Media Syndication Global, New York, an alternative media division of Snyder Communications, has been chosen by General Electric to launch a series of mail cooperatives targeted to lifestyle segments and take over management of two other direct response programs.
The co-ops are scheduled for a fall drop of around 250,000 pieces each in the kitchen/home, outdoor enthusiasts and PC/technology user segments. Target households will be chosen from GE's 30-million name proprietary database. The GE Direct Response Group ran a 2-million household test mailing of the non-specific @Home co-op in January and will work with Media Syndication on the new programs.
“The results of the test were promising and we feel that including GE in all envelope creative and targeting more deeply the database so the co-ops are consumer interest specific will further the results,'' said MSG senior account executive Tim Sullivan.
The GE co-op is being scaled down from initial plans for regional mailings of 2 million each. This is to allow people to test into the co-op, said LeAnn Carr, program manager of business development for GE Direct Response, New Albany, IN.
MSG, which specializes in billing inserts to clients in the banking and financial services industries, expanded into the co-op area in January with the relaunch of the Bundle of Joy co-op from Transamerica, Cleveland, OH, and the creation of three new programs aimed at a baby's first exposure to solid foods and first birthday and active seniors. The monthly Bundle of Joy mailings are full and a test for the latter three dropped in April.
The addition of MSG to the Snyder family of marketing and advertising companies gives it access to more than 100 financial services clients and will augment the alternate media services of Snyder subsidiary Echo Media, Atlanta.
GE has also chosen MSG to manage its warranty ride-along program that reaches 20 million new product owners per year and the package insert program of GE Appliance, effective June 1. MSG will sell advertising to packaged goods and direct response companies in the actual appliances shipped to consumers. A cookbook, for instance, could be shipped inside an oven or a fabric softener inside a dryer, Sullivan said. A 28-page booklet of coupons and special offers pertaining to the home will also be included in the PIP.
“We wanted to have a good mix of advertising in the program, some retail, some direct response and some packaged goods and felt Media Syndication the right connections to do that,'' Carr said.
GE is the number one brand name in America, according to a 1996 Lewis Harris poll and MSG co-president Jeff Giordano said that high profile will add credibility to all its alternative media programs.
