Idea for making the Firefly postcard campaign unique

POSTED BY: Hjermsted
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 14:44
VIEWED: 8294
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HJERMSTED

Saturday, January 11, 2003 9:30 AM

Here is an idea my friend Hannah came up with for making the Save Firefly postcard campaign stand out from, say, the Save Girls Club postcard campaign (not that Sci Fi Channel would be receiving Girls Club postcards... but you catch my drift).

Since blue gloves, apples and essentially envelopes themselves are not to be part of this effort, my friends and I have decided to place a "Have You Seen Me" type message on our postcards to the Sci Fi Channel honchos including photographs of ourselves.

The .jpg below is an example of what the "Have You Seen Me" campaign looks like so far (with several sets of Sci Fi channel postcards sent already!).

Personally, I believe all Firefly fans should follow this model as one non-latex and non-produce aisle way to get the Sci Fi Channel's attention. BUT USE YOUR OWN PHOTO AND ACCURATE STATS, GORRAMIT!!

Take care.

Stay Shiny.

Mattro

BROWNCOAT

Saturday, January 11, 2003 3:07 PM

Great idea! I'll have to find a good photo to use with this!

LIVINGIMPAIRED

Saturday, January 11, 2003 3:44 PM

Love it! On it!

________________

Right. I'm very sorry if she tipped off anyone about your cunningly concealed herd of cows.

SUINEGAGPF

Saturday, January 11, 2003 3:47 PM

Wow. I like your suggestion.

(In the previous campaign I used a picture of my baby niece looking perturbed for one of my postcards.)

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HJERMSTED

Saturday, January 11, 2003 10:30 PM

Kiba over at www.fireflysupport.com would like me to create a template of this postcard for posting at that site.

However, my existing template is on Quark XPress, a page layout program I'm certain very few people actually own.

Does anyone know of an easy way to create a broad-based template? I'm guessing something quickly downloadable with a fill-in-the-blanks ease-of-use is in order.

Suggestions greatly appreciated!

Stay Shiny!

Mattro

LIFEOFWILY

Sunday, January 12, 2003 12:59 AM

I took your idea and made a template in MS Word .DOC format. It's designed for use with the USPS.com netpost feature, meaning you can upload it (after changing the text and pic) to the US Post Office ( http://www.usps.com/netpost/ ) and send the postcards without having to buy and print postcard stock yourself. The total cost for sending 2 postcards should be under $0.50. I sent 3 for $0.81.

But if you've got postcard stock, this template will work just fine for that, too. Just put the address and stamp on the back.

Hope somebody finds it useful. Here's the link:

http://www.lifeofwily.com/fireflysupport

You can download the 33.2k ZIP file from there. Feel free to let Kiba know how to get ahold of it.

Keep flying,

~Newbs (lifeofwily)
http://www.lifeofwily.com

no power in the 'verse can stop me...

SUINEGAGPF

Sunday, January 12, 2003 1:09 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hjermsted:
Does anyone know of an easy way to create a broad-based template? I'm guessing something quickly downloadable with a fill-in-the-blanks ease-of-use is in order.

I would suspect your best bet would be a Microsoft Word Document. (Do it as a table and then hide the lines.) I'm guessing that most people either have Microsoft Word or have access to it at work or school.

I have been using Visio to do all of my postcards. (It is a very easy program for laying out graphics and text.) I was planning to try and convert your idea over to Visio tonight for my own use. But I suspect that not as many people have access to Visio. (Also, my printer doesn't support full bleed, so I'll wind up with pretty substantial borders.)

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HJERMSTED

Sunday, January 12, 2003 5:25 AM

Thanks for the work and/or tips, Lifeofwily and Suinegagpf!

I'm sending an e-mail to Kiba now.

mattro

KIBARIKA

Sunday, January 12, 2003 6:27 AM

Thanks for the template!

SUINEGAGPF

Sunday, January 12, 2003 7:38 AM

If interested, here is my Visio file for the backside of the postcards: http://home.att.net/~daveboyd/ffly_pc1.vsd (about 20KB) I use the hi-res Variety Ad graphic for the front side. That can be easily obtained from: http://www.fireflysupport.com/banners.html as my Visio equivalent file is about 8MB.

I use Avery product #8387 Matte Coated Ink Jet Postcards. Each card is 5.5"x4.25" and they come 4 to a sheet. This product features microperf.

My template has a light gray line in case you plan to cut them apart manually.

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SUINEGAGPF

Sunday, January 12, 2003 7:46 AM

lifeofwily:
Could you verify the addresses in your xls file? I think one of them may be one digit off in the zip code.

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LIFEOFWILY

Monday, January 13, 2003 6:29 AM

Yikes! That's what I get for using autofill. The second ZIP is fixed. Thanks for noticing :)

~newbs (lifeofwily)

no power in the 'verse can stop me

HJERMSTED

Monday, January 13, 2003 4:29 PM

Have a great week and keep those postcards flying (at the Sci Fi Channel)!

mattro

PS: If there are any Quark Xpress using Firefly fans out there, let me know and I will post my qxp templates just for you!

ABBYNORMAL

Monday, January 13, 2003 6:07 PM

This rocks! I'm glad our late night inspiration is catching on, mattro :)

Anything we can do to keep Serenity in the air! (even if it means i have to get cable to watch SciFi with any regularity... grrr argh)

Cheers!
Han

**Trained gorillas. Workable prototype jetpacks, and chicks, chicks, chicks. I know that's the action I signed on for.**

LOSTANGEL

Monday, January 13, 2003 10:20 PM

I tried, but the USPS told me that my file size was too big. Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.

______________________
Lost Angel

WASH: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
ZOE: We live in a space ship, dear.
WASH: So?

LIFEOFWILY

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 7:43 AM

lostangel:

Did you use a JPG or GIF as your picture? Or a BMP? If it was a BMP that's your answer--those files are way big. Try converting your pic to JPG or GIF.

If that's not the problem, I'm not sure how else to help :(

~newbs (lifeofwily)

no power in the 'verse can stop me

LOSTANGEL

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 2:44 PM

Thanks. I used a smaller picture, since my first was in jpg format, but I was able to send them out.

Hell, for this price, I could send all my postcards this way!

______________________
Lost Angel

WASH: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
ZOE: We live in a space ship, dear.
WASH: So?