The HP Red Ferrari Gotcha

April 7, 2010 by

I got a big box in the mail today at the office and it had a big picture of a red hot Ferrari on the front. It was shrink wrapped and boxed up nicely and it said something along the lines of “J. Troia, open the box and find out how to get your Ferrari moving”.

I resisted the temptation of opening the box, instead, saving it for my 5 year old son to bust it open. So once we peeled back the plastic and opened the substantial box, we pulled out half of a remote control Ferrari. Now mind you, it was the good half – the car half. In order to get the control half, I needed to go to a custom PURL (Personal URL) something like HPRemote.com/Jamie

I entered the code that was printed on the high quality Variable Data Printed (VDP) insert that came in the box and committed to meet with an HP Rep promoting backup services.

So I guess…. Mission Accomplished HP.

It really was a superbly executed promotion, I mean sending me a $60 remote control Ferrari that was completely pimped out with my name over both the passenger and driver side doors and high quality customized marketing piece featuring an online custom URL is cool.

The fact that they got me to ask to be called by a sales rep, very cool (even though it was really just for the remote for my boy Jonathan).
Me not buying any backup services…well, not so cool.  I have to wonder the cost to build their lead database under normal circumstances…

My thought is that I’ll trade a promise to utilize the sales reps services if and when I ever need the product he offers so long as he’s competitive in return for him committing to an ongoing online conversation tracking the success of the promotion.

UPDATE APRIL 22 – I was contacted by a local HP solutions provider to set up a meeting for my remote control the end of last week and the meeting was set for 4/20.  They cancelled the meeting and don’t have anything else available until the 2nd week in March.  I guess the promotion is working for getting meetings.  The question is, is it working for getting BUSINESS?
Filed Under: Marketing