Glynn Lavender - Camera Action Camera House - Melbourne, Australia - www.cameraaction.com.au

We introduced our own in store gifting in December 07.

We were ready to launch a whole bunch of new services but due to stock shortages and staff training we were about 6 weeks behind when we would have ideally launched this new range of services.

So we needed a sure fire way of getting the message in front of our customers that they just couldn't miss.

Enter the human billboards.

We employ six staff to work in the front section of our store and their main role is selling photo services and cashiering.

So we printed up a bunch of Photo T-Shirts on our new machine with our staffs heads on them - highlighting the fact that we did Photo Gifts in ONE HOUR and in doing so we turned our staff into human billboards.

The response was immediate, the business was, and continues to be, fantastic and in a few short weeks we had paid for our complete investment.

Starting up a whole new range of services is no good unless you can find a way to get the message out to your customers - our human billboards will work for us all year as we change the shirts to promote different seasonal events.

Stu Eddins - Porter's Camera - Cedar Rapids. IA - www.porters.com

For Your Convenience

Sometimes we take for granted the little things we do as a courtesy or convenience. Focus a little attention on those differences and the results can be very positive.

Though we have done this for years without fanfare we now promote one of these conveniences. For many customers the thought of getting two or more kids out of car seats, one into a stroller and another in hand just to spend three minutes picking up prints was the least convenient part of having prints made.

As a retailer with no possibility of adding a drive up window we encouraged these customers just to call in on their cell and we'd run the order out to their car.

A month ago we started promoting this convenience and it has been very well received. We started with a 4X6 order-bag stuffer to get the ball rolling. Not just parents with kids, but elderly customers who want to avoid an icy walk into the store have begun using the service. We've attached a 24X36 version of our bag stuffer to a window which can be seen from our parking lot - the number to call is in type about 12" high. Daily we get positive feedback for offering this "new" service.

The salespeople actually like being the "runner" because they are warmly thanked. And in truth, all of this promotion has generated a ton of goodwill by shining light on a service we have always quietly offered - and we still only run half a dozen orders out the door a day! Of course we don't allow tips, but one customer was so appreciative that he returned 20 minutes later and called us to come out and get a drop off - a bag of burgers for the whole crew.

Chad Munce - PMA - Jackson, MI - www.pmai.org

How about offering free snow plowing services with every photo book or camera purchased?

Sandy Seitz - Director, Marketing - PMA

Hi Bill and Chris - as you both well know, May is National Photo Month. PMA would like to remind retailers of the tools available to them to help promote National Photo Month and drive consumers to their stores.

Celebrate National Photo Month!

Increase revenue, build more business recognition, and help your customers capture and share special moments with promotional tools available to PMA members. Visit www.pmai.org/npm.