The Hindu Business Line : Catchy postcards: A new advertising tool

Companies and brands as diverse as ING Vysya, Taj Hotels, World Space radio, Axe and Planet M are making available postcards which bear catchy advertisement slogans for the their products or services.

These cards which come free of cost, are made available at restaurants, university campuses, coffee shops, music shops and other places which are hang-out joints for the youth.

While the postcard comes for free, posting them would cost Rs. 6 each, in keeping with the Indian postal department's tariff for cards bearing anything in the nature of a commercial advertisement.

"It's a win-win situation — the advertiser reaches his target audience; for restaurants the cards are free gifts to their clientele. The target audience is the young, dynamic and urban person with spending power," says Ms Noreen Van Holstein, Managing Director, Cards4u.

Cards4u is involved in the production, design and display of such postcards. The company gives advertisers a chance to display commercial, social and cultural messages in bars and restaurants. "It's not `push', but `take', advertisement!" says Ms Noreen.

It is a proven concept in more than 60 countries including the US, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Singapore, China and Australia, she says.

Cards4U displays 1 lakh to 1.2 lakh postcards per month, attracting 1 million eyeballs across 300 locations. "Apart from printing, distributing and refilling the cards, we also advise our clients on designs. Currently a full month nationwide campaign with 35,000 postcards will cost around Rs 2 lakh," said Ms Noreen.

For companies, it is a new advertising option with many intangible benefits: "We will certainly continue to use this as it is low cost and has a lot of `soft' benefits like placement at various key retail establishments and restaurants. The cards are free, effective, have higher shelf lives and collectible value," said Mr Tarun Khanna, GM-Marketing, Planet M, which has been using this tool since 2005.

"The effectiveness of the tool is difficult to measure directly, but in terms of word-of-mouth feedback, it's pretty good. Since the customer picks it up at no cost, it remains a low involvement product. Therefore, measurability of performance is somewhat questionable, as one does not know if the card collected has been shared with others," Mr Khanna adds.

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