Using 3D Printing to Drive Multi-Channel Marketing Projects
Let’s look at some of the ways marketers are using 3D printing to promote their products and how these efforts can apply to you.
When we think about 3D printing, we think about models, parts, and prototypes. But what about marketing incentives? Slowly but surely, marketing uses of 3D printing are growing, even if they are doing so in a stealth way. This is great news, especially with vendors like HP (which just announced its Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution) expanding the production options for the commercial printing market.
Let’s look at some of the ways marketers in a variety of verticals are using 3D printing to promote their products and how these efforts can apply to you.
There are three approaches marketers are using to using 3D pints in their marketing plans: 1) allow customers to win (or earn) 3D-printed specialty incentives; 2) allow customers to access blueprints to print 3D models themselves; 3) allow customers to print/customize/personalize general commercial products enabled and facilitated by the marketer.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these appraoches.
1. Win (or earn) a 3D-printed product.
One well known “we’ll print it for you” approach was used by Coca-Cola a few years ago. It used 3D printing to drive engagement and brand awareness by giving Coke drinkers the opportunity to create 3D-printed “mini-me” figurines.
The campaign was launched in Israel, where Coke built a 3D printing lab in its main factory. To win the figurines, users were invited to create their own “mini me” using a special mobile app. Users were asked to post and “take care of” their mini-me’s around the web. Winners were invited to the factory for a full 360-degree body scan and to receive their figurines. The campaign was promoted via social media, giving Coke’s presence a huge boost. The idea was to give customers a memorable experience and (hopefully) build lifetime brand ambassadors. Today, 360-degree scanners are readily available, making this something any company can do.
In Coca-Cola’s case, the expense and logistics of the campaign meant that only a few people would receive the figurines. However, the same concept can be applied to high-value products and services, giving everyone who meets the requirements a chance to win. Come in for a test drive of a luxury car during a specific time period and receive a 3D printed model of your favorite car. Sign your child up for braces at our orthodontics office and receive a 3D printed action figure that looks like them.
This can be great for nonprofits, too. One UK homeless charity encouraged people to donate during its “Home for Xmas” campaign. As an incentive to give, donors were randomly selected (one each day) to receive a 3D printed model of their home housed inside a personalized snow globe. This idea can be broadly extrapolated to all sorts of incentivized campaigns.
For the printer, such campaigns aren’t about the 3D printing itself. That can be done in-house or outsourced to a company like Shapeways or Sculpteo. The value is in the marketing campaign used to promote these campaigns—the strategy, the project development, and the resulting print, email, social media, in-store signage, and banners to go with them. 3D printing becomes a conduit for what you really want to sell.
2. Access blueprints for 3D printed products to print yourself.
Not all 3D-driven campaigns require actual 3D models. For some, just the blueprints to allow people to print their own models is enough. This was the case for the target audience for Warner Bros Studios when it offered 3D-printable files to the Key to Erebor to promote the release of “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.” For this audience, which is younger and plugged in to technology and the maker spaces, this was a perfect way to take advantage of 3D printing without needing to produce the actual physical pieces.
Do you have any clients who might benefit from this approach? A hobby toy store might offer 3D blueprints of tiny aviators to sit in the seats of its model airplanes built from kits. The customer could be encouraged to “buy three” and get 3D files, not just for the mini-aviators, but for a set of vintage aviator glasses for the model maker himself or herself.
In these approaches, all it takes is the 3D-printable file. For that, you can work with a 3D printing design service.
3. Enable ordering of exclusive 3D-printed products personalized or customized by the customer.
EBay is among those using this approach. Through its app, EBay Exact, customers can buy customizable 3D-printed products from makers like MakerBot, Hot Pop Factory, and Sculpteo. Customers can choose from a wide range of items, ranging from iPhone cases to figurines to jewelry. Likewise, using its D-Tech Me app, Disney has been delighting Star Wars fans for several years with the ability to order 3D-printed figurines such as Storm Troopers, the Alderaan Princess, and X-Wing Pilots in their own likenesses.
While there will be a limited market of people wanting figurines with their faces on them, the idea can be extrapolated to items that a broader audience will pay to customize. Pet lovers, for example, might buy cups and mugs with their dog’s face in the center, with a wagging tail as the handle. Companies like Doolydoo and Crayon Creatures already allow doting parents to turn they children’s artwork into 3D models.
If you have events planning clients, this presents particular opportunities. Think about the value of creating unique souvenirs or event mementos. Children’s dance studios, cheerleading and gymnastics competitions, and band and orchestra camps all present opportunities. You might consider partnering with a photo studio in these efforts.
Regardless of the approach, the overall value for printers and marketing services providers is tremendous. All of these products need to be promoted. Whether you own a 3D printer or not, and whether you intend to purchase a 3D printer or not, you can take advantage of this need.
So what are you going to do? You can either wait for a company to decide to use 3D printing in its marketing, come up with these branding and promotional opportunities on its own, and then hope they come to you for their marketing services, or you could be proactive. You could take 3D promotional ideas and opportunities to your customers and prospects.
Chances are, your customers aren’t going to be tapped in to the opportunities offered by 3D printing. But that’s why they look to you. Win them over—and have a compelling marketing plan in hand to help them make the most of it.
