To: Mike M who wrote (1504 ) 3/27/1998 6:31:00 PM From: John Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 11417
Mike, I made a similar presentation to Peter Sprague last summer. I am a marketing consultant and one of my biggest projects was in the Automated Telemarketing Industry. Back in the late 80s to early 90's I created a promotion that legally allowed consumers to use their telephones to enter sweepstakes. However, we couldn't afford to pay for millions of 800 (toll free calls) so the hook was the consumer called a 900# to enter. Each call cost $3.98 (free mail in offer also available) and the consumer found out instantly if they won. As a consolation gift, every caller received a $1,000 discount certificate book. The bottom line was, we had a HUGE response to the 900# alternative for entering the sweepstakes. I introduced this promotion to many direct mail companies and over the next 3 years the Automated Telemarketing Company processed calls totaling $750 Million. I explained this exact case study to Peter and told him he could do this with the Wave Meter versus the telephone and he loved the concept. However, he told me that Wave could not take advantage of this promotion until they have distribution of chips. But once that starts, Wave/IBM could have an INSTANT WIN SWEEPSTAKES as part of their incentive to get consumers to activate their Wave meters. Except, instead of having people pay as much as we charged in the 900# call, Wave could charge $.32 each, or the cost of a postage stamp. When we did the 900# campaign, coupled with direct mail, our average response percentage via 900# was 10%. An additional 20% paid for a postage stamp and mailed in their response. Annually, there are about one billion sweepstakes mailing per year sent to American Consumers. Do the math and you can see that charging as little as $.32 to enter the sweepstakes really adds up.