Advertising Co-op Idea

**timbo6585** · 06-15-2007 09:41 PM

I have an idea for selling advertising to businesses. It's not very original, I believe a lot of fundraisers do this, but I like the idea.

Create a plastic membership card that has 15 businesses printed on the back of it. Each business will have a tiny box with their name and what they offer to the cardholder, like 10% off their haircut or a free soda with 10 gallons of gas, something like that.

I'll write a letter to local businesses telling them about this new network and invite them to join. I'll pick 15 categories, like coffee shop, ice cream parlor, hair cutting place, car wash, cafe, etc. Then I'll pick one business in each of those and in the letter tell them that they will have that category exclusively, so that there aren't competing businesses on the same card. This should be motivation for them to want to join, so that their competitor doesn't get on the card instead of them.

With the brief research I did for looking into the price of printing these cards it looks like it'll be under a dollar a card. I'll tell the businesses in the letter that they share in the profits of the sales of these cards. If they agree to have their business on the card, I will charge them $5 a card. I'll get this up front which will cover the charges of printing the cards. They can in turn sell the cards for $10 from their business. This way I will have the 15 businesses earning me $4 a card they sell and they will be happy getting their $5 a card. Not to mention the new and loyal customer base that is more likely to patronize them because of the incentive.

I think if I can get some good benefits on the cards and popular places people will be willing to pay $10 for one. I'll try and get it professionaly designed and nice and colorful too so it's eye-catching and more attractive.

Anyone think it'll work? Any suggestions or criticisms? Thanks for the feedback.

Tim

**snowswap** · 06-15-2007 09:47 PM

Nice Idea...

They have something like this around me, it's used for fundraising and such..

Check it out here: http://www.varsitygold.com/

Hope it gives you some ideas...

**timbo6585** · 06-15-2007 09:52 PM

Thanks for the link. I like the ideas on this site.

**stand856** · 06-15-2007 09:53 PM

one of the people that I deal with he goes to the businesses, puts their name and discount % of bills or whatever on the back of the plastic card, charges these businesses about $100 to be put on 250 cards, then goes out to like hospitals and gives them out to the doctors, nurses and whoever after a presentation, hope that helps

**remccain** · 06-25-2007 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by timbo6585

I have an idea for selling advertising to businesses. It's not very original, I believe a lot of fundraisers do this, but I like the idea.

Create a plastic membership card that has 15 businesses printed on the back of it. Each business will have a tiny box with their name and what they offer to the cardholder, like 10% off their haircut or a free soda with 10 gallons of gas, something like that.

Tim

You're right, it's not very original.
Visit my website and contact me for franchise information.
Depending on your location, I may be able to set you up an exclusive region for distributorship.

http://www.mccainmedia.com

**WhoYoDaddy** · 06-25-2007 04:15 PM

its not original...but usually the most profitable ideas are not

do NOT give the businesses a percentage of sales...they're benefit is increased traffic

DO charge them a good amount (should cover cost of printing/design) to be included

DO use fundraisers to get them out

DO charge people to buy the cards

these come in cards, books and calendars all year long through schools and churches. The bigger the town the better.

Go for it!