Automatic pop-up products such as pop-up cubes, pop-up houses and pop-up pyramids have been a feature of the Business to business direct marketing scene for some time. The products have proved to be very popular and very successful in direct mail campaigns, as promotional giveaways at exhibitions and as desk top pen holders amongst other things. So that begs the question, „Why do we never see rubber band powered automatic pop-up products in greeting cards shops or on the card shelves in supermarkets?“
It’s not that it hasn’t been tried. It has but the would-be publishers have never thought through the full implications of trying to bring the product to the public. The simple fact is that the product would not be a viable option for the commercial greetings market but not because of cost. It is more a matter of logistics and the problem lays with the most important component – the rubber band.
You see, rubber bands begin to lose their elasticity if stored at full stretch for a long period of time. In a 3-D pop-up, the rubber band is at full stretch when the product is compressed. The longer it is stored flat, the weaker the rubber band gets. If these products were produced for the high street or the mall, they would potentially have been compressed for months. Having left the manufacturer they would go to a distribution centre until ordered by a store and then they would sit in the store room or on the shelf until bought by a customer. The result would be that the rubber band would become weak and the product would no longer have a „pop“. Instead it would sort of wake up in a lazy fashion, erecting itself over a period of several minutes.
So, how does a member of the public get hold of a pop-up cube or a pop-up house to send as a surprise birthday greeting to a friend or loved one? The answer is to make one yourself. There are books which give instructions and there are websites which show videos of the product which will help. But if you do make the product yourself, the pop-up action will be nice and fresh just as they are when the pop-ups leave the assembly lines when being made for the advertising and marketing industries, ready to be mailed out the following day.
However, help is on its way and at least one UK manufacturer is going to bring the product into the public domain in a do-it-yourself kit and that is great news for one group in particular – the growing army of card making, scrapbooking and rubber stamping crafters. As automatic pop-up products have never before been seen in the greeting card shops the card making fraternity will have something to stretch their creative talents.
Card making and scrapbooking crafters have been producing some of the most stunning creations for years, many of them far more attractive and imaginative than anything you will find even in specialist gift shops never mind in card shops or on supermarket shelves. Ad agency creative staff and graphic designers watch out!
Immobilienmakler Heidelberg Makler HeidelbergSource by Paul Whitney