In 1975 my client McDonald’s Restaurants introduced BEAKFAST. They challenged our Boston agency team to come up with a promotion that would impact sales of breakfast entrees. Target audience: men 18-34. Coincidentally, Boston’s Gillette Company introduced a product of their own – the Gillette Good News disposable razor. Target audience: men 18-34. Hmmm.

A match was made in heaven. “Buy a McDonald’s Breakfast Entrée and Get a Free Gillette Good News Disposable Razor”. An amazing New England test resulted in a Spring National Rollout. Gillette produced 23 million razors for this campaign. In less than a year, McDonald’s became America’s number one breakfast restaurant, while the product trial catapulted Gillette to Huge Success in this new category.

The point here – take another look at your product or service… is there a non-competing tie-in partner out there that can help propel sales of your product or service in a brand new channel? Combined promotional funds can create a much greater impact on the marketplace.

We’re in marketing planning season for 2017. Time to explore ALL your options.

Happy thinking!

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