I saw this post about the Matter Box on Notcot, and I promptly signed myself up to receive one. Essentially, it is a box full of brand promo schwag and trinkets, which I suppose means I have signed up to receive a box full of ads. But it looks so cool! This British guy is pretty happy. I like to think that he likes the soap crayons best.
The idea behind Matter is that they want to create cool things for brands that people would want to keep, as opposed to ads which are the bain of everyone's existence, apparently (except for today).
"Matter works a little like a magazine by creating specific boxes for different audiences, except each bit of 'content' is in fact a different object each created by a different company. Matter works with each company to create items you'll enjoy getting, which might be something that explains what the company does, its ideas or its values, or simply something to try out.
Matter is a refreshing interlude to the fast-moving blur of modern media. It's stuff you can read, play with, or try at your leisure. But because Matter is carefully created it's also a thoroughly modern concept–it's advertising you'll want to keep. "
I'm not sure if you need to live in England to get it, but I'm assuming no. You can, of course, decide to advertise in Matter, which means creating something for your brand that someone would want to keep. The whole thing is sort of cool, because instead of rolling the dice and hoping that the people who get your trinket in the mail will like it, you're halfway there in that they've actually signed up to receive it.
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Thanks for linking to my video. As for me liking the soap crayons... lol! Quite an effective way of marketing the whole idea of Nissan being different though. I like the Wii armband, I just need to get hold of a Wii now :-)
Posted by: Andy Piper | February 04, 2008 at 05:45 AM
ha! yeah i agree; soap crayons are very unexpected. If you ever get to NY, we have a Wii in our office - and I think people here would definitely wear that wristband while playing - they're all about it.
Posted by: amber finlay | February 04, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Oh, and I'm fairly sure you do need to live in the UK to get it :-(
Posted by: Andy Piper | February 04, 2008 at 04:23 PM
i loved the soap crayons - but I left them in the UK.
I'm hoping they'll keep sending me it over here - Gareth got his in boston!
FX
Posted by: Faris | February 22, 2008 at 06:27 PM