Has anyone ever tried placemat advertising before

I did it as a young entrepreneur (I was about 20). It was a good effort for back then and I look back with fondness. It got me out there and walking into small businesses (retail) and talking with owners. I'm sure some of them advertised just to give the young guy a go, lol

I'd absolutely never bother with it now, but it was a good experience at the time. I did 2 projects one each in 2 different cities.

That sounds like a MidasMan09 question...eh, Don? -

If a Placement isn't the best place for a QRcode then I'll eat a placemat.

Go to any restaurant, people are staring into the distance, looking around.
Put a few QRcodes in front of them and they will start zapping away like crazy.

The restaurant owner should like the idea as the 15 minutes they spend zapping qr codes will make the waiting for food time pass faster.

Why not make a random facebook app, qr code link to it and the diners may have a chance to win the meal free or 10% off or a free coke etc.


Oda

I did placemat advertising before 2 years and it worked great.

I remember seeing something like this on ebay awhile ago, someone selling an info product on how to do this kind of business

I've actually done it (well okay, only twice), years ago. Made good money at the time.

What are you looking for? Some pocket money? Sure, go ahead. A full time business? No. Unless maybe you're setting up a "Novelty Advertising" business and this will be one of many "fun and different" places you'll be advertising the businesses. In which case - maybe. You might find a real business in that from businesses who see the value in having their name in different types of places.

Why not? Well, here's the thing. I don't know what it's like where you live, but even all those years ago (after it was out there in various cafes) I saw the writing on the wall - I could see that it just didn't look awesome for the cafe hosting the placemats. Incidentally, I found cafes to be the ones to take them on board.
Again, I don't know where you are, but I'd find it very difficult to keep a straight face and go into a cafe suggesting that you'll give them free placemats with ads on them. Most cafes wouldn't have any placemats on them, because they're not a modern look. Could be different where you are.

Maybe where you are you've got lots of eating places that go through lots of disposable placemats (like the paper placemats in McDonald's trays). If that's a common thing where you are, I'd suggest at least going that way. I was doing the laminated thing way back when....argh! lol I'm sure I had a few David Miller's advertising - business people that just wanted to give me a go.

The free disposables may well work (esp. with modern twists of QR and the like) - after all, businesses advertise on the back of shopping dockets here!

Keep thinking of different ideas and see how you go!

When I am pitching my giant postcard program, I get owners catching a flash of it sometimes and they always think it's a placemat, which doesn't usually go over to well until they realize what it really is.

Anyways, I walk into a coin/antique dealer who I had been trying to pitch but was never open when I went before, and he saw it and got all excited.

He thought it was a placemat and told me if he wasn't travelling around the country going to shows, he'd do it in a heartbeat. He said that he had done tons of placemat advertising and was always amazed at how much business he would get from them.

He went on and on about how great placemat advertising is and told me that if I ever wanted to use him as a reference he would tell any business owner about his great results with it.

I finally got the chance to tell him that my sample was a postcard sent in the mail, and he loved it obviously but he just kept right on gloating about how great placemat advertising was for him.


I really never expected to hear that out of anyone.

Yes, QR Codes on a placemat is brilliant!

hademade and Everyone else,

Yes, I have and I make good money with it to and I also make money selling ads on menus, you can get my FREE report "How To Make $2,200 Giving Away Free Ad Menus" on my website at: Niche Biz Ideas

To your success,

Martin

I've went to some restaurants that have these placemats before and majority of the companies advertising their products and/or services does seem to not return after their contract ends. The advertisements keep on changing whenever I revisit the restaurant. So I guess it doesn't work out for them.

Sounds like what menu dynamics does for the cheesecake factory menus.

Think about the many variations of this business and you are onto a huge sustainable venture. If you do go with placemats, make them be coupons, QR codes, something like that, so that the advertisers can see the return on their investments. Then you will get repeats. My sig wso is about some variants of this idea.. not placemats. But there are so many related fields. Once you have the gameplan down (selling the ad space, giving away whatever), then you have a full-time business that can rake in the dough.

I have been using Placemat Advertising for my brick and mortar business for over a year now. For the price I pay to be seen it is completely worth it. It has helped brand my practice as well as get the word out that my office is open. I was the first business to use a QR code on my Ad and its fun to see other businesses copying it now.
The ad space that I purchased runs me about $365 for i think 20,000 mats. The ad guy I buy from has his printer print up the paper throw aways and has a few locations at high traffic lunch spots. It began as a side business and never really grew to a true income but from his placemat customers he was able to create a small town paper that really only offers a few sodoku puzzles and some boring information. Advertisers pay about $400 per quarter to be on it and he has a low attrition rate. This paper grew rapidly and is now in 4 towns and earning him more than he ever made before. If you guys want me to find out more about it I can ask him more information.

I think the QR code thing is a cool idea! Just imagine going to a Diner to get a bite to eat and having them put a menu in front of you that has nothing but QR codes on it? I think a lot of people would have fun sitting there with their phones checking them all out. You could even do a section on there for kids that links to a game or something.

You have to do a deep searching befor you start, and keep trying it.

The QR codes could definitely make this work. One thing you could do is say there's a high value coupon somewhere and they have to find it. You could also separately print up a limited-run batch of place mats that have a freebie of some sort, like a free dessert at that restaurant, or a free oil change down the street or whatever, and randomly insert the "winning" place mats. I don't know if there'd be any legal issues there, just some thoughts.

Something else you can do is to sell enough spots to make it worthwhile to you, but keep enough open for you to test a variety of your own offers and see if you find any big winners.