WO2004022356A1

WO2004022356A1 - Promotional postcard system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2004022356A1
Application number: PCT/AU2002/001231
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gayle Edwards
Original assignee: North, Dawn, Andrea
Priority date: 2002-09-09
Filing date: 2002-09-09
Publication date: 2004-03-18
Also published as: AU2002322194A1

Abstract

In one form there is disclosed a promotional postcard system (10) comprising at least one card (21) having a face side (15) and a rear side (17), said card divided into at least one postcard section (18) and at least one detachable offer of benefit section (19). There is also disclosed a method for a promotional postcard system, said method including: (a) the formation of a managing organisation (25); (b) the formation of agreements (28) with between said managing organisation (25) and said sponsoring organisations (26); (c) the forming of agreements between said managing organisation and said subsidiary organisations; d) the preparation of promotional postcards, the distribution and re-supply as required of said postcards.

Description

FROMQTIONa-L POSTCARD SYSTEM AND METHOD

The present invention relates to systems and methods for the presentation and delivery of promotional material and in particular to the presentation and delivery of such material to a targeted consumer population.

BACKGROUND

Many forms of promotional material exist as do a plethora of delivery means seeking to bring goods and services to the notice of potential consumers. Much of this material is prepared and disseminated in a somewhat arbitrary manner, often with blanket coverage so that by far the larger part of it does not confer any benefit to an organisation seeking to promote its wares, Apart from aspects such as novelty, visual attraction and pricing, perhaps a majority of promotional material does not offer any immediately realizable incentive to the consumer to further investigate the goods or service on offer. It is the object of the present invention to present a system and method for the presentation of promotional material to a targeted population of potential consumers combining relevant information with useful incentive aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

Accordingly, in one broad form of the invention there is provided a promotional postcard system comprising at least one card having a face side and a rear side, said card divided into at least one postcard section and at least one detachable offer of benefit section.

Preferably said postcard section is provided with printed graphical representation and indicia associated with an organisation on said face side, and personalized and address indicia on said rear side.

Preferably said offer of benefit section is provided with printed graphical representation and indicia associated with an organisation on said face side and information relative to said offer of benefit on said rear side.

Preferably said card is one of a plurality of cards.

Preferably said cards are printed contiguously, separated by perforated fold lines adapted to allow folding in concertina form into a flat pack.

Preferably said cards are printed separately, said cards collated into a stack.

Preferably said cards are presented in an envelope or wallet. Preferably the first of said cards is a header card, said header card representing a sponsoring organisation. In a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method of promotion based on a promotional postcard system, said method including the steps of: (a) the formation of a managing organisation, (b) the formation of an agreement with between said managing organisation and said sponsoring organisations, Preferably said method further includes the step of the preparation of promotional postcards in accordance with said agreement;

Preferably said method further includes the step of the distribution and re-supply as required of said postcards in accordance with said agreement.

Preferably said method further includes the step of the formation of an agreement between said managing organisation and at least one subsidiary organisation.

Preferably said sponsoring organisation and each of said subsidiary organisations is represented by a promotional postcard. Preferably each promotional postcard is prepared as a postcard section with at least one separable offer of benefit section.

Preferably said postcard section may be sent by a customer or client of said sponsoring organisation to an addressee. Preferably said offer of benefit section provides details of goods and/or services recoverable by the presentation of said offer of benefit section.

Preferably said promotional postcards include a header card and subsidiary cards.

Preferably said header card is adapted to the promotion of said sponsoring organisation.

Preferably said subsidiary cards are adapted to the promotion of said subsidiary organisations. Preferably said sponsoring organisation enters into an agreement with said managing organisation to arrange for the distribution of said promotional postcards to customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation.

Preferably said agreement includes the free supply of said promotional postcards to said sponsoring organisation conditional on specified distribution, quantity and time frame parameters.

Preferably said agreements with subsidiary organisations include the payment of a fee to said management organisation for the preparation, printing and distribution of said subsidiary postcards.

Preferably said goods and/or services of said offer of benefit on said header card are recoverable from said sponsoring organisation by said customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation. Preferably said goods and/or services of said offers of benefit on said subsidiary cards is recoverable from said subsidiary organisations by said customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation. In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a promotional postcard comprising a postcard section having a separable offer of benefit section removeably attached thereto.

In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided an array of promotional postcards, each as defined above, each card removeably attached to a next card of said array along a long edge thereof,

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a promotional postcard arrangement suitable for use with embodiments of the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a logic flow diagram of a promotional system in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. DETAII-ED DESCRIPTION OF PEEFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A first preferred embodiment of a promotional postcard system 10 will now be described with reference to Figure 1 in which a plurality of postcard segments 11 is assembled into a postcard collection 12. In this embodiment the postcard segments 11 are joined along common edges 13; the join lines 14 preferably perforated to allow folding and subsequent separation when required. Each postcard segment is further divided into a postcard section 15 and an offer of benefit section 16. The postcard section 15 is in most general aspects a conventional postcard adapted to accept personalized indicia on its rear surface 17 together with address indicia etc. Significantly however the face 18 of the postcard is provided with graphical and textual information relative to a particular organisation seeking to promote its goods and/or services, though retaining a sufficiently attractive appearance to serve the common function of a postcard.

The adjoining offer of benefit section 16 is associated with the organisation represented by the postcard section 15. It may have a further graphic and textual indicia on its face 19 with detailed information on its rear surface 20 of a special offer to be provided by the participating organisation on presentation by a consumer of the offer of benefit section 16.

In this first preferred embodiment, the postcard collection 12 is freely made available by a participating organisation, acting as the sponsoring organisation, to a consumer who is in some way a customer or client of that organisation. Some typical examples would include a guest of an hotel, or a traveler on an airline. Typically, the first card 17 of the collection 18 (the header card) is adapted to promote the sponsoring organisation through which the postcard collections are made available. Thus for example, a consumer wishing to convey to friends an aspect of his or her stay to in an hotel or a trip by air can elect to send that card (or retain it as a memento) and avail themselves of whatever offer is described on the benefit section. Likewise any other postcards of the collection may be sent as desired, the consumer retaining the benefit sections for possible future enjoyment of the benefits offered, Thus for the sponsoring organisation making the postcard collections available, the cards offer a dual benefit; the first card (or header card) immediately provides a vehicle for providing some bonus benefit to the customer and the postcard when sent, promotes the poster collection sponsor to other perhaps future potential customers- In addition the remaining cards are useful postcards likely to be appreciated by the customer, especially since each holds the promise of some benefit which may be enjoyed in the future.

The remaining postcards of the postcard collection promote participating subsidiary organisations. These may or may not have some direct association with the sponsoring organisation but are likely to be active in some associated area such as for example tourism. These organisations may also expect to benefit indirectly from some of the postcards sent representing their organisation and the offer of benefit section will encourage the customers or clients of the sponsoring organisation to in turn become customers of the subsidiary organisation, In this first preferred embodiment as illustrated schematically in figure 2, the cards are prepared by a managing organisation 25 which canvasses likely participants of the system, both as sponsoring organisation 26 and subsidiary organisations 27 whose promotional cards depend from the header card.

While in a preferred embodiment the postcard collections 12 are made available to the sponsoring organisation 26 free of charge subject to a distribution agreement 28, the subsidiary organisations 27 join the system on the payment of a management fee 29. This fee may consist for example of a base charge for the preparation of their postcard segment with an additional charge based on the volume of postcard collections distributed.

Typically, the distribution agreement with the sponsoring organisation will include a requirement that the cards be regularly replaced as they are taken up by customers or clients 30 so as to assure subsidiary organisations 27 of a predictable and continuing exposure for the term of the distribution agreement. Preferably the distribution agreement will also specify the total number of postcard collections to be made available to the sponsoring organisation so as to enable subsidiary organisations to tailor their offers of benefits according to likely take-up volumes and associated costs. In a second preferred embodiment of the invention, the postcard collection is dedicated solely to a single sponsor organisation." In this embodiment the postcard collection may be adapted to show on the postcard sections particular attractive features of the sponsor organisation or associated features. Thus in the example of a hotel, the postcards may show representations of the hotel itself as well as local attractions and so forth. Again in this example, the associated offer of benefit sections may confer complimentary services or goods available at the hotel or of such services or goods as may be arranged by the hotel with other providers. In this preferred embodiment, the postcard collections would not be made freely available but the managing organisation would provide these subject, for example, to a fee based on the volume of card collections to be supplied and the number of cards in a collection.

Clearly in this second embodiment of the invention, the number of postcards in a collection may be limited to a single card providing just one postcard and one offer of benefit. In yet a further preferred embodiment of the invention, each postcard section may be combined with more than one associated offer of benefit section.

In the preferred embodiments of the invention including a plurality of cards, the cards may be printed contiguously, separated by fold lines perforated to allow folding in concertina form into a flat pack and subsequent separation as required. Alternatively the cards may be supplied separately, for example in a suitably adapted envelope enclosure or wallet. In this latter preferred form, that is of separate postcards, the postcard collection may be selectably compiled from a larger collection of participating subsidiary organisations to allow the formation of various collections suited to particular requirements and preferences. ϊn an alternative preferred embodiment the promotional cards and the packs of cards deriving therefrom can be visually adapted for certain hosts and also for directly paying clients. This can be implemented by designing the packs using the corporate colours or other identifying corporate indicia of the host or paying client to make the product instantly recognisable in the eyes of the receiving public as being that of the particular organisation (the host organisation or paying client organisation as the case may be) .

In this alternative form arrays of cards are produced in return for monetary return from a paying client. In a further alternative form the promotional system previously described in accordance with a first preferred embodiment may also be utilised wherein there is a primary agreement between the host and the card pack supplying organisation for other than direct monetary return. It will be obvious from the foregoing description of embodiments that further variations are possible without departing from the concept and spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A promotional postcard system comprising at least one card having a face side and a rear side, said card divided into at least one postcard section and at least one detachable offer of benefit section.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said postcard section is provided with printed graphical representation and indicia associated with an organisation on said face side, and personalised and address indicia on said rear side.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said offer of benefit section is provided with printed graphical representation and indicia associated with an organisation on said face side and information , relative to said offer of benefit on said rear side.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said card is one of a plurality of cards.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said cards are printed contiguously, separated by perforated fold lines adapted to allow folding in concertina form into a flat pack.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein said cards are printed separately, said cards collated into a stack.

7. The system of claim 5 and claim 6 wherein said cards are presented in an envelope or wallet.

8. The system of claim 6 and claim 7 wherein the first of said cards is a header card, said header card representing a sponsoring organisation.

9. A method of promotion based on a promotional postcard system, said method including the steps of:

(a) the formation of a managing organisation,

(b) the formation of an agreement with between said managing organisation and said sponsoring organisations,

10. The method of Claim 9 further including the step of the preparation of promotional postcards in accordance with said agreement;

11. The method of Claim 9 or 10 further including the step of the distribution and re-supply as required of said postcards in accordance with said agreement.

12. The method of Claim 9 or 10 or 11 further including the step of the formation of an agreement between said managing organisation and at least one subsidiary organisation,

13. The method of claim 9 wherein a said sponsoring organisation and each said subsidiary organisation is represented by indicia on a promotional postcard.

14. The method of any one of claims 9 to 13 wherein each promotional postcard is prepared as a postcard section with at least one separable offer of benefit section.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said postcard section may be sent by a customer or client of said sponsoring organisation to an addressee.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said offer of benefit section provides details of goods and/or services recoverable by the presentation of said offer of benefit section.

17. The method of claims 9 to 13 wherein said promotional postcard includes a header promotional postcard and subsidiary promotional postcards.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said header card is adapted to the promotion of said sponsoring organisation,

19. The method of claim 17 wherein said subsidiary cards are adapted to the promotion of said subsidiary organisations.

20. The method of any one of claims 9 to 13 wherein each said sponsoring organisation enters into an agreement with saJd managing organisation to arrange for the distribution of said promotional postcards to customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said agreement includes the free supply of said promotional postcards to said sponsoring organisation conditional on specified distribution, quantity and time frame parameters,

22. The method of claims 9 to 13 wherein said agreements with subsidiary organisations include the payment of a fee to said management organisation for the preparation, printing and distribution of said subsidiary postcards.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein said goods and/or services of said offer of benefit on said header card are recoverable from said sponsoring organisation by said customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation.

24. The method of claim 16 wherein said goods and/or services of said offers of benefit on said subsidiary cards is recoverable from said subsidiary organisations by said customers or clients of said sponsoring organisation.

25. The method of any one of claims 9 to 24 wherein said promotional postcard system is as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8.

26. A promotional postcard comprising a postcard section having a separable offer of benefit section removeably attached thereto.

27. An array of promotional postcards, each as defined in claims 26, each card removeably attached to a next card of said array along a long edge thereof.