Ads on takeaway boxes

[WillLoxley]

I can only assume this has been tried, but I thought I'd ask anyway. The idea would be that we'd supply anyone who requires boxes with them for free (now I think about it it could be extended beyond takeaways), and we'd make money by placing adverts on top /inside the box.

What do you guys think?

 

[british steve]

Local independent coffee shop has card coffee cup sleeves sponsored by EasyJet, I am guess they were given them free of charge as it’s the only time I have seen them in use!

 

[sands67]

Not convinced. I remember when video (and later DVD shops) sold advertising on the rental box. It just didn't work for advertisers. Customers took out the video and sat down to watch the TV, they probably didn't even notice the adverts.
Same with pizza, people want to eat the food. They're going to grab their slice and sit down to watch the TV!

I don't think you can really engage with them at that point.

 

[MASSEY]

When it comes to advertising on things, its pretty much all been done. I've seen advertising on fast food bags and boxes, i would think it a waste of doe though, who reads their pizza box before shoveling it in?

I've even seen advertising on bags containing hot breakfast sandwiches. http://www.tabletalkmedia.co.uk/media-formats/sandwich-bags/

It's the sort of advertising the bigger companies can afford, the sort that helps build brand awareness i guess, but not something the little guys would see much of a return from.

 

[TradeSmart]

Personally I think it could work if the advertising was on the inside of the lid. Loads of people eat pizza straight out the box on their lap or table, so there could be some potential in it.

 

[garyk]

A friend of mine had this idea and called it 'adlids', I thought it was a great idea and did some digging on the web and found it had been done before, albeit small scale. The idea being that instead of using those plain white cardboard lids you see on take-aways from Indians and Chinese you would stick an ad on it.

The issue? Hygiene, he looked into it and there are strict guidelines as to what you can and cannot do. I would also question what sort of ROI an advertiser would get.

 

[Tradepage.co]

The idea could have some potential if you could find a way to produce printed packaging in more interesting positions that doesn't fall outside of food hygiene standards (if you were to focus specifically on that market). It is imagined that for this idea to have real potential, there would need to be an offering of ad space that is more than just printed on the side of a box.

However, that said, how sure are you of the demand for this type of service from both aspects of the way it would function? For instance, packaging is of course a useful additional tool to reaffirm a company's brand and potentially advertise other products and services available. How many companies would be willing to compromise this for the saving achieved on something that gets built into their calculated margins? Furthermore, how would you ensure better audience targeting and relevance for the company advertising? The system controlling print would need to be well developed and well integrated. Also, what if the cash flow generated through advertising sales can not meet the requirements of printing costs and how could that affect existing contracts with registered businesses.

All things considered, you have obviously detected an ad space opportunity, however, it is advised to be thoroughly assured of the risks before investing here, because it may not currently exist for a genuine reason.

 

[WillLoxley]

Hi,

Well the link provided further up by another poster is for an ad agency who seem to specialise in this sort of stuff, though I'd never seen it before myself!

And also I've never seen branded pizza boxes etc with the takeaway's number or brand on it. They seem to be generic.

 

[Psl]

One of my sales guys came to me with this idea when I was in the digital kiosk advertising business. It's a good idea but from memory there were restrictions on the type of print used inside the box due to the potential contact with food. I know it was expensive at the time to get the printing done - 5-6 years ago.

Why not try selling the ad space on napkins and provide them to the takeaways FOC?

The other one is advertising on beer mats! Not many pubs put beer mats out nowadays, not where I booze anyway.

On another point, why don't takeaways do half-pizza's or slices of pizza's and price them accordingly? With 5 of us, two teenagers and one 20 yr old, plus me and 'er'indoors, it takes 20 mins to decided what pizza to have and invariably some gets left over.

 

[Dan Izzard]

I've actually seen a takeaway bag branded up in a central food market area. The food market is rammed with office workers every day for lunch and a recruitment company had given out paper bags for the vendors to use. The standard plastic takeaway boxes were then put inside these bags.

There was no way of telling if it had worked but I do remember their name and logo so it must have had an impact on me.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

On another point, why don't takeaways do half-pizza's or slices of pizza's and price them accordingly? With 5 of us, two teenagers and one 20 yr old, plus me and 'er'indoors, it takes 20 mins to decided what pizza to have and invariably some gets left over.

Because the pizza isn't the expensive bit it's the staff, delivery costs and everything else which goes into making it and getting it to you, So a half pizza would end up costing nearly as much as a full one.

In London you can get slices of pizza but they tend to be in high street locations and aimed at people walking past.

Most places do half and half now if you ask them which may help.