It is unsurprising that Royal Mail send 'review' copies of their products to a variety of people, especially those who might be seen as 'influencers' on social media who may lead to increase sales.
They sent a box of Batman goodies to Neil A Cole of the Superman Super Site
Here's his review, or 'unboxing' (runs just over 17 minutes, no ads).
It's interesting to see the perspective of the person who apparently knows nothing about special stamp issues, save that they could be used to post letters.
It's good publicity from Royal Mail, although they might have done better had they provided information about what their products actually are - the FDC insert shows that you can also get presentation packs, but clearly the reviewer didn't know that they mint stamps are IN a presentation pack, almost overlooking the Justice League miniature sheet as 'another nice piece of artwork'.
And the Gold-plated medal folder has a first day cover inside, not that the reviewer found that - which is, I suppose, the problem of doing an unboxing review; the video will be edited, but how long do you want to spend between takes actually investigating what is included?
Would Royal Mail have done better to include First*, or a glossy brochure of all the products? Maybe, though I suppose they have already had similar give-aways for other similar stamp issues so you would think that they might know what works best.
* I don't receive First so I don't know how comprehensive it is.
As at the time of writing, that YouTube video has a whole 10 views - but then the channel only has 90 subscribers.
Meanwhile on this site the Royal Mail announcement has had 884 views (our post on the stamps has over 1500, but then our readers are looking at the stamps, more than anything else).
For sure that it won't always happened to other famous person on other stamp issue topics. For example, there is a famous Hong Kong man who is now living in Thailand and collect huge amount of James Bond 007 items. I told him there is new stamp issue of James Bond and of course he bought them without receiving any philatelic items for Royal Mail for assisting promotion.
ReplyDeleteA fascinating 17 minutes which raises the question of the competence of Royal Mail’s marketing experts. Why would they consider it worthwhile sending an expensive package from Edinburg (in England) to presumably try to boost its sales to one of the dullest, least energetic, poorly informed Americans viewable on the internet. This gentlemen is clearly a greater ‘influencer’ for the sale of mattresses and duvets but little else. Until you drew our attention to this item Royal Mail’s patronisation of this influencer had resulted in only 10 views though no doubt those who follow Norvic Stamps Blog will also now view this gentleman’s dreary presentation and increase its number of viewers several fold. My conclusion is that while Royal Mail continue to produce stamps, it should concentrate on genuine stamp collectors, support the hobby and release stamps which tell the story of Britain and not feature subjects which might (but may well not - it seems) appeal to people who know nothing about, and have no interest in, stamp collecting and believe that Edinburg(h) is in England.
ReplyDeleteI was once asked by Royal Mail to review their Football Heroes stamp issue back in 2013, so this has been going on for quite some time. I actually have a page on my website dedicated to GB Stamps featuring football: https://www.myfootballfacts.com/england_footy/football-on-great-britain-postage-stamps/?swcfpc=1
ReplyDeleteNeil Cole certainly was not prepared for what he received, but I think that Royal Mail should be blamed for this. What a strange idea it is, sending a bundle of British Philatelic stuff to someone who is clearly not familiar with what Royal mail produce. I would like to think that it will increase their sales, but I would be very surprised if it will have been worth their effort. Neil is certainly an expert on his subject, and like most experts (including perhaps philatelists) could seem rather focussed. However, any gentleman who has a cat, is a fine fellow in my estimation!
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