'Tis the Season for 3Com, CDnow Web Xmas Promotion

Brandweek, Nov 9, 1998 by Adrienne Mand

Four Points Digital, Chicago, has designed an online holiday promotion for 3Com offering users who buy modems a $50 gift certificate for music purchased from Web retailer CDnow.

The promotion, to run from Nov. 15 through Jan. 31, will be lugged in newspaper, television and radio ads, as well as banners on portals, including Yahoo!, AOL.com and Infoseek; entertainment sites such as Billboard Online, broadcast.com and the Rolling Stone Network. "We're really trying to intercept the consumer at the right point to really motivate that purchase," said Giana Pisellini, account director at Four Points Digital, which has been assigned regular project work from Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3 Com.

The banners, using streaming audio, link to 3Com's holiday site, www.3com.com. The promotion offers a virtual gift certificate--which can be redeemed by the user or transferred as a gift--on any purchase of a US Robotics 56K, BigPicture, MegaHertz PC or cable modem. The site also directs users to different online resellers of 3Com products.

"We know that music has a universal appeal," said Neil Clemmons, 3Com's vice president of marketing. The promotion allows 3Com to "show off elements of our modems in a risk-free ... [environment]," he added. Plus, 3Com gets the added benefit of connecting with consumers in a clutter-free area that doesn't play host to a bevy of computer-related products.

Michelle Rubin, director of online marketing for Jenkintown, Pa.-based CDnow, said the promotion will be supported through banners within its online newsletter. Also, 3Com will be among the sites listed in CDnow's "cool links" section and on CDnow promotional partners' sites.