Meet Paul and Sina Clayton - owners of Camera Action Camera House and Camera House Digital. - Glynn Lavender's bosses . . .

Their employee count has tripled since the year 2000 . . . and they have five specialty store competitors within one block radius of their flagship store . . . and three CE (consumer electronics) retailers in the same block . . .

How does Camera Action Camera House continue to thrive being located in Melbourne's "Blood Alley"?

Why did they open another cutting edge location just four blocks away?

You'll hear the secrets and successes of Paul and Sina Clayton as they share with Bill McCurry what they have learned over the last decade as they have reinvented Camera Action to be even more responsive to the needs of their customers.

Audio of the interview is automatically downloadable to DIMAcast subscribers or it can be downloaded from www.DIMAcast.com - a transcript with over 70 pictures of Camera Action Camera House and Camera House Digital is also available at www.dimacast.com -

The transcript allows the reader to see the store design, displays and graphics used to attract younger customers including cell camera users to make prints at Camera Action. All this and more in this week's DIMAcast.

In MMIE Issue 243 Tim Jones, of Perfect Prints Camera Centre in Tasmania, Australia, came up with a super project to get customers' rolls of unexposed films out of the junk drawer and into his C-41 processor. Maybe his most brilliant part of the project was just the word "amnesty."

Are you running a Film Amnesty promotion?

We'd like to hear how you "tweaked it"! Email us

Here's some of the early feedback, starting with your trusty editor:

Biggest order to date is 42 rolls and OTUCs from a customer at one time. The C-41 processor is churning chemistry as if it were the 1980s, and we're having a tough time keeping up with the volume. In the first ten days of the promotion we took in more rolls than in the previous five months!

We made up our pricing based on 35mm only. A lot of APS rolls have resurfaced and we're tacking on an extra buck for each of those.

Customers are also bringing in old rolls of slides and black & white film, which are processed at our regular price.

Bill and Chris,

First I need to thank both of you for providing a medium for all the great marketing ideas that turn into Real Profits.

I thank you and my business thanks you.

Artcraft Camera also ran with the Amnesty program, and here's how we tweaked it -

Artcraft did a little different spin on it. Not only did we offer the film in the program but we included slide scans and shoebox scans as well. Our intent was to get very large quantities. For film there is a five roll minimum, this way we don't give up the profit from our everyday customers. Slides we did a eighty carousel minimum and shoe box scans started at two hundred photos.

We ran two full page ads in our local papers. To say the response has been amazing would be an under statement. We have had grooves of people coming through the doors with bags and boxes of money, I mean film. If you took a look at my lab you would think it was in the hey days of film.

A funny thing happened while I was at my daughter's first t-ball practice - I had a customer accuse us of ruining his day off.

He proceeded to tell me his wife made him spend the whole day going through all the boxes in the attic to find all their slides and photo. He said my email made his wife feel guilty. I graciously apologized but was smiling on the inside.

He then told me he was just kidding and it was really nice to go though all of those memories again. I think the the header of the email is what got to his wife. We started the email off with a question. "Do you want to be remembered as the person who cut down your family tree?"

Now how profitable has it been? Well, in the first week and a half it has already paid for all of the advertising, signage, training and time it took to put the program together. We have three weeks to go so my presumption is it will the program will be a great success!

This event has already been scheduled for February first of next year. Next time it is run we will add reel-to-reel transfers as well.

Peter Sandrian - Sandrian Camera Shops - Clinton and Morristown, NJ - www.sandrian.com

Dear Chris,

You said "off the wall," right? Many years ago an ad agency came to me with an idea which sounded cute, catchy and sure to bring a response. It was built around Mother's Day and pictures of Mom. We called it "Shoot Your Mother to Win." Yes, it was a double entendre that required (I thought) a small sense of humor. Turned out it called for a huge sense of humor. One of the best offers I had came from a person who offered to shoot ME for one of the prizes. Needless to say, we didn't do anything with that agency again!

This year we ran a Valentine's Day promotion that went better. We kept it simple, just two parts:

1. If you buy a frame, any size frame, we'll print the picture to go into that frame for free.

2. A 20 % discount off all digital frames.

We emailed it through Constant Contact just 6 days before Valentine's Day, and staff members were directed to mention it to every customer who came in.

One store mentioned it with enthusiasm, sold 50% more frames than the year before, at twice the profit.

The other didn't give it much play at all and wound up with egg on their face and a very strong recommendation regarding next time.

Everyone in the Imaging Industry ought to go to at least one PMA Australia convention . . . you bet it's fun . . . Aussies are great people . . . and it's a super country . . . the educational sessions have been top notch and the exchange of ideas goes on all night/day. Very educational, to say the least. This year's convention is in Brisbane - next year will be in Sydney - 2010 will be in Melbourne . . . it rotates between the three cities . . .