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Greetings once more - your favourite supplemental GAD fest is back again, taunting you with prizes you probably won't win like a carrot in front of a donkey. If you didn't love it, you wouldn't keep coming back.
Something a little different this time, in that this competition actually requires you to think a little rather than splatter your 'artistic' daubings on a banner :) What we'd like you to do is come up with some ways in which Special Reserve could promote themselves effectively. Bear in mind we haven't exactly got the backing of the Sultan of Brunei, we'd like you to drop us a few ideas on how best to get across the fact that Special Reserve are cheap, reliable and have a wide product range.
This could be improvements to ways we currently run things, new product ranges you think would appeal to our customers (bear in mind we currently sell rather a lot of stuff - see left sidestrip), new exciting ways to advertise our existing offers or just any ideas that have been floating round your head. Is there some range of products you just can't get hold of that would be perfect for us to sell? Let us know!
Post your ideas in this thread and we'll announce a winner at around the end of February, let's say the 27th. The best suggestions will win whatever prizes we give them, most probably yer standard £25/£50 GAD prize.
(And before anyone brings it up, yes we do think about this stuff ourselves, but we wanted to see what you lot think as well. So button it!)
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And the winner is..... phi11ip, for the following suggestion:
"Here's an idea, and if carried out correctly could be very beneficial. I've got a nice example too just to prove to you just how beneficial it is. www.staghosting.com was a free hosting service set up last year with the intention of boosting the ratings of a a few sites belonging to a company, one of these sites was www.actiondays.co.uk. Basically, unlike your free hosting, this hosting only offered hosting to domain names, you get 200MB disk space and 4 Gig bandwidth a month, you can upload from any connection unlike Freeola. So basically the company which has nothing to do with hosting has just set up a hosting site, sounds stupid doesn't it? What the requirements of this free hosting are though is that you must display a couple of small text links on your site, on mine you can see them on the links section on the side of the page. Google counts each link as a 'vote' and increases the pagerank of the site in question meaning that it shows up higher in searches, I see you've got 'cheap games' pretty much sorted but you don't show up anywhere when 'PS2 games' is typed in. If people were to display these text links on their sites it would soon make you appear high up on the search results. www.actiondays.co.uk was absolutely nowhere when it started, it had a low pagerank and didn't appear on searches. Have a look now though and you'll see that searching for 'corporate event' on Google.com returns the site as number 2 out of 6,500,000. Think about it. You've already got the hosting capabilities, all it would require is a server and someone to monitor the sites every now and then to make sure the links are there."
Congratulations and well done to everyone who entered.
Something a little different this time, in that this competition actually requires you to think a little rather than splatter your 'artistic' daubings on a banner :) What we'd like you to do is come up with some ways in which Special Reserve could promote themselves effectively. Bear in mind we haven't exactly got the backing of the Sultan of Brunei, we'd like you to drop us a few ideas on how best to get across the fact that Special Reserve are cheap, reliable and have a wide product range.
This could be improvements to ways we currently run things, new product ranges you think would appeal to our customers (bear in mind we currently sell rather a lot of stuff - see left sidestrip), new exciting ways to advertise our existing offers or just any ideas that have been floating round your head. Is there some range of products you just can't get hold of that would be perfect for us to sell? Let us know!
Post your ideas in this thread and we'll announce a winner at around the end of February, let's say the 27th. The best suggestions will win whatever prizes we give them, most probably yer standard £25/£50 GAD prize.
(And before anyone brings it up, yes we do think about this stuff ourselves, but we wanted to see what you lot think as well. So button it!)
---------------------------------------------------------
And the winner is..... phi11ip, for the following suggestion:
"Here's an idea, and if carried out correctly could be very beneficial. I've got a nice example too just to prove to you just how beneficial it is. www.staghosting.com was a free hosting service set up last year with the intention of boosting the ratings of a a few sites belonging to a company, one of these sites was www.actiondays.co.uk. Basically, unlike your free hosting, this hosting only offered hosting to domain names, you get 200MB disk space and 4 Gig bandwidth a month, you can upload from any connection unlike Freeola. So basically the company which has nothing to do with hosting has just set up a hosting site, sounds stupid doesn't it? What the requirements of this free hosting are though is that you must display a couple of small text links on your site, on mine you can see them on the links section on the side of the page. Google counts each link as a 'vote' and increases the pagerank of the site in question meaning that it shows up higher in searches, I see you've got 'cheap games' pretty much sorted but you don't show up anywhere when 'PS2 games' is typed in. If people were to display these text links on their sites it would soon make you appear high up on the search results. www.actiondays.co.uk was absolutely nowhere when it started, it had a low pagerank and didn't appear on searches. Have a look now though and you'll see that searching for 'corporate event' on Google.com returns the site as number 2 out of 6,500,000. Think about it. You've already got the hosting capabilities, all it would require is a server and someone to monitor the sites every now and then to make sure the links are there."
Congratulations and well done to everyone who entered.
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Ever thought of selling the occasional import game?
There aren't many UK retailers that sell import and many don't what to put up with the hassle of waiting weeks and payign stupidly high shipping fees; if you imported the biggest US releases (such as Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Animal Crossing and other none-Europe or big release titles) and bundled them together with Freeloaders you can boast that no other retailers sell them. You'd make a lot of money for very little fuss, especially seeing as you'd only add £10 for the Freeloader, they'd surely sell by the bucketload.
I'm sure you did it before with Pokemon Stadium or Mario Kart or something, plus if you sold GBA games you wouldn't have to add too much money for Freeloader. If properly advertised regularly in magazines like you normally do you'd most likely get huge sales, especially if you highlight that you're a UK retailer and people won't have to wait 10+ days for their items.
Oddball titles like Donkey Konga might not work, but if you imported the US chart-topping games it would surely work.
There aren't many UK retailers that sell import and many don't what to put up with the hassle of waiting weeks and payign stupidly high shipping fees; if you imported the biggest US releases (such as Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Animal Crossing and other none-Europe or big release titles) and bundled them together with Freeloaders you can boast that no other retailers sell them. You'd make a lot of money for very little fuss, especially seeing as you'd only add £10 for the Freeloader, they'd surely sell by the bucketload.
I'm sure you did it before with Pokemon Stadium or Mario Kart or something, plus if you sold GBA games you wouldn't have to add too much money for Freeloader. If properly advertised regularly in magazines like you normally do you'd most likely get huge sales, especially if you highlight that you're a UK retailer and people won't have to wait 10+ days for their items.
Oddball titles like Donkey Konga might not work, but if you imported the US chart-topping games it would surely work.
Well I don’t know if anyone has mentioned of these before, but here are some ideas:
Testimonials - nothing soothes the worried mind more than a testimonial that a satisfied customer has left behind after a purchase. It would work in the same manner as the Ebay “feedback” way, and you should have the option of removing any feedback that may be spam or those that do not have a positive effect. They should be easily accessible and links should direct you to the testimonials page on either the product the customer is browsing at, or SR’s service in general. All of the above would be engineered to illustrate the fact that Special Reserve is reliable, above all else.
You can show the VAT exclusive price in a larger font that inclusive, to impose the fact that your goods are cheap.
Get rid of the logo, it has lost its edge. Come up with something new and futuristic, and launch a massive advertising campaign - leaflets, handouts (those people that sell the Big Issue to would do it - or not) put advertisements in the paper. People will sit up and take notice once they see a new, sharp and unfamiliar logo, unlike the red splat. Throughout this advertising campaign, make it your low prices obvious - in big fonts and bright colours.
What better place to advertise than a games magazine? Games Master, OPSM, PC Gamer, whatever. You are bound to pick up a lot of attention by advertising in those magazines. The free cheat books that come with them are also good locations to advertise - the back, front pages etc. Have advertisements about the GAD, and make it look realistic like it is, as many people won’t spare it a look otherwise as they will think it is just a scam. The game magazines are not likely to mind - once I saw PLAY, the champions of fan boys, with a page sized ad for the Xbox.
For diversifying your range, concentrate on the gadgets section - check gadget websites and see what they offer and what sells most, then include it in your won, selling the product cheaper. Everyone loves gadgets, and a larger range is going to attract more customers and more money.
Radio? It may be too expensive, but you can always try and advertise on the radio, especially the “trendy” stations that young people listen to, NOT Classical FM or something like that.
More ideas later, I’m off to watch the Simpson’s.
Testimonials - nothing soothes the worried mind more than a testimonial that a satisfied customer has left behind after a purchase. It would work in the same manner as the Ebay “feedback” way, and you should have the option of removing any feedback that may be spam or those that do not have a positive effect. They should be easily accessible and links should direct you to the testimonials page on either the product the customer is browsing at, or SR’s service in general. All of the above would be engineered to illustrate the fact that Special Reserve is reliable, above all else.
You can show the VAT exclusive price in a larger font that inclusive, to impose the fact that your goods are cheap.
Get rid of the logo, it has lost its edge. Come up with something new and futuristic, and launch a massive advertising campaign - leaflets, handouts (those people that sell the Big Issue to would do it - or not) put advertisements in the paper. People will sit up and take notice once they see a new, sharp and unfamiliar logo, unlike the red splat. Throughout this advertising campaign, make it your low prices obvious - in big fonts and bright colours.
What better place to advertise than a games magazine? Games Master, OPSM, PC Gamer, whatever. You are bound to pick up a lot of attention by advertising in those magazines. The free cheat books that come with them are also good locations to advertise - the back, front pages etc. Have advertisements about the GAD, and make it look realistic like it is, as many people won’t spare it a look otherwise as they will think it is just a scam. The game magazines are not likely to mind - once I saw PLAY, the champions of fan boys, with a page sized ad for the Xbox.
For diversifying your range, concentrate on the gadgets section - check gadget websites and see what they offer and what sells most, then include it in your won, selling the product cheaper. Everyone loves gadgets, and a larger range is going to attract more customers and more money.
Radio? It may be too expensive, but you can always try and advertise on the radio, especially the “trendy” stations that young people listen to, NOT Classical FM or something like that.
More ideas later, I’m off to watch the Simpson’s.
How about giving people their own special reserve e-mail address? eg. [email protected] - Will spread the word very quickly. would have to update your site though.
Final conclusion on the banner ad thingy on my site:
SR got about 500 hits over whatever period it was, then the popularity of the banners broke my site causing the databases to corrupt losing me all the members of my site, all the stuff I'd uploaded and causing me a lot of grief.
Luckily I had a backup from Christmas so it wasn't ~that~ bad.
So in conclusion SR owe me £5000000.
SR got about 500 hits over whatever period it was, then the popularity of the banners broke my site causing the databases to corrupt losing me all the members of my site, all the stuff I'd uploaded and causing me a lot of grief.
Luckily I had a backup from Christmas so it wasn't ~that~ bad.
So in conclusion SR owe me £5000000.
Give them furry, fluffy gonks away, with googley eyes. Its hard to explain: its like a round fluffy ball, with eyes, and a sticky pair of feet, with an advertisement sticking out of its backside. Everybody likes them!
Also you want to give things away, like pencil cases, pens, rulers, rubbers all with the SR logo on it.
Kids are bound to see SR plastered over their friends school stationary, and they will want their own. The only way to get them would be to buy something on the net, or go in store. It will pull in younger people to the store, and the website alike.
Also you want to give things away, like pencil cases, pens, rulers, rubbers all with the SR logo on it.
Kids are bound to see SR plastered over their friends school stationary, and they will want their own. The only way to get them would be to buy something on the net, or go in store. It will pull in younger people to the store, and the website alike.
Bill boards are very good to advertise on, just advertise for a week, Make it simple, because if someone is passing the sign at a decent speed, they won't have a chance to read a big essay! Just put one big URL on. This will be seen by hundreds of motorists by the hour, put it on for a week and your laughing!
ok heres one witha different e. give a beer barelwith the sr logo on it, half full of beer cans and the other half full of pieces of paper with your url on it:www.specialreserve.com, to some drunk hillbilies and send them into the jungle, soon they will meet with monkeys and have their way with them, as a gift they wil give the monkeys the half full barell?? (beer been drunk). the monkeys will use it to rest on untill they get killed by a cheetah who will rolll it down a deep valley after a while he will get bored and the barrel will rolll ontop of him. the NSPCA will find it and think the russians did it becausehalf the logo has come of and all that is vissable is the R. they will ask george Bush to start a war with the russian and he will by saying that the russians dumped nuclear wepons in his back garden and in a peace campain meeting he wil push the barrel on top of the russian prime minister. to hidethe evidence he will dump it where no one will suspect him so he asks his boyfriend Tony Blair to take it he wil and will give it t his sn who will buy stuff of the net and tell his friends.
can i be little kid in background
ok heres one. give a beer barelwith the sr logo on it, half full of beer cans and the other half full of pieces of paper with your url on it:www.specialreserve.com, to some drunk hillbilies and send them into the jungle, soon they will meet with monkeys and have their way with them, as a gift they wil give the monkeys the half full barell?? (beer been drunk). the monkeys will use it to rest on untill they get killed by a cheetah who will rolll it down a deep valley after a while he will get bored and the barrel will rolll ontop of him. the NSPCA will find it and think the russians did it becausehalf the logo has come of and all that is vissable is the R. they will ask george Bush to start a war with the russian and he will by saying that the russians dumped nuclear wepons in his back garden and in a peace campain meeting he wil push the barrel on top of the russian prime minister. to hide the evidence he will throw the barrel out to sea and it will float into some rich guys boat he will pick it up and OPEN it because heis ceverer than the rest and when he finds the peices of paper he will go to the site and buy stuff, he will also tell his friend s and then you wil sell all of your stock.
yes, make an advert!
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