Best Integrated Print & Promo Campaign
Grossman Marketing (asi/215205)
It was the year of the kit in 2020, where distributors found the power of a diverse gift that blended different product categories in one branded package. Since then, it’s been the gift that’s kept on giving as hybrid work models have become commonplace and distributors have seen how effective it can be to reach end-users quite literally where they live with a cohesive and memorable campaign.
Grossman Marketing Group (asi/215205) created a curated kit for travelers who booked an EF Go Ahead Tour, taking care to match every print and promo product – from lanyards and luggage tags to caps and printed papers – with a cohesive color scheme and branding aesthetic.
Grossman Marketing Group (asi/215205) didn’t intend for the items in its kit to live in their end-users’ homes, though. Rather, it used a collection of tote bags, luggage tags, lanyards, caps, cookbooks and various print pieces to enhance the travel experience for customers on EF Go Ahead Tours.
Print items like brochures, business cards and ID badges complemented promo items like lanyards and drinkware.
As Grossman Marketing Group evolved from being mostly print-based to a more “holistic marketing support” company, as Co-President David Grossman says, its sales relationship with EF has grown, too, for nearly three decades.
“We do everything for them, such as envelopes, printed materials, drinkware, and items that support their tours like name badges and luggage tags,” Grossman says. “For this particular project, we produced it all except for the cookbook, which they supplied.”
The kits were sent to customers who registered for the tour, and EF wanted to convey the luxury, premium status of this particular service. The kit needed to impress at first glance, unboxing and in use on the road.
From Grossman’s perspective, that meant examining every detail and surface of the campaign, and considering how each product could achieve the intended result.
“We look at extra little add-ons like hang tags and woven patches – things that can elevate the experience. It’s not just taking a logo and slapping it onto a pre-existing product.”David Grossman, Grossman Marketing Group (asi/215205)
“We look at materials and construction,” he says, “and extra little add-ons like hangtags and woven patches – things that can elevate the experience. It’s not just taking a logo and slapping it onto a pre-existing product.”
Combining different substrates and maintaining brand consistency was a necessary challenge. Everything had to match, or it would feel thoughtlessly tossed together – far from the elevated experience EF wanted. “The bags, the hangtags, the lanyards – everything was dyed to match,” Grossman says.
The packaging itself tied the whole promo together, creating brand visibility with the first impression.
The bags alone went through multiple rounds of dip sampling to get the exact Pantone shade that EF used for its branding.
“Once we did that, we basically used that for all of the items,” Grossman says. “We want everything to feel like it’s a curated selection.”
So, they had the look. But what about the feel? Touch is just as important as sight for a luxury branding experience. For a kit especially, the box itself has to make a splash, as it’s what holds the campaign together.
“I’m sort of a print geek, and I came up through the business on the print side of things,” Grossman says. “For me, paper is everything. We sourced paper that was both sustainable but also had a really nice, luxurious feel, and we presented samples to EF. We mocked up dummies of all the brochures with multiple paper stocks. And, like the canvas bags, they selected one that was going to achieve their budget goals while also giving an elegant feel because, again, this is a premium travel experience, and they wanted to make sure that every piece of every product that comes into contact with one of their travelers conveys that sense of luxury and a bespoke experience.” – Brendan Menapace
link
