Redbox Price Changes

After 12 years and for the first time, Redbox has announced that it will increase the price of its Blu-ray movie rentals.

Effective December 1st, 2014 purchases of Blu-ray gift codes via txtMovies will be $2.49 per delivered gift code.

Hurry, Lock in the Old Price!

You still have time to purchase gift codes at the old price of $1.99 per delivered gift code as long as the purchase is completed via the txtMovies website by midnight November 30th.

Don't wait! Once the Redbox increase takes place the old pricing is gone...forever.

Click here to create your account.

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Thanking Your Blog Audience & Social Media Fans

The holiday season is the perfect time for bloggers and marketers to reflect on their online audience engagement strategy.

It's generally accepted that thanking your blog visitors and social media fans is the key to building an active online community which can add valuable content and credibility to your marketing efforts.

In her blog post When Should You Thank Your Social Media Fans? Julie Neidlinger of Todaymade writes:

"Without letting your fans know you’re thankful for their participation and for even being an audience, it’s easy for you to be forgotten without another thought." 

Julie further points out the importance of not being a "robot".

"Telling your fans thank-you should be automatic, but it shouldn’t be automatic. That is, you should have an automatic reaction of being thankful, but not use automation to carry it out. If you’re going to thank your fans for a retweet, don’t turn into a robot. Take the time to do it personally. Make sure you come up with a way that is a personal thank-you when possible."

So while there is no argument from most bloggers and marketers that their online audience is vitally important. The challenge is how to thank blog readers and social media fans in a personal AND cost effective manner.

That's where txtMovies can be a great resource. Bloggers and marketers use txtMovies to send a personal, custom message with an Amazon or Redbox digital gift codes by text message, email or tweet.  Here are a few examples:

• You want to increase the number of comments on your posts. Offer a $5 Amazon gift card for the best comment. 
• You want to encourage email newsletter signups. Offer a free Redbox Movie to the next 50 people who sign up. 
• You want to increase comments on a Facebook timeline. Offer a $5 Amazon gift card to the person who made the comment with the most "LIKES".

By engaging visitors and fans with personal outreach and a valued gift, you stand a greater chance of creating "word of mouth" and an enduring positive association with your blog and brand.

As Julie Neidlinger points out:

"Genuine thanks directed to specific people rather than a generic audience is not the trend; it’s expected right now."

Happy Thanksgiving!  Please share with us the most creative ways you engage and thank your blog readers and social media fans. We'll send Redbox movies to each person that knocks our socks off!

About txtMovies
txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and Amazon digital codes as a form of appreciation. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Children's Hospital of Orange County, Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians), religious institutions, restaurants and market research companies.

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Client Spotlight: City of San Antonio Animal Care Services

When the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services wanted to increase volunteer engagement, they knew they had to find a way to connect with their volunteers on a personal level.

With limited resources both financially and from a staffing perspective, they decided to use txtMovies' free Volunteer "Get To Know You" survey tool to quickly collect data from all of their volunteers. 

Here's an snippet of our conversation with Jeanne R. Saadi, Volunteer Coordinator for City of San Antonio Animal Care Services.

+txtMovies: Please tell us about San Antonio Animal Care Services.

Jeanne: Animal Care Services is the municipal animal shelter in the San Antonio, Texas.  We encourage responsible pet ownership by promoting and protecting the health, safety and welfare of the residents and animals of San Antonio through education, enforcement and community partnership.

+txtMovies: How will you use the information you collect from your volunteer surveys?

Jeanne: I sent the GTKY survey out to our active volunteers (almost 400 people) and am really enjoying getting to know a little more about them through their responses. 

I plan to use their responses to help bridge the staff-volunteer gap that often happens. I want the staff to understand better why our volunteers choose to spend their free time here and why the experience is so important to them. 

It’s also nice be able to personalize the volunteers more so, for example, if a staff member likes the same kinds of movies – they now have a reason to talk to that volunteer and get to know them better!

+txtMovies: You've set up an account on txtMovies. How does txtMovies fit into your volunteer engagement/appreciation strategy?

Jeanne: We are excited about the opportunity to use the txtMovies to reward our Volunteers of the Month and stand-out individuals with a little something extra. We have some of the most generous, dedicated volunteers and they ask for nothing in return – but they deserve so much more! 

It will be nice to surprise them with a free movie for going above and beyond our expectations – which they do every day – and this reward program definitely fits our budget!

Update from Jeanne Saadi via Linkedin:

About txtMovies

txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and Amazon digital codes as a form of appreciation. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Children's Hospital of Orange County, Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians), religious institutions, restaurants and market research companies.

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Amazon Gift Cards via txtMovies

We're excited to announce the availability of $5 Amazon Gift Card codes for txtMovies customers.

Starting today, you can instantly send the gift of Amazon.com by text message or email directly from your txtMovies account.

Your customers will love Amazon Gift Cards because they are an extremely flexible reward, giving them access to millions of items including streaming movies, fast and reliable shipping, all backed by the trust of the Amazon brand.

Each $5 Amazon Gift Card code delivered is $5.95 ($5 code plus $0.95 delivery fee).

If you are a current txtMovies user, its easy to add Amazon Gift Cards to your txtMovies account. New customers can create a txtMovies account by clicking here.

Amazon Gift Card codes can also be used as survey incentives. Just send a note to support@txtMovies.com to request a Survey Incentive Landing Page link.

Bonus Codes!
Purchase 25 - $5 Amazon Gift Codes by October 31st, 2014 and we'll add 5 Redbox movie codes to your account as a bonus!

About txtMovies

txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and other digital codes as a form of customer appreciation. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Children's Hospital of Orange County, Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians), religious institutions, restaurants and market research companies.

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VolunteerMatch & txtMovies Partner to Study Volunteer Appreciation

VolunteerMatch and txtMovies are partnering to learn more about volunteer appreciation practices, and we want your opinion!

Please help us understand how your organization shows appreciation for its volunteers by taking this very brief survey.

By sharing this information, you’ll help us provide better support and resources for nonprofits and your volunteer programs. We will definitely share the results with you when they’re ready!

Thanks a million!

About txtMovies

txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and other digital codes as a form of customer appreciation. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Children's Hospital of Orange County, Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians), religious institutions, restaurants and market research companies.

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Creating Added Value in Your Practice

Darden Restaurants' Olive Garden chain is running a unique promotion where they're giving away a Redbox movie with a "to go" entree.

Olive Garden's marketing experts will probably tell you that few people will specifically go into an Olive Garden just for the movie.

However they will also probably tell you that they expect customers to perceive they are getting more value for their hard earned dollar and that this added value makes it easier to justify eating out.

It's clear the goal of the promotion is to differentiate their restaurants and create added value.

What does this have to do with your practice? 

Ask yourself, 'How does my practice create added value'?

Some products naturally go together. Dinner and a movie is a combination that satisfies both hunger and entertainment.

When a patient walks out of your practice how do they feel?

You've probably satisfied their need to see correctly. That's valuable. What else do you do for them that satisfies their needs?

To create added value, let's ask that question a different way.  What can you give patients that will add value to seeing better, but not cost a lot of money?

Treating patients to a movie enables them to enjoy their new contacts and glasses. That's creating added value. You've now helped patients see better and highlighted the value of your services via entertainment.

For only $1.99 per movie, txtMovies will deliver to your patients a Redbox Movie Rental code via text message, email or tweet. It's a simple and affordable way to create added value.

Practices can get set up with a txtMovies account and immediately begin sending movies in as little as 3 minutes by simply creating an account on the txtMovies website. Free demonstration available on website.

txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox and other digital codes. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians) and market research companies.

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Restaurant Promotion: Dinner and a Movie (Redbox DVD Rental)

Darden Restaurant's Olive Garden unit is running a limited time only promotion where you "Buy One, Take One" entree To Go.

What's unique is Olive Garden is also giving away a Redbox Movie Rental promo code good for a one day rental with each To Go entree.

Restaurants that want to replicate this "dinner and a movie" strategy can utilize txtMovies to deliver Redbox Movie Rental codes.

For only $1.99 per movie, txtMovies will deliver to your customers a Redbox Movie Rental code via text message, email or tweet.

txtMovies is a leader in delivering Redbox codes. Current clients include major universities (Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Iowa), nonprofits (Livestrong Foundation, Code for America, Lifewater), healthcare organizations/professionals (Kaiser Permanente, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, family physicians) and market research companies.

Restaurants can get set up with a txtMovies account and immediately begin sending movies in as little as three (3) minutes by simply registering on the txtMovies website.

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Volunteer Engagement: Fun Game to Break the Ice

Motivating a group of volunteers can be a daunting task especially if all the volunteers don't know each other.

Many Volunteer Coordinators use games or icebreakers to engage groups of volunteers. Ideally the icebreakers are simple where everyone can participate and have fun.

One simple but fun icebreaker everyone can play is called 'MovieStar'.  

To play MovieStar, volunteers are asked to re-create a famous quote from a movie. Everyone else needs to guess the name of the character and name of the movie.

For example, "You can't handle the truth!"

Answer would be: Col. Jessup in A Few Good Men. 

Bonus points for naming the actor/actress that played the part. In this case Jack Nicholson.

Almost everyone has or knows a famous line ("I'll be back", "We're not in Kansas any more") but just in case they can be provided with a list of American Film Institute's Top Movie Quotes of All Time and perform one of those quotes.

Those that perform the quote receives a prize. We recommend a Redbox Movie Rental Code from txtMovies (only $1.99 each) as prizes because they're affordable and most volunteers love watching movies. (Yes, we're very very biased!)

If you need content for your social media accounts, try recording video of your volunteers performing the quote and post it facebook and twitter giving your followers something to talk about. But of course ask for permission first!

Stay tuned for more Volunteer Enagement ideas in upcoming blog posts.

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables organizations to deliver patient appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit including the University of Michigan, University of Iowa and the Livestrong Foundation. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

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Patient Appreciation Events: MovieStar

When you're holding Patient Appreciation Day/Week/Month events, the goal your office should shoot for is fun.

Fun typically starts by engaging patients in a way where everyone can participate.  

Here's an simple but fun game everyone can play.  We call it 'MovieStar'.  

To play MovieStar, individual participants are asked to re-create a famous quote from a movie. Everyone else needs to guess the name of the character and name of the movie.

For example, "You can't handle the truth!"

Answer would be: Col. Jessup in A Few Good Men. 

Bonus points for naming the actor/actress that played the part. In this case Jack Nicholson.

Almost everyone has or knows a famous line ("I'll be back", "We're not in Kansas any more") but just in case they can be provided with a list of American Film Institute's Top Movie Quotes of All Time and perform one of those quotes.

Those that perform the quote receives a prize. We recommend a Redbox Movie Rental Code from txtMovies (only $1.99 each) as prizes because they're affordable and patients love watching movies. (Yes, we're very very biased!)

We've even had some offices play MovieStar during normal office visits as a way to spice up routine annual exams.  

If you need content for your social media accounts, try recording video of the patient performing the quote and post it facebook and twitter giving your followers something to talk about. But of course ask for permission first!

Stay tuned for more Patient Appreciation Event ideas in upcoming blog posts.

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables organizations to deliver patient appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit including the University of Michigan, University of Iowa and the Livestrong Foundation. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

  

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txtMovies featured on LaunchingNext

This week txtMovies was featured on LaunchingNext. Check out their website for more cool new start up companies.

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The Genius of Muttbombing & Other Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

Please check out our first Linkedin post discussing the benefits of using creative guerrilla marketing tactics to drive growth in your business. #muttbombing #guerrillamarketing

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Volunteer Engagement: "Behavior That Gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated"

As volunteer managers responsible for recruiting, training and motivating non-paid staff, it can be helpful to think like a marketing professional.

Marketers have long known that by altering the shopping environment with background music they can influence purchase decisions.  For example, author Gus Lubin highlights 8 Amazing Effects That Background Music Has On Sales including:

• Classical music at a restaurant makes people buy more than does pop music or no music

• However, classical music makes people think of a store as expensive, and this isn't right in all contexts

• People perceive a shorter wait time when they hear music that they like

Similarly, Dr. Robert Cialdini, Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University researched and documented 6 psychology based principles that marketers could ethically use to increase sales in his seminal text Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

What do these "marketing" techniques have to do with engaging volunteers?

Simply put, engaging volunteers can be thought of as a marketing task. The bottom line is you want volunteers to do something for your organization. Whether that "something" is plant trees, mentor children, visit the elderly or spread awareness, you want and need them to carry out your mission.

What are some practical applications and benefits of using these types of marketing techniques?

The reality is not all of the tasks are easy or pleasant. For example picking up trash on the local beach. What if you could make the time seem to go by faster by playing music that your volunteers like to hear? Would this improve the volunteer experience?

Dr. Cialdini talks extensively about social proof, the ability to reinforce a decision by involving others. If you're not doing it already, what if you utilized your organizations twitter and Facebook accounts to leverage your recruitment and to acknowledge service publicly?

One of the simplest marketing tips for volunteer engagement to remember comes from noted marketing expert Bob Burg. Mr. Burg tells his audiences that "Behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated".

Its worth repeating: "Behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated."  

How true is this statement?  Think about your childhood.  As a child you were conditioned to "be good" and there will be some type of reward. Perhaps you do this with your children today, "be a good boy/girl and you can have ice cream or go to the park or watch tv."  You can tap into this latent conditioning by rewarding your volunteers early and often and you will likely see the number and quality of your volunteers increase.

Examples of Affordable Rewards for Volunteers

Not every nonprofit can shower their volunteers with rewards. The good news is not every reward will break the bank.

• Sports Event Tickets - Every stadium is not filled to capacity for each game.  Contact local sports teams to see if they have any unused tickets they would like to donate or sell to you on a heavily discounted basis. Don't forget to contact college teams as well as they definitely don't always sell out their seats.
• Museums, Aquariums & Zoos etc. - Contact your colleagues at other non profits and see if you can score passes for their slow days. Consider trading passes if you work for this type of an organization.
• Public "Thank You" on Social Media - Post a sincere message of thanks from one or more of the people your volunteer helped. Simple and free.
• "Movie of their Choice" - Treat your volunteers to a movie of their choice using txtMovies for only $1.99. You can deliver the movie by text message or tweet with a custom "Thank You". Tweeting a movie has the added benefit of being a public "thank you".  Try txtMovies for free.

Behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated

No matter what reward you give to your volunteers, make sure its given early and often.  Once they know how much you appreciate their service and how important it is to the mission, they'll be more likely to remain enthusiastic about your cause. Good luck!

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables organizations to deliver volunteer appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit including the University of Michigan, University of Iowa and the Livestrong Foundation. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

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Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week May 5-9, 2014

It's Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week 2014!  Celebrate by treating teachers and staff to a Movie of their Choice.

For only $1.99 you can send a Redbox Movie and custom message to hundreds of teachers in less than 3 minutes.  Try a free demo or create your account today.

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Patient Referrals: It's All About the "THANK YOU".

The goal of any growing practice is new patients.  It's commonly accepted that the least expensive way to acquire those new patients is through word of mouth referrals from existing patients.

Generating more patient referrals doesn't have to be difficult. For starters, let's review what not to do.   

Noted marketing expert Bob Burg, makes a great argument for why a practice should never offer a "bribe" for referrals.  The word "bribe" has a very negative connotation, and it applies to any incentive offered in advance in exchange for a referral. Mr. Burg cites two issues with these type of incentives.

1. If the referrals are not based on loyalty and “know, like and trust” but rather on reward alone, it tends not to be sustainable.

2. (Most importantly) Those to whom you are referred will most likely feel resentful upon discovering they were referred because you bought and paid for the referral. How will they find out? When you tell them that they will receive an incentive for referring you to others.

Instead of offering an upfront incentive, Mr. Burg advocates a simple strategy. Ask for referrals and make sure you say "Thank You" to the referring person after the fact.  Why is this so effective? According to Mr. Burg:

Remember: “Behavior that gets rewarded…gets repeated.”

Key: They don’t feel “bought” but they do feel appreciated.

Of course there are many ways you can say "Thank You".  Handwritten notes are free. Gift cards can be valuable but expensive over time.  A custom thank you message and movie of their choice delivered by txtMovies for only $1.99, well that fits almost everyone's budget. Try txtMovies for free.

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables businesses to deliver customer appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. In addition to texting Redbox Movie Rental Codes, we offer custom texting solutions. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

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Increase Response Rates for CIRP Freshman Survey

Each year hundreds of thousands of college freshmen are asked to participate in the CIRP Freshman Survey.

Getting millennials to take a survey is a known challenge.  The Higher Education Research Institute has published guidelines for encouraging participation including offering survey incentives.

txtMovies offers an ideal survey incentive to increase response rates for CIRP surveys.  Redbox Movie Rental Codes from txtMovies can be redeemed for a 1-night Blu-ray DVD movie rental including many of the latest blockbusters. Redbox codes from txtMovies are:

• Easily distributed post-survey by TEXT (SMS) message or EMAIL 
• Redeemable at 35,000+ Redbox kiosks in the US
• Affordable - only $1.99 per delivered code

Setting up a txtMovies account takes less than 3 minutes. txtMovies provides survey administrators with a survey incentive landing page where respondents will enter their mobile phone number or email address to receive the movie rental code.

Try txtMovies for FREE

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables businesses to deliver customer appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. In addition to texting Movie Rental Codes, we offer custom texting solutions. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

   

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Success Story: Pear

Pear

(www.PearUp.com) is a trusted community marketplace for people to find sponsors for their group or events. Sponsors include national brands and local businesses who value community involvement and typically are already sponsoring groups and events.  Pear makes it easy for businesses to manage those sponsorships.

Their challenge
Pear was interested in getting a minimum of 500 survey responses from their community of sponsor seekers. They sought a cost effective way to capture the attention of millenials, a segment that is traditionally difficult to motivate.

Their solution
Pear used txtMovies as a survey incentive promoting that the first 500 respondents would receive a free Redbox (tm) Movie Rental. Operationally, Pear redirected their survey to a txtMovies landing page after the survey taker completed the survey.  On the txtMovie landing page, the respondent entered their mobile number and received a Redbox Code via text message (SMS).  The Code could be redeemed at any of the 35,000+ Redbox locations nationwide.

Testimonial

"Consumer feedback is a top priority for our team at Pear. txtMovies helped us quickly collect over 700 quality responses. The RedBox incentive was universally attractive to our respondents and turned our survey into a mutually beneficially value exchange. The txtMovies team provided personal and timely support throughout the process to ensure we had a successful experience."  - Jaymie Wahlen, Pear Community Manager

The Results
Pear's survey achieved their target response rate within 72 hours of launching the survey allowing the company to quickly analyze survey responses and make immediate improvements to their business.

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'Tweet a Movie' to Show Your Customers Appreciation

txtMovies announced this week that it launched 'Tweet a Movie' as a standard feature that enables txtMovies users the ability to tweet a Redbox Movie Rental Code to a twitter follower.

txtMovies enables businesses to easily deliver an inexpensive gift (less than $2) to build customer loyalty. txtMovies delivers Redbox(tm) Movie Rental Codes via text message (SMS) or twitter enabling customers to rent a DVD or Blu-ray (tm) disc.

Redbox is the nationwide kiosk leader in DVD and Blu-ray(tm) Movie Rentals having rented over 3 billion discs and operating the largest network of rental kiosks (34,500 locations) making it easy for customers to find a convenient location to rent their desired movie.

At only $1.99 per delivered code, txtMovies is cost effective and provides customers and their family/friends with a couple of hours of true entertainment.

Movie Rentals make excellent "thank you" or "birthday" gifts for customers. Gifts of Movie Rentals can also be used for employee/staff/volunteer appreciation as well.

Try txtMovies for a free here: http://www.txtmovies.com/demo
Click here to create a txtMovies account: http://www.txtmovies.com/home/create-an-account

About txtMovies
txtMovies enables businesses to deliver customer appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. In addition to texting Movie Rental Codes, we offer custom texting solutions. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and not for profit. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

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3 Redbox Super Bowl commercials you won't see during today's game.

Super Bowl advertising continues to be a hot commodity.  For the second straight year, a half minute spot costs about $4 million.  

Most small business owners can only dream of generating $4 million in income, let alone spending $4 million on 30 seconds of airtime not to mention the cost of creative.

As big Redbox fans we would love to see a Redbox Super Bowl commercial. Here's why: A research paper published in 2004 suggested that "Super Bowl promoted movies grossed nearly 40 percent more than non-Super Bowl promoted movie."  It's not too much of a stretch to think Super Bowl advertising could move the needle on movie rental sales as well.

Conceptualizing a creative commercial that engages an audience and delivers a relevant memorable message is no simple feat.  This year represents the 30th anniversary of what many consider to be the most successful and memorable Super Bowl ad ever, the 1984 Apple introduction of the Macintosh.  Check out this Forbes article 12 Lessons in Creativity from the Greatest Super Bowl Ad ever.  

    

Just creating a unique commercial isn't enough as a company that stretches the limits of imagination may find their commercial banned by the networks.  (See the 20 Banned Super Bowl commercials that didn't air).

  

So while there needs to be a balance between creativity and poor execution, here are our top 3 creative ideas for a Redbox commercial during Super Bowl 2015. 

1.  "The Browser".  Man stands leisurely in front of Redbox kiosk browsing movies while a line of 8 people form behind him.  One couple waiting decides to make out given they cant wait to get a room.  One person waiting sets up a cot to take a nap.  Elderly woman sets up a folding chair and starts knitting.  Paul Rudd shows up and recommends to browsing man his latest comedy. Ultimately the man is eaten my a starving 1,400 pound bear that wanders by.  Voice over describes new benefits of reserving online.

2.  "The Toddler".  Inspired by eTrade commercials, toddler is seen reserving Redbox movies online using an iPad , going with her mom to the kiosk and showing her how its so easy to just swipe and leave.  Voice over describes new benefits for reserving online.

3.  "Forces of Nature".   Opening shot is of woman lying in bed.  All of a sudden her eyes open wide and she screams.  You see her running around her house putting on clothes with random stuff flying everywhere. Cut to her driving her car running red lights and swerving around baby strollers.  It starts to rain, then snow with lots of wind.  You see her rushing up to the kiosk as she looks at her watch turn to 9:01PM, when a voice over describes a new flexible return time policy.

So if you're a small business like txtMovies and don't have $4 million in your marketing budget, we have a Super Deal for you but hurry as it ends when Super Bowl 2014 does.  Click here for more details.

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What's your Hook? Using Incentives to Generate More Leads

If your primary responsibility at work is to drive leads and make the phone ring then you've probably written your fair share of Call to Action (CTAs) phrases.

Pop Quiz: Which TWO of these CTA phrases appeals to you most?

• Call today to get a FREE ebook!
• Call today to get a FREE  ebook and we'll treat you to a Movie!
• Call today to get a FREE ebook and receive a $100 Gift Certificate!

Yes, human nature is such that we want our cake and be able to eat it too.  More is better.

So given the attention deficit disorder your prospects face in this "always on and connected" world of the internet, your Calls to Action can benefit from having a "hook".  The "hook" in this case is the incentive that sways your prospects to dial your toll free number, click your links, visit your stores or whatever else you might want them to do.

Consider the following sales experience created by a txtMovies customer in the mortgage industry.  They use $1.99 Redbox Movie Codes and $100 Restaurant.com eGift Certificates as their hook in their radio, television and other direct to consumer advertising campaigns.

"Call today for a rate quote and we'll treat you to Dinner."

When a prospect calls in, the sales representative uses the call center system, in this case Velocify, to instantly deliver the incentive via email or text (SMS) while the prospect is on the phone. [Note: txtMovies integrates into Velocify and other call center software through a HTTP POST action.]

This instantaneous gratification does two things.  It triggers the principle of reciprocity (Dr. Robert Cialdini) and it builds trust serving as the first transaction between the company and the prospect.  Because the digital codes are delivered by text (SMS) or email, it also ensures that the Lead Data captured is valid.  

Added Bonus: A recent study by Velocify suggests that including text (SMS) messaging in the sales process can potentially increase sales by 328%.

By outsourcing the delivery of incentives to txtMovies, the mortgage company marketing department saves time eliminating the manual process of sourcing, managing and delivering physical incentives by regular mail. Lastly, txtMovies provides accountability for delivery of digital codes through reports and email alerts.

There are a variety of digital incentives available to suit your customer acquisition budget. For more details contact us and we'll treat you to a movie!

About txtMovies

txtMovies enables businesses to deliver customer appreciation via cost effective, easy to use tools. In addition to texting Redbox Movie Rental Codes, we offer custom texting solutions. Our customers come from a variety of industries including healthcare, automobile, financial services, retail, associations and nonprofits. For more information please visit www.txtMovies.com.

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