Ah popcorn, even pictures of this irresistible snack evoke tantalizing smells and tastes. No wonder marketers have incorporated it into their marketing campaigns. After all, who doesn’t love popcorn…

1) Amazon – Direct Mail Piece to Promote Movie

To celebrate the launch of the movie, Mancester by the Sea, Amazon sent every home in the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea (population 5393), a mailer with 3 packs of their Wickedly Prime Popcorn and a code entitling them to one year of Amazon Prime.

Amazon scored tons of free publicity through this simple, but on point promotion.

2) Scotiabank – Popcorn Theme Direct Mail to Promote Rewards Card

Canadian bank, Scotiabank, offers select card holders special privileges, including free movie tickets and free popcorn. The awareness campaign incorporated popcorn graphics and popcorn giveaways at bank branches.

3) Consumer Bank Midwest Open House Invitation

Consumer Bank Midwest used this clever movie-premiere style invitation packaging (with pack of popcorn inside) for a customer appreciation/open house event. Including popcorn increased the attendance rate by 600% over using the mailer alone!

4) BPI Bank Credit Division Direct Mail

To promote their credit lines for those wishing to buy a home theater system, BPI bank sent out a popcorn mailer. Again, a simple idea, but very much playing to the home theater theme.

5) Citizens Bank B2B Mailer

Whose day wouldn’t be brightened up after receiving this large tin of gourmet popcorn, decorated with images of the Phillies and Citizens Bank Park!

Citizens Bank sent out this attractive piece to potential clients of their professional service firms division. It also cleverly plays upon Citizens Bank’s sponsorship of the Phillies’ stadium through the imagery and witty wording (“how can we go to bat for your firm”).

6) School Has Potential Students Take a ‘Pop’ Quiz.

Lakehill School sent out a Pop Quiz with questions printed on the popcorn bag and a postcard to be returned with the correct answers to receive a tuition credit.

For a few dollars more than a standard mailer, they made a big impact and left a good taste in the mouth of their target audience.

7) Cable Service Shows Some Popcorn Love to Customers.

Max Bundle, a cable subscription service used a free bag of popcorn and a free movie to promote their movies on demand service. Great marketing can be created by playing on our cultural associations (popcorn while watching a movie) in a simple and effective way.

8) Enviro Gets Facebook likes

Enviro, a supplier of aircraft parts, sent out a popcorn mailer, with a call to action printed on the popcorn bag encouraging recipients to share and go online.

9) SAP ‘Food For Thought’ Campaign

SAP wanted to introduce learning materials to their business partners in a fun and creative way. The first mailer included popcorn to promote a training film and the second mailer included a heart shaped box of chocolates to educate on the topic of CRM.

We all know adding a three dimensional item to marketing communications significantly increases engagement and response rates. Popcorn is inexpensive, universal, sensory and fun (you can just imagine the corny marketing copy, can’t you?).  But it’s just one of many ways to add some pop to your promotions.

If you are in need of some surprising advertising, please contact us today.