Postcard Advertising during the Dot.com Bubble Era
I mentioned earlier that I picked up a box of collectible advertising post cards at an estate sale auction recently. Some of the postcards in the collection are for New York City businesses that were trying to launch during the now infamous Dot.com Bubble.
One of the companies trying to etch out a niche for themselves in New York City was Social Circles.
Social Circles billed themselves as New York City's first activity and social network club.
Talk about an idea that was ahead of it's time, Social Circles decided to compete with the 175 year old old school social clubs and take their version online.
They tried two different postcard campaigns to promote their social networking site. The first one (above) was a fold - out mailer which tried to sell membership into the site with a 10% discount. With the 2nd postcard, the company (or agency) decided to cut out the fluff and just went with a simple old-school design and a short memorable message.
Another Dot.com Bubble Era advertiser was the Travel| Gear | Community | Adventure site GORP
Unfortunately, this postcard doesn't define specifically what GORP had to offer. The back of the postcard declares that
"GORP Can Help You
From mountain hiking in Australia to fishing int Montana, GORP is your resource. Plan a vacation, find the right gear and get advice from the experts. Whatever you need, GORP GETS YOU OUT THERE."
It's always a bad sign when a company doesn't know what problem they're solving for consumers. GORP created an eye catching postcard - but without strong selling content - the postcard is doomed from the start.
This is not the fault of the agency or the copywriter. Since a copywriter gets direction from the owners of a company, he/she could only work with what they were given.
In stark contrast, a postcard with a well defined message in the collection was for New York Waste Match Advertising Postcard.
New York Waste Match was an online service offering access to a database where artists, designers and manufacturers could locate raw materials at significant savings.
Not surprisingly, the company still survives today though under a different name and url.
Defined focus - and an understanding of the problem you're solving are key ingredients to creating a compelling, selling advertising postcard campaign.
Other Dot.com Bubble Era postcards from the collection include:
It's easy to see that these postcards are from the Dot.com Bubble era. It's kind of hard to remember what it was like when a business was unique because they had a web presence... but that's exactly what it was like way back in the early 2000's.
Social Circles billed themselves as New York City's first activity and social network club.
Talk about an idea that was ahead of it's time, Social Circles decided to compete with the 175 year old old school social clubs and take their version online.
They tried two different postcard campaigns to promote their social networking site. The first one (above) was a fold - out mailer which tried to sell membership into the site with a 10% discount. With the 2nd postcard, the company (or agency) decided to cut out the fluff and just went with a simple old-school design and a short memorable message.
Unfortunately, this postcard doesn't define specifically what GORP had to offer. The back of the postcard declares that
"GORP Can Help You
From mountain hiking in Australia to fishing int Montana, GORP is your resource. Plan a vacation, find the right gear and get advice from the experts. Whatever you need, GORP GETS YOU OUT THERE."
It's always a bad sign when a company doesn't know what problem they're solving for consumers. GORP created an eye catching postcard - but without strong selling content - the postcard is doomed from the start.
This is not the fault of the agency or the copywriter. Since a copywriter gets direction from the owners of a company, he/she could only work with what they were given.
New York Waste Match was an online service offering access to a database where artists, designers and manufacturers could locate raw materials at significant savings.
Not surprisingly, the company still survives today though under a different name and url.
Defined focus - and an understanding of the problem you're solving are key ingredients to creating a compelling, selling advertising postcard campaign.
Other Dot.com Bubble Era postcards from the collection include:
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| Loco Soda Advertising Postcard |
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| Siegelgale Branding and Communications Agency Postcard |
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| Madison Square eshow |
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| Netcom |
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| NY Today New York Times Advertising Postcard |
It's easy to see that these postcards are from the Dot.com Bubble era. It's kind of hard to remember what it was like when a business was unique because they had a web presence... but that's exactly what it was like way back in the early 2000's.
posted by Kathy at 10:39 PM
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