My Best Promotion
Anton Dell'Orefice, owner of Delightful Detail, Chester Heights, Pa., provided an interesting story for this month's My Best Promotion. Dell'Orefice detailed a promotion where he provided a local plumber with urinal screens (the covers that sit at the base of urinal bowls in most men's public restrooms) that were printed with the plumber's business name, phone number and hook like shown [top] right. With the goal of bringing in more business overall, the plumber hired an assistant to go around town and replace the screens of certain businesses with his own imprinted screens. The plumber singled out either high-traffic areas like bars or malls or locations where local commercial leaders were likely to be, such as chamber of commerce meetings.
Promo Marketing: How did the promotion go overall?
Anton Dell'Orefice: Everybody has a good sense of humor about it, most of the owner's called him and laughed, all except for one. There was just one stick-in-the-mud. He did not like it at all, which is fine. But it was a good promotion, [the plumber] did get business out of it. I think he did get a couple commercial accounts over it. It worked out for everybody.
PM: Why did the one person not like it? What was his reasoning?
AD: It was something about he didn't like the advertising in there. He didn't want it inside wherever he was, I don't know what it was, my memory seems to want to say that it was a bar, but I can't tell you offhand.
PM: What made this a good promotion for you?
AD: I use it, I talk to people about it. People always ask what's the funniest thing you've ever done, what's the best thing you've ever done, I always bring this one up. You know, we could talk all day about selling promotional pens or mugs or water bottles, but far and few between do we get a chance to do urinal screens.
PM: What was one of the best decisions you made with this program?
AD: It was helping him come up with the catch phrase so it was big and bold. I'm sure it made many people laugh.
PM: Any advice you'd like to give on urinal-based promotions to distributors?
AD: [Laughs] I guess for me to give advice on that, you know, it's to run with your gut. If you like it, it's a good promotion. Something like this doesn't just happen, you have to sit and think and you have to get to know your client. … If I had just walked up to the plumber and said, "Hey how you doing? You guys need shirts, let me get you shirts," I wouldn't know the guy. But I took the time to get to know him and realized he had a sense of humor.
Want to be considered for a future segment of My Best Promotion? Contact Michael Cornnell at mcornnell@napco.com or 215-238-5449 for a list of questions and other details.