Education Conference in early July. I would be happy to
discuss my experience working with ImagineCDs.com with any of my
colleagues. Please feel free to contact me.
Best regards,
Amy Spain Executive Director Snohomish County Tourism Bureau
“Imagine CDs did a
great job for our Company. They met the time lines and
produced excellent results at a very reasonable cost.
They are trustworthy, honest and has the highest
business ethics. Top qualities: Good Value, High
Integrity, Creative” Manmohan Sharma,
Columbia Tower Club General Manager Manmohan hired
Imagine CDs in 2006, 2007 and 2008
“Imagine CDs provides
great vision and extremely detailed and creative ideas.
I have enjoyed collaborating with them on several
different projects, and always learn a great deal when I
do. Their attention to detail and high integrity makes
me feel very comfortable in collaborating with them on
just about anything. Top qualities: Great Results, High
Integrity, Creative” Julien Recoussine
(client)
“Imagine CDs'
innovative CD technology is an excellent permission
based advertising medium. It is the perfect branded give
away for any promotional event providing added value by
adding up to 10 tracks of music to suit your target
audience. I had the pleasure of working with Imagine CDs
on the Columbia Tower Club’s 5th annual casino night for
charity and my clients were very happy with the exposure
they received.” Steven Paul
Matsumoto, Principal, Azimuth Marketing
"I just wanted to
write and say thank you for everything you did and all
of your help with our event! Your collaboration,
experience (and great ideas!) helped make the day that
much more memorable. Thanks so much!” Melissa Herbert, Director, Columbia
Tower Club
Putting a disc into a direct mail piece is an effective way to
entice consumers to open it, according to research sponsored by
industry group DiscMail Direct and the Direct Marketing
Association. The study, released in full at this week's DMA 2010
Conference & Exhibition in San Francisco, found that 91% of
respondents said they would rather open a mailer that contains a
DVD or CD.
“The disc still has tremendous perceived value,” said Guy
Finley, coalition director of DiscMail Direct, a coalition of
manufacturers, packagers and marketing companies that use DVDs
and CDs – also called “optical media” – in their direct mail
efforts.
However, he emphasized that a major part of that perceived value
comes from the brand advertised on the disc. “When customers see
a brand they know and recognize with a disc in it, they are more
inclined to check it out, especially if it's a Mercedes or
Google versus a no-name.”
Indeed, the study found that almost three-quarters (73%) of the
more than 800 consumer respondents said they actually played the
discs on their computer.
One
of DiscMail Direct's primary goals is instilling a sense of
security for consumers who receive optical media via direct
mail. The coalition is working to brand discs from members with
a DiscMail Direct logo to strengthen trust from consumers who
might be concerned about viruses.
The
study revealed that 59% of respondents believe a DVD is more
secure than e-mail, and 85% prefer receiving a DVD or CD rather
than an e-mail, indicating that consumer attitudes are moving in
a positive direction for optical media.
“People need to think about discs in a different way,” said
Finley. “It's about getting digital advertising into their
mailbox.”
Pop Quiz
Pop Quiz!
Please take a quick minute to test your knowledge
1)What is the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce doing differently
this year with their new membership and business directory?
a) Biggest distribution ever – online and on CD, reaching record
number of people
b) Ability to update members’ ads anytime throughout the year
instead of waiting for a full year
c) 50% off last year’s ad rates
d) All of the above
2)How many pages of paper is the Greater Seattle Chamber of
Commerce saving from going to waste by using self-updating CDs
instead of print directories?
a) 100,000 pages – with each update
b) 250,000 pages – with each update
c) 500,000 pages – with each update
d) 1,000,000 pages – with each update
3)What is the only physical medium which can provide
an immediate link to the website or other social media platforms
of an organization, which is a major benefit?
a) Print directories
b) Pens or coffee mugs with logos on them
c) Multimedia CDs
d) Rubik’s Cubes
4)According to Cambridge Associates research, how much
greater of a response rate do multimedia CDs generate
compared to traditional direct mail?
a) Same
b) Up to 25% more
c) Up to 200% more
d) Up to 600% more
5)Compared to a print directory which can incur an
additional cost of $5+/per piece just to send out in mail, how
much less can a CD cost to send out in mail by comparison?
a) About the same cost
b) About half the cost
c) About a quarter of the cost
d) About a tenth of the cost
6)How many pages worth of text can a single multimedia CD
hold?
a) Up to 10,000 pages
b) Up to 20,000 pages
c) Up to 60,000 pages
d) Up to 90,000 pages
7)How many gallons of oil does it take to produce a ton of
paper?
a) 190 gallons
b) 290 gallons
c) 390 gallons
d) Producing paper does not require oil
8)“But why don’t we just put everything on websites,
without giving out any physical pieces ever?”
a) The Wall Street Journal’s research shows that a tangible
marketing collateral piece in the consumer’s hand is proven to
be more effective than any Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
alone
b) Push technologyvs Pull technology – you cannot “pull”
someone you do not know your website (spam laws, privacy, etc)
but a physical piece (coffee mug, pen etc) bearing your website
will bridge that link
c) According to marketers, collateral pieces drive sales at web
sites and retail stores, making them more important than ever.
When Macy’s stopped sending out physical catalogs, their online
sales plummeted nearly 30% within a quarter before they
immediately reversed course
d) All of the above
Survey
How will this BenefitYour
Organization?
Help identify your benefits by reviewing the below
'out-of-the-box' considerations:
Q1: How many separate/unique print publications
does your organization produce? (eg: catalogs, directories,
guides, brochures, application packets, maps, etc) ○ one ○
two ○ three ○
more than three
Q2: How many copies of these separate/unique pieces
do you print in total, cumulatively, over a year?
________
Q3: Understanding that you may be printing various
amounts of different publications, how much would you stand to
save if you could print/combine some or all them all for the
price of one? ○ save 50% (combine 2 publications) ○ save 67% (combine 3) ○ save 75% (combine 4) ○ other:
_____
Q4: Once you decide to update or re-issue your
printed publication, how much time does it take before it's in
the hands of your community and the intended target audience? ○ months ○ weeks ○
days ○ seconds
Q5: How do you accommodate a
department/member/participant if they miss the print production
deadline? How do you deal with print correction/edit/update
requests from your department/member/participants, or those of
your own? How do you handle removals due to closure or payment
default? ○ re-issue an updated/corrected publication
○ wait until the next print cycle to
add/remove/update then
Q6: How often can you accept new
advertisers/sponsors to appear in your current publications? ○ yearly ○ monthly ○
anytime I want ○
we don’t
Q7: Do you have a page number, size, or weight
constraint, owing to printing restrictions and/or postage fee
worries? ○ yes ○
no If
yes, what is it?
___________________________
Q8: If money was no object, how much more content and/or
advertisement would you consider adding, and how often would you
edit/update your publications over a given year? ○ as much as and when I choose to, in line with
client demand and revenue opportunity ○
none/never
Q9: How much money do you invest in mailing and
postage for one-off mailers and bulk mailing of your printed
publications? $US _______/year. If
you could reduce/avoid these costs, would you consider
re-investing them in publishing more directories/publications,
or other projects? ○ yes ○
no
Q10: How happy are you with your ability to
track/trace each and every website visit, email and phone call
your printed guides generate for you and your community of
participants and advertisers/sponsors? ○ completely happy - we track everything ○ could be happier - would like to track more
Please describe what you enjoy the least about your print
publications. What other constraints and difficulties are you
faced with? If you had a magic wand, what would you like help
on, do more of, less of, or differently?
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