Mousepad Cards

[Jim McAward <jimmc -at- CHYRON -dot- COM>]

Hello, Melissa and everyone else, honoraria'd or just plain wage slaves:

We've had good success with mousepad cards.  Someone, somewhere, in our
Marketing department (methinks) found a supplier for mousepads that are the
standard neoprene, but with a clear plastic covering on the upper surface
(HDPE for your chemistry geeks).  The covering is attached at the top edge
only, allowing a paper tip sheet to be inserted under the plastic.  The top
part of the plastic (at the glue seam) is imprinted with the company logo.

For each of our products, I have the local quick printer print colored cards
2-sided on tag stock, trimmed to the correct size (7.25" x 10") with square
top corners and rounded bottom corners. (These fit the contours of the mouse
pad exactly).

I figured I'd get killed on price - lots of products, small runs, wet press
(offset), excellent paper, weird page size, custom trim.  Actually, the
cards cost about 17 cents each in quantities of 500.  For the "bang" we get
out of them at trade shows, they're quite the bargain.

One caveat:  You can't use xerography to print cards for use with these
mousepads; the solvents in the ink and plastic fight with each other,
resulting in ink transferring to the plastic.  (It's ugly.)

Oh, and one more thing, Melissa:  I'd be HAPPY to send you a copy of the
card, and you don't even need to send me $ 0.17.  But you hafta find the
mousepad itself...  I'm not parting with mine.  Of course, if there are
muffins or doughnuts involved, things *COULD* be very different  ;-)

And finally - it's church fair season in the Northeast.  I was trying to
explain "Zeppoles" to a Vietnamese friend last evening.  Are these a
nationwide or worldwide (!) food?  Are they a food at all??

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you may be luckier than you know...

Have a great day,

Jim.


Melissa H-K spake unto the ether:

My boss is getting all excited about job aids again.  We had a meeting today to
discuss a meeting we'll be giving on this topic.  I'm supposed to gather some
samples.  I've got mockups of the following types of job aid:

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James G. McAward                        Chyron Corporation
Manager,                                Melville, NY  11747
Technical Publications                  http://www.chyron.com
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                "So many facts, so little time!"
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