I’m pretty fatigued by all the “buy one, get one free” and “buy one full price, get 50% off the 2nd item” promotions. I mean, how many bottles of Ken’s salad dressing or Banana Republic shirts does one person need?

Fortunately, marketers seem to be getting their mojo back. For example, I just ordered some hypoallergenic suntan lotion for our daughter and in the delivery package they included a nifty little item:

It’s a bracelet from a company called UVSunSense that monitors how long you’ve been in the sun and reminds you to apply more suntan lotion. What a smart way to get me to use (and buy) more of the suntan lotion, eh? Imagine if Budweiser could sell an earpiece that reminded you to “drink more now”….

Here’s another smart promotion that Patrick Smith, one of our account directors, shared this with me yesterday. Topps, the folks who make baseball cards, is currently doing a Million Card Giveaway. Chances are, nine out of ten guys don’t have their old baseball cards anymore, and are kicking themselves that they can’t unload them on eBay for ridiculous sums. So Topps is including a code in every pack of new cards that unlock a vintage card from eons ago. Granted, it might be a worthless card (likely), but there’s a chance…..and it’s bound to reinvigorate interest in collector cards again – no small feat in the digital age.