HITS Case Studies

Direct Mail: Black & Decker HITS

Situation: Black & Decker knows the value of strong database marketing. The company's long-term strategy was to develop a stronger database of user email information to enable it to promote their broad range of products via email marketing.

Approach: The approach utilized an Instant Win WebDecoder® promotion. 600,000 were mailed to established Black & Decker product owners and 50,000 were tipped in with new product purchases. Respondents to the mailing were sent to the company website, where they registered and provided demographic data.

Result: The response rate of the program actually overwhelmed the servers at Black & Decker, resulting in thousands of game pieces actually being mailed directly to B&D.

Event Promotions: Acuvue

The Acuvue® WebDecoder® was distributed to NHL fans as they entered the arena for a Dallas Stars hockey game. Acuvue™, a leading contact lens product line of Johnson & Johnson, utilized a WebDecoder® with two decoding windows for a truly unique and interactive experience for hockey fans.

One window revealed on a blue image and the other window revealed on a red color. During half-time, fans were instructed to hold the WebDecoder® game piece up and look into the Jumbotron in the center of hockey rink. When the red image was projected on the Jumbotron, the fans held their piece up and looked through the WebDecoder® window into the red portion of the display. Fans could decode the image in the WebDecoder® to see if they were an instant winner of several available prizes. They were then instructed to visit a specific location at the event to claim their prize. If they were not an instant-winner at the event they were told to use the other WebDecoder® window at the Acuvue® website for another opportunity to win.

While at the Acuvue® website, consumers provided their registration data, and once submitted, the piece was placed against a decoding image that revealed a potential prize. Acuvue was extremely pleased with the participation from the fans and also the response rate from the people visited and registered at the Acuvue site.

Point of Purchase: Sporting Goods

The consumer attraction of HITS’ Hidden Image Technology has the ability to not only draw people to a location, but also to help direct consumers’ activities within a retail environment.

To help draw shoppers at Dick’s Sporting Goods to both the Adidas shoe offering and its apparel line, which are carried in two different sections of each store, HITS produced a two-window WebDecoder®, called a SuperDecoder™. One window was decoded with a blue verifier, the other with a red verifier. The blue verifier was imbedded into a temporary floor display produced by HITS that was located in the shoe department. The red verifier was designed into a similar floor display positioned in the apparel department.

The result? When consumers were presented the SuperDecoder™ cards as they entered the stores, over 80% of consumer were successfully directed to both locations, helping Adidas and Dick’s move both major product lines.

Trade Show: Bayer/Tacit

Trade shows are a major marketing expense for virtually all companies, and a necessary function. Not getting traffic is everyone’s greatest nightmare. WebDecoder® and NetDecoder® solutions are ideal for turbocharging the return on your investment in trade shows.

Fortune 100 companies such as Bayer USA and smaller companies such as Tacit Software have benefitted from the use of WebDecoder® programs.

Whether mailed to attendees prior to a show, used as handouts during the show, or used with a MobiDecoder™ mobile marketing campaign, the hidden image technology solution has a proven track record in generating superior results in driving traffic to clients’ exhibits.

Once a client arrives at an exhibit, either a computer screen, TV monitor or static display is used to decode the game piece. Using a computer allows for appropriate data to be recorded on each attendee prior to them being able to decode their game piece.

On-Pack Promotions: GE

On-pack promotions provide a level of flexibility that fits the needs of packaged goods companies and other consumer products companies that need to maintain the integrity of their product’s packaging and production lines.

On-pack applications primarily utilize a form of tip-on WebDecoder® or NetDecoder® label. These labels allow companies to take advantage of the promotional impact of HITS products while not changing the basic physical structure of their products or packaging, nor altering the production lines where they are packaged.

GE used the on-pack approach to attach NetDecoder® labels to several million light-bulb packages before they were shipped out to retailers through North America. These labels actually contained two different labels combined together. The top part contained a typical IRC that could be taken to the check-out counter, while underneath the IRC was another label containing a NetDecoder® game piece. Consumers took the NetDecoder® game piece, registered their information on GE’s website, and got a chance to win dozes of prizes, including free trips to the Olympics.

In-Pack Promotions: Cereal

In-pack promotions are used heavily with consumer products, particularly as a differentiator in the highly competitive world of packaged goods.

Cereal companies are among the strongest marketers in packaged goods, and often try fresh approaches to licensing, graphic design, coatings, scratch-offs and other innovative concepts for standing out on the shelf. Post cereal used a NASCAR® themed NetDecoder® card as a cellophane encased insert into boxes of Post Fruity Pebbles cereal to attract young shoppers to this established cereal brand.

The result? This particular run of Fruity Pebbles flew off the shelf at higher rates than even Post had expected, establishing the campaign and the use of the NetDecoder® as a successful new strategy for setting them part on the busy retail shelf.

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