How One Distributor Prepared Faculty Members for Life in a New City

By Brendan Menapace

Getting accepted into a university program is exciting. People make whole social media posts about it. It’s not just for students, though. When faculty members got accepted into McGill University’s music faculty, they would receive a box welcoming them to the program, and getting them ready for life in Montreal. Steven Schneidman, president of Solutions Ink, Montreal, described how the branded kit got them excited about their new gig at McGill, and prepared them for life in a new city.

Print+Promo Marketing: Tell me about one promotional campaign you’ve worked on that blended print and promotional products together.

Steven Schneidman: I just did one for McGill University for the faculty of music. They came to me and they wanted to send a welcoming package to people that got accepted into the faculty. So, they wanted to do a custom box that they could mail, and inside the box would have a QR code for a Facebook group just for the people that were entering this year into McGill Music. And inside, they also wanted to do sort of a welcoming package to people. A lot of people who get accepted are coming from out of town, not from Montreal, from the States, from Europe, so they wanted to incorporate some of the nuances of Montreal to help them familiarize. So, because it’s cold a good part of the year, we did custom gloves with their logo, we did a luggage tag for people coming in. We did pens. We printed out a map and postcards for them to see all of the important venues in Montreal, whether it be restaurants or entertainment or museums.

P+PM: How did you choose the particular collection of products you used for this promotion?

SS: Based on my knowledge of 20 years and searching, and my contacts with various suppliers, I presented to them maybe 20 or 25 different items, and then we narrowed it down to what they liked. They made a suggestion for one thing, but it just wasn’t viable with their budget. But, we narrowed it down to the items that they chose. And the box that we did, they wanted a smaller box, but when they factored in all of the materials that had to go inside, we ended up going with a larger box.

P+PM: How do you think the combination of print and promotional products you used solved the customer’s need?

SS: In today’s world, you don’t get much time with your customers. They don’t have much time, and they’re looking for solutions. When they got to that point, and even when they came up with the idea to do it, we had a three-week turnaround time to do everything. So it’s like a last-minute idea, they’re looking for somebody that can help them, ‘Can you do this?’ They want one person to do the kitting, to do everything, so that it’s as easy as possible. ‘Here’s my budget, this is what I want. Send me the stuff that all goes out. Everybody’s happy.’ So, if we can make their life easier and accomplish their goal, they’d rather deal with one person where it’s sort of like their marketing agency I guess.

P+PM: Did you run into any roadblocks with this campaign? If so, how did you overcome them?

SS: It wasn’t really a roadblock. ... The customer has an idea in his mind and then he has a budget. Anything’s possible today. Everybody wants great things, and they don’t want to necessarily pay for it. It’s finding that balance and then basically letting them decide what’s really important and what they can live with. They adjusted the budget slightly up, and I think it was a big success for them. They’re already talking about what they’re going to put in the box next year.

P+PM: What advice would you give distributors looking to do something similar to this?

SS: You have to really understand what they want to get and what they want to stand out. If you can get a product that makes them stand out, you’re really offering them a real branding opportunity. If you’re just going to be a me-too, you’ll go to a trade show, and if everybody’s doing a pen, it’s just a pen. They’re going to lose it anyway. This way, everybody who got accepted into McGill Music is going to get that “wow” factor when the box arrives in the mailbox for them. They really appreciate it. So, they get what they’re looking for without spending a fortune, and it’s a win-win situation.