May-June,
1933
T H E COIN M A C H I N E J O U R N A L
11
‘Tut ON a GOOD SHOW
In d u s tr y L e a rn s W h a t A r t a n d P r in te r ’s I n k
G a n D o to G e t P r o d u c ts O v e r
• Always a lavish user of advertising
the coin machine industry has, within
the past few months, begun to take
its place among those users whose ad
vertising measures up with the out
standing examples of creative art. For
a great many years coin machine ad
vertising dealt more or less with ex
travagant pictures and still more ex
travagant claims regarding merchan
dise and what is was supposed to do.
That is not to be wondered at as it is
the natural course that every indus
trial development goes through. Those
manufacturers whose products have
reached the standard of perfection
that should prevail in the industry
have begun to find ways to present
their machines and service that ac
tually tell the story in an attractive
and straight-forward manner.
Several campaigns that are now be
ing conducted in the trade are attract
ing widespread attention not only in
this industry but in the advertising
world. For originality and good mer
chandise sense these campaigns stand
out as among the finest that the coin
machine industry has produced.
Hamilton Blazes a New Trail
Particularly striking is the cam
paign of the Hamilton Machine Com
pany who have recently announced
the new E-Z Aces game. The original
Hamilton Manufacturing Company
made a place for themselves in the
salesboard world with a generous use
of printer’s ink and clever selling ideas.
With this background of experi
ence, the newly organized Hamilton
Machine Company, an affiliate of the
Hamilton Manufacturing Company,
set about to introduce in the shortest
time possible a new game in a highly
competitive market.
Does Job Right
Having satisfied themselves, after
three years of experimental work and
investment of a large sum of money
in development, that they had a game
of outstanding merit, Graff Wolfe,
president of the company, and Jack
Miller, advertising manager, together
with their, staff of engineers, launched
into an advertising campaign, the like
of which the industry has never known
before. Almost over night the indus
try awakened to the fact that some
thing new and big was going on.
The campaign started with a bang.
T he C oin M achine J ournal and
other publications appeared with four
page ads in color and the operators
began to receive in their mail adver
tising material that not only was a
work of art, but presented the story
as probably no other similar story
has been presented; and with selling
ideas that served to convince the trade
that here was an organization with
something that would put money in
their pockets while rendering a serv
ice to the public at large. Every de
tail of this campaign from the letter
heads and mailing envelopes to the
most elaborate specially designed
mailing pieces has been worked out to
attract attention.
‘ Unusual Display in Advertising
The first mailing piece consisted of
a handsomely prepared 12-page book
in a heavy cardboard cover. Although
a three-color plate was used on the
cover the work was executed in such
a manner as to give the effect of sev
eral colors. Careful attention was
given to reproducing the machine and
high grade photography was used to
show how it worked. The center page
presented the machine in its full color
scheme. This astounding piece of
work representative of the type of ad
vertising that such concerns as Tif
fany might put out made a lasting
impression on the trade that here was
something new and different.
Makes Profound Impression
Profound as this first announce
ment was the followup mailing piece
was so strikingly different that opera
tors could not believe their own eyes.
For, in the course of two or three days,
they received in the mails a folding
piece that simulated a deck of cards.
On opening the envelope the operator
was greeted with a specially cut-out
folder of 16 pages on heavy card
board stock. The back of the folder
was engraved similar to the back of a
playing card, while the front of each
page presented a different story about
E-Z Aces.
This mailing piece, a die cut job
as it is known in the advertising world,
unfolded like an accordion and was
so striking in its appeal that those
operators who had not already re
sponded to the first appeal got busy
to find out what all the noise about
E-Z Aces meant.
Includes Appeal to Players
Still another surprise was in store
for those operators who saw fit to
order these games, for Hamilton had
already gone ahead and anticipated
pieces taken from campaign conducted by Mills Novelty Co., featuring Beer as a stimulus to Musical instruments, Bells, Games and food
stuffs venders, each outstanding in its originality and artistic appeal. 12 and 14. Two striking mailing pieces used by Rock-ola Manufac
turing Corp. No. 12 was a complete catalog while No. 14 was an outstanding piece from the new Scale series featuring Featuristic and
Loboy Scales.
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