My Best Promotion: Glen and Patti Rapoport

Promoting a financial institution doesn't have to be a stuffy, serious affair. Glen and Patti Rapoport of Proforma Instant Promotions proved as much with a recent promotion they did for ING Direct. Kendra Smith, manager of public relations for Proforma, explained the promotion in detail and the Rapoports added their impressions.

Kendra Smith: More than 340,000 people in four cities last summer enjoyed orange ice pops promoting ING Direct's new banking product-all thanks to Proforma Instant Promotions Co-owners, Glen and Patti Rapoport of Toronto, ON.

Glen and Patti's client (a marketing agency) told them about this project early last summer. The agency's customer, ING Direct, wanted to give out a memorable item at summer events all over Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver to introduce its latest banking account. ING had decided it wanted orange ice pops, with the pop sticks branded with a URL landing page and a special promo code for people to take action. ING also wanted the plastic pouch to be customized with its logo.

The agency relied on Glen and Patti to take care of all of the promotion's logistics, from sourcing the ice pops to delivering the product. They found a vendor-in Florida-who could produce the treats, and made sure the ice pops and packaging met the Canadian regulations for importing food products. They also partnered with PLP, Group Transportation Services (GTS) to determine how the ice pops could remain frozen during their journey to Canada.

With GTS's help and ability to have freezer trucks transport the ice pops, Glen and Patti had all the pieces delivered-under an extremely tight schedule-to the various cities. The entire project from start to finish was completed in less than five weeks, and ING's event crews were able to successfully hand out the ice pops at various high profile events during August and September, including the Toronto International Film Festival.

Completing this unique and fun promotion worth $170,000 cemented Glen and Patti's relationship with the agency, and has led to ice pop requests for other customers.

Promo Marketing: What did you like about the promotion, and why?

Glen and Patti Rapoport: The promo was professionally very satisfying. It was a great challenge from a project management and logistics perspective and made us stretch outside our comfort zone. We had to deal with food labeling and importing, frozen logistics and an extremely tight delivery window. From a marketing perspective it was fantastic to see the public response to the promotion on the street. We had an opportunity to follow around one of the "ice pop trucks" in Downtown Toronto one evening during the promotion and they were generating tremendous buzz-a pretty incredible response for such an inexpensive (approx. $0.50) giveaway.

Want to be considered for a future edition of My Best Promotion? Contact Executive Editor Michael Cornnell at (215) 238-5449 or mcornnell@napco.com for a list of questions and other details.