Up Front..

Follow the bouncing ball

By Staff
As published in: Franchise Times - November-December 2008

With the proliferation of business communication sent via e-mail, snail mail has become a real downer. So when we spotted a bright red ball, covered in stamps and a delivery confirmation sticker in our in-box, we were intrigued.

It's not often you get a pumped-up ball in the mail from a leak detection company.

The clever gimmick was American Leak Detection's newest marketing piece, mailed out to the system's professional referral sources - the very people who refer business to franchisees. The message on the back of the ball was: "Pass the leak to us and we won't drop the ball."

The idea of sending 600 fully inflated balls in the mail came up in a brain-storming session with American Leak president Stan Berenbaum, his staff, franchisees and marketer Tom Feltenstein. "We're trying to break through the clutter," Berenbaum says.

So far the feedback has all been positive, Berenbaum says, and no groans from the post office either, although each ball had to be hand stamped by both the sender and the post office.

"I think the mail guy enjoys the process," Berenbaum says.

Plus it helps that the balls were mailed by franchisees from multiple locations in California and Florida - one mail carrier wasn't juggling 600 balls at once.

Now that the test phase is over, the mailing will be open to all franchisees. At press time, it was too early to see if the promotion actually translated into business, but Berenbaum says they've received lots of notice from their referral network.

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Franchise Times - November-December 2008