Matter. Part 2 - The stuff in the box.

If you don't know about Matter, I wrote about it earlier.  This is my review of the bits in the 1st Matter box:

First up was a little box of Superfoods Muesli from Jordan's, in a box that was made to look like a Penguin Classic book.  Sadly  a thorough inspection of the box reveals no reason why, and in fact the URL on the box sent me to a site themed around muesli being macho! I'd like to imagine this is just because Matter is at a test stage, because I can see where they're going with the idea - everyone reads cereal boxes so why not put something interesting on there?  I appreciated the excerpt from Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, and I do think Penguin Classics and healthy cereals make happy bedfellows.  Plus - and this will be a recurring theme as I go through the Matter box - I'm up for trying the cereal so will be keeping it. In conclusion, a simple bit of sampling, wrapped in fairly nice creative which could be integrated better.

Sampling is an obvious use for Matter, and its used in a simpler form with a little bottle of Original Source Mint and Tea Tree.

I already use this stuff, so the freebie will not go to waste - but it easily could have.  Even if we credit the little questionnaire I had to fill in to get my Matter box with identifying me as a potential customer, it will still throw up mis-matches, and I worry about the potential waste.  I suppose I could do as the little leaflet suggests and pass it on to friend, but that won't always be possible and I think Matter needs to do more to address this.  An option to send stuff back would be good, but probably prohibitively expensive for Matter to execute... anyway, I was supposed to be leaving talk like that 'til the end.

Next up, a wrist sweat band from Nintendo with Wii branding.  This made me smile.

A simple gift with relevance to the brand's active nature, and the obvious exercise/health association.  I might keep it just because its so nice.  I liked that there was no bumpf to read, just simple gift. Still, I doubt I'll be wearing it for 5 a side on a Wednesday night.

4th one; mini cardboard crate with "Livestock.  Handle with care." written on it.

Opening it reveals another box, this one green, with Sony Ericsson branding containing some packing material and a tiny phone charm whose character I recognise from their press and outdoor campaign.  This 'Music Monster' is introduced with a booklet (nice attention to detail here with die cut 'chew marks' in the corners) with some fun copy talking about Sony's mobile music offering and info on a new handset.

I'm not the phone charm type, but its a nice piece for someone younger I guess.  If anyone wants it, give me a shout.

5th one; white plastic box with tiny Nissan logo.  Opens to reveal the box has a built-in hook effort, and contains what look like 4 chunky wax crayons, but are made of soap.

Now, I bought some of these from Muji before Xmas...

...and I've got no problem with Nissan borrowing the idea, if they use it to tell me something interesting.  The booklet has a go at this, opening with a few sentences about "combining ideas that already exist in a new and refreshing way" being behind Nissan's thinking.  I'm not so sure it goes on to justify this successfully, there's no more copy, just a series of images like a skateboard captioned with 'Hatchback' and a sofa with 'Pick Up' - bit tenuous.  I can see what they were trying to do, and the novelty value of the soapcrayons was nice enough to make me buy them, so if I was reviewing this as a DM piece in its own right I wouldn't slate it.

Thing is, unlike the Wii wristband & Music Monster, it feels like its a stand alone piece, not one created for the context of the Matter box.  Fair enough at trial stage though - and it was still interesting enough to make me want to read the whole thing.  Again, no follow through online at nissan.co.uk, but that's probably me expecting a bit much.

6th one; Top Trumps cards from Evo magazine.  Top Trumps are a DM cliche and I can't get over my bias against them to review these objectively.  I just don't like them!

7th; two pots of colourful Play-Doh courtesy of Sony Bravia.

Very simple tie in with the TV ad.  Would've been nice if there'd been a competition to win one where I had to make a model and upload a photo of it or something.  I may be skewed by nostalgia here, but everyone likes Play-Doh, right?  Quite charming little gift, but needs some idea with it to get me thinking.

8th one; Booklet about Stolichnaya vodka, with free enamel pin badge!

The booklet's actually pretty interesting.  A potted history of Russia's "vodka of the people".  I just don't get the relevance of the badge, but its nice enough and apparently 1 of a limited edition of 1,000.  Again, if anyone wants it, let me know.

Last one, bottom of the box, is a calendar from Virgin Atlantic.  And there's evidence this was made specially for Matter's purposes (at the very least the little paper band around it was, so maybe its an adaptation of a promo giveaway type thing) with a link: www.virginatlantic@matterbox.com - ???

Doesn't work, obviously.  And matterbox.com a web design company, while the real link is at matterbox.co.uk.  Teething trouble typo, I guess.

The calendar is OK, but I don't need it.  Any takers?

Comments

[Andy Piper]

Nice summary. I hadn't explored everything in the same detail - nice spot of the typo on the Virgin calendar. I liked the whole idea though - http://andypiper.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/matter/

[Dan]

Please Can I Have The Sony Music Monster?
My Emails
Danielclo1il@gmail.com

[Andy Piper]

Isn't that an email address though - why wouldn't it work?

Annoyingly I'm flying with Virgin in May, just outside the offer window. Darn.

[Rafael]

how can I Have the sony music monster?

email
gatillero809@hotmail.com