Dying Business... Phone Book Covers... But re-workable into other Advertising ideas..

Received one of these in the Mail today...

For some strange reason businesses are still investing their Advertising $$$'s on these things...

Some consumers find them Useless...

But you just Gotta Google everything these days As you just never know what “twistable” ideas may pop up...

http://domainnamewire.com/2008/08/22...e-book-covers/
http://www.google.com/search?q=phone...ient=firefox-a

A few Quick picks... Lots of other possibilities... I'm sure Don has a few...

What can't you cover in Advertising these days...

http://www.springwise.com/marketing_...bookvertising/

An Advertising Cover is any postally-used envelope with advertising printed on it. Today we call this sort of thing "junk mail", because we get so much of...
http://alphabetilately.com/A.html

A Beef Over Ads On Report Card Covers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n3584310.shtml

http://digg.com/design/Ads_turn_New_...s_into_coffee_
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambie...k_stair_w rap

Phil

Originally Posted by Phil

Received one of these in the Mail today...

For some strange reason businesses are still investing their Advertising $$$'s on these things...

Some consumers find them Useless...

But you just Gotta Google everything these days As you just never know what “twistable” ideas may pop up...

http://domainnamewire.com/2008/08/22...e-book-covers/
http://www.google.com/search?q=phone...ient=firefox-a

A few Quick picks... Lots of other possibilities... I'm sure Don has a few...

What can't you cover in Advertising these days...

http://www.springwise.com/marketing_...bookvertising/

An Advertising Cover is any postally-used envelope with advertising printed on it. Today we call this sort of thing "junk mail", because we get so much of...
http://alphabetilately.com/A.html

A Beef Over Ads On Report Card Covers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n3584310.shtml

http://digg.com/design/Ads_turn_New_...s_into_coffee_
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambie...k_stair_w rap

Phil

hi phil
thanks ive just just got new advertising idea from this medium
thanks workaholicvictor

Ya...I first did Phone Book Covers with a Co out of Green Bay WI. I charged $555 per ad. $185dep, $185 on proof & $185 on delivery (which the company got) for 5,000 mailed

These were "Soft" covers with 10 ads on each side (20 ads x $555) I then went with a Hard cover with a metal spine and put 60, 2 line ads on each side in Alphabetical Order for $245 ea (120 ads x $245) for 5,000

And haven't done anything with them for years AND...last year I was in a realtor buddies office and he showed me the Soft Cover he bought and ad on for $245. (10 ads on each side)

I was then in my insurance rep's office and whala, another cover he bought an ad on for $297 (Totally different cover)

Then I was in my auto repair guy's office and....another Different Cover.

This got my interest up, so I did some checking.

I found a Cover maker in Cincy with a good price for covers. I then looked at the 3 covers I had collected and all 3 cos were from the Cincy area.

Apparently...there are 5 different cos soliciting ads for phone book covers from the Cincy area. It seems one co started doing these a few yrs ago, hired some salespeople and trained them and...these salespeople decided they could make phone calls themselves and get the covers from the cheap maker.

Now...why 3 of them chose my dorky town of 25,000 to solicit ads for their covers within about a month of each other, is interesting. I know they are separate operations...actually competitors....so why they chose my town, I'll never know.

One thing I do know....NO ONE EVER RENEWS A PHONE BOOK COVER AD!

That should tell you how "effective" they aren't.

Don Alm
P.S. One thing I also know for sure;
The same 3 cos who solicited and sold ads on phone book covers in my area, last year....WILL be soliciting and selling ads to DIFFERENT advertisers in my area THIS year.

An "Advertising" program that STILL WORKS and has been working for one Advertising outfit for FORTY-FIVE YEARS....(www.communitysurvey.com) is;

"GIFT CERTIFICATES MAILED TO NEW MOVERS!"

"Discount Coupons" have also been around for years (Val Pak, etc) however, because these coupons are usually mailed to 10,000 consumers (at a cost of 5cents ea) the discount is usually "mickey-mouse"....why...because the advertisers "don't want to give away the store". They're afraid if they give away anything "of Value", like "Free Pizza", "$25 Gift Cert", etc....they could be swamped.

However...advertisers WILL make Good Discount Offers when the Certs are mailed to;
1) 100
2) New Residents

Low number of Certs to NEW Residents, the BEST prospect to contact. So, this is why advertisers are willing to spend $1.50 per coupon (compared to 5cents)

So...I would rather have 30 businesses paying ME $150 a month for 100 pieces of mail ($450 for 300 pcs of mail) rather than 30 businesses paying me $450, every 3 mos for 10,000 pcs of mail.

Don Alm
"50 Ways To Make 50K"
http://www.midasreports.com