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January 14, 2007
The shillest - will consumers see the irony from such great heights?
I'm a little late to this game, but much snarky ado about the Postal Service licensing a song to a new UPS campaign. Ardent students of indie rock/marketing symbiosis already know that the Postal Service and the USPS had a dust up in the past over the bands name. Settlement included the Postal Service helping the USPS with promotional efforts. USPS.com now sells Postal Service recordings. That alone proves the shillest's worth.
Apologies for failing to provide a YouTube clip so early into the campaign (It will show up eventually). Here's the thing - UPS may take its share of snark from people like us, but, how many Joe Sixpacks will hear the Postal Service and make that connection? One in six? Fifteen? Thirty-three thousand? (Apologies redux in advance for the following comparison) Pretty much every song from the Such Great Heights, like Moby's Play, have the right mix of accessibility, pathos, and mood that makes marketers salivate. Kudos, I guess, to United Parcel Service for not worrying about what 6,000 bloggers will write.
Elsewhere
Band: Go Team! (voiceover: Kevin Spacey, apparently)
Song: Huddle Formation
Car: Honda Civic
Posted by Keith O'Brien at January 14, 2007 08:30 AM
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Comments
This isn't entirely pertinent to the discussion at hand. Nevertheless...
The day to day life in the Rio Grande Valley is rather lax, and parcel service is no exception. Mail traveling through the USPS takes roughly twice as long to reach its destination, whether leaving or entering the region. This notion, combined with the need for extensive online orders (that's another rant for another day), has led me to tryout a variety of shipping services. Here's how they stack up, worst to not so worst:
FedEx is Abysmal. Their door tags are extra-vague (Next projected attempt: "Tomorrow"), and the drivers cannot be contacted by you or the main office. The closest pick-up station is Harlingen, some 60 minutes away from a majority of the Valley's population. Furthermore, FedEx does everything within its power to prevent you from talking to an actual human representative. If sending me anything, choose another service.
The USPS is convenient only in that there are many post offices. Lines and service are stereotypically precise; the hours annoying inconsistent. (If it says "open at 9 am", don't expect service until 9:30. If it says "closes at 5 pm, don't expect service at 4:45.) If you plan on sending me anything via the USPS, make sure it's non-perishable.
The above-mentioned UPS is superior to FedEx in that it gives you at least a little heads up about redeliveries (a cable compnay-esque "3:00 - 8:00") and there will occasionally be a person available for you to talk to. Unfortunately, he closest pick-up spot is still some two hours away, and UPS is pretty strict about its eight-hour workdays.
DHL is the "winner" in this horse race because while it is comperable to UPS in door tag language, it also provides you with a phone number that links directly to the delivery van. That way, if your package misses you, you can easily contact the driver to arrange a drop-off for that day. There is no pick-up site available, but who needs that when you package is almost guarenteed to be delivered.
Posted by: Randall Monty at January 15, 2007 03:07 PM
