We’re curious to know what’s happened to the Matter boxes in the few days since they were delivered. We’d love to hear from you about what you’ve done with your box and where it is now.You can join the Matterbox group on flickr where you can post a picture and a description of where it is now and what’s happened to the contents.Or you can tell us here…
Powered by FireStats
Mine still hasn’t arrived, sadly.
Sitting on my desk at work where I can show it off to my jealous colleagues. Apart from the Stoli badge which is now adorning my coat lapels and drawing curious looks from people on the tube.
Arrived safely and all good.
Thanks
W
Mine is on my desk at work. Had lots of people asking me about it and also reminiscing about the smell of play doh.
The box itself is in the bin. The contents are distributed around the house - the soaps in the bathroom (quite cool crayons those), the calender on my desk at work, the cereal currently digesting in my stomach, the shower gel is in my toiletries bag ready for my next trip to the US so I can carry hand luggage only. The trumps are ready to play and the play doh my daughter has already destroyed.
However, the wrist band (bin), the badge (bin), and music monster (bin) haven’t made it.
The trend there (if anyone is interested)… if I can use it, I’ll use it, if I can’t, it goes into the bin. The badge and music monster - hmm - not sure what they were all about but yes, good idea, well packaged and presented. Not sure if it will make me buy those products but a good way to get me to at least try them. Does this mean I won’t have to watch TV adverts anymore?
We’ve just received ours - it’s ace - we love it!
Thanks.
Thoughtfully
Mine is in the front room, but my camera’s bust at the moment. It’s left there after I brought it home from work (I had it delivered to the office as I didn’t notice the Saturday delivery thing). My girlfriend pulled it apart and spent about 15 minutes going through everything, eventually telling me that “you get really cool things”. Everyone at worked loved it too. Think my favourite was the soap/crayons, that was a nice little talking point. Thanks!
Great product selection, very well presented.
Fantastic box, great “present” - people forget what a joy it is to be delivered something surprising, or of interest, in the real world these days!
I’ve not got my box any more to photograph it… I took the contents out, played with them all, showed everyone and we all talked around it… but, and here’s the rub, after about 2 hours of playing and exploring the whole box and contents, we were all a bit lost and got distracted by reality.
I’ve since thrown the actual box away (though loved the packaging) and passed out all the goodies within to people who showed interest. Matter and its content generate more conversation than the actual products. That’s certainly no bad thing!
Best thing was the Jordan’s cereal book box - they should do that on all their packaging!
The box has been recycled, the contents are either on my desk looking at me or have been nicked by various members of my family.
Great idea. From my experience a matter box for Teens would become the “must have” thing on the playground. My eldest daughter snaffled most of the contents.
Even my wife got in on the act, stealing the Walkman Phone thingy to stick on her walkman phone.
Great idea
hi matter team, my matter box is still on my table surrounded by it’s contents. we’ve writter bout it on our blog:
http://creativeinlondon.co.uk
The box, and most of the packaging, is now waiting to be recycled; I’m impressed that the majority of the packaging was card/paper rather than plastic. I think the contents was a bit hit & miss, while the cereal & the shower gel are already being used, the Evo cards have gone straight into the recycling pile, and the Nissan soap crayons have been given to a friend’s children. The Stoli badge is very cool, and the Virgin calendar is actually pretty useful but I doubt I’ll use the Wii wristband, and while I love the Play-Do, it makes more of an impression on me than Sony, the brand it’s supposed to be promoting. As direct mail, it doesn’t feel very specific or targeted, but I suspect that as I give away/redistribute the contents I’ll end up telling people how I got them which is, I suppose, a partial victory for the project. Still, looking forward to further installments, and it’s certainly made a fair bit of impact in the office - succesfully distracted the designers for a good while!
Haven’t taken a photo. It’s currently by my study desk, various items used up / taken out (calendar, muesli, shower gel, top trumps), some waiting to be given away (play doh), others still in the box.
Box is…………actually, I don’t know where it is. But when I find it I’ll take a picture of it, unless its gone, out into the recycling - If that’s the case I wont bother taking a picture of it, I’ll just tell you it’s in the recycling bin, but then that would involve another post. I haven’t time to do that.
Anyway loved the box, couldn’t open it originally by pressing ‘Open Here’ but once open I marvelled at the fact that everything fitted so nice and snug. I tried to put everything back in and close the box but I failed miserably - so well done on that. Play Doh was great to keep my daughter busy. Highlight was the Jordan’s box, lowlight was those soaps…..I can’t imagine washing myself with a crayon and the smell, jeez, they could have teamed up with the nice smelling soap company at least. If they exist. All in all a good batch and look forward to the next one, minus the soap and packaged in a big box of Jordans.
I still have all my contents in the box as I have been showing everyone at work. Everyone is trying to blag some of the bits off me. The only thing I have given away is the Nintendo Wii wristband to my mate who plays in a pub WII bowling league in Stoke.
Hi Tim,
Loved the box and the idea behind it - would have loved a bit of a challenge to interact and take part. The play doh was a perfect ‘task’ waiting to happen!
Instead of where is your matter box how about what did you make and a prize for the best?
Just a thought…looking forward to the next one
I love my Matterbox or, to be more accurate, my wife, friends and kids (and their friends) do. Almost as much excitement as a birthday. Great surprise gifts, created a lot of discussion. All have been put to good use already. My wife is particularly looking forward to enjoying the amazing Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow.
Hi guys at Matter,
Looking forward to receive my box. Just to let you know that I posted a link to it on my freebie site MagicFreebiesUK - http://www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk
Box:Recycled
Crayons:spent, kids used up in one session
cereal:tummy
showgel:skin
badge:bin
cards:somewhere in playroom
monster:on phone
playdo:work, desk
virgin calendar:kitchen shelf
wii wristband:used, became bobbly, my son wont take it off, currently at school with it on!
brilliant, thanks
Mine is still sat on the table at home as I guess I’m trying to figure out what to do with much of the contents. It’s next to an unopened one as I got two for some reason. The nicely designed packaging geek within me likes the idea of leaving it complete.
For me (a creative who has been responsible for more than his fair share of DM of questionable merit) I think this project highlights whether Direct Mail has anything going for it. Is it nicely targeted one to one communication, or just pointless shit sent through post?
Obviously it depends on the quality of the ‘thing’ and whether it has any wider relevance beyond being a quirky widget. I think in today’s ‘green’ culture there is, quite rightly, a pressure to produce something that isn’t a gratuitous waste of plastic for the sake of a quick gag. There are things in the box that I think fall into both categories, I think the nicest things are probably the Wii wristband (though I didn’t actually have one in the box I opened) and the cereal. They are probably somewhere between genuinely useful and a nice gag. The wristband had some added value as an idea and made a comment about the Wii’s uniqueness as a product (I don’t have one and aren’t particularly a fan by the way). The badge, crayons, calendar, top trumps, play doh are much more traditional DM executions and I’m not sure putting them all in a box together makes them any better.
So, surprise surprise, for me it comes down to whether the idea was any good in the first place. It would be great if Matter could inspire agencies to come up with better stuff, things that justify their presence in the box by being really spot on and worthwhile. If I knew we were doing something for a Matter box then I hope I would push very hard to make sure it was right, a bit of competition always galvanises the mind and improves the quality of the creative and maybe this is an area in which Matter can really make an impact.
err, this is a bit long, sorry.
It seems the Royal Mail didn’t even try to deliver my box, despite it having been carefully designed to fit through a letterbox. Yesterday I got a card saying that there was a package for me at the depot, today I collected my box. I’m holding off opening it until this evening because if I even think about doing it at work I’ll be sure to lose all the items to curious parties around the place. I’m looking forward to playing Top Trumps tonight.
Really sorry for the delay and silence in the communications department, I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the response to the Matter box and what was intended to be a quiet evaluation of the potential. I had no idea it would generate such interest. I’m thrilled.
Thanks to everyone who’s made a comment and i will answer all the questions shortly.
Tim
could you please send a box to me a practice nurse hope could the contants of the box to the patients.
I’ve ordered mine
cant wait until it comes,
as all the comments above are great,
cant wait!!!!
EU QUERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*
I want
Box is in recycling.
contents are widely spread around house and work.
Playdoh happily now a single blob of purple courtesy of my 3 year old.
Crayons in bathroom, cereal eaten but box kept.
trumps in pile for recycling, calendar in kitchen, badge on side table, monster on desk at work.
It’s a great idea and I willingly gave the brands that took part about 15 minutes of my time on Saturday, and much conversation since in return for them not spamming me with crap either digital or paper.
keep it up.
I want much
Looks fantastic! Any chance to get this abroad?
Hey, just ordered one. When does it arrive?? Cheers
My Matter box only just arrived. Its very appealing to get a bright blue box through the post, chock full of surprises. And most of them have their merits - I’m most impressed by the Jordans box for its witty packaging and the Stoli badge (I collect enamel badges!) The Wii wristband was missing, so if anyone has one they don’t want, please let me know!
I get the feeling that this trial run was largely aimed at families - or people that haven’t grown up yet? - given the playful nature of some of the items. Anything that generates a warm glow of appreciation must reflect well on the companies that provide it, assuming you remember that it was Nissan that gave you the soap crayons for example. Sony’s playdoh made sense with the obvious link to their TV campaign. The Evo Trump cards made no impact on me but then I’m clearly not their target market, and I’ll pass them on to someone who is. The Virgin desk calender is shrewdly designed as a ‘keeper’ and will do its promotional work throughout the year (if used of course!) - its also one of the oldest promotional giveaways going though. I have one from 1919!
I sense that people might soon tire of plastic things that don’t do much, but things that can be consumed or used would fare better long term. Great fun though, and I’m glad to have been able to take part.
i have ordered mine, I cant wait to see whats in it!and of course,i willnot be throwing anything in the bin,i really like the idea of recycling,so if i dont use something,someone else will use it!
very interesting concept of advertising and promoting,instead of actual junkmail,its actual stuff to use and i bet that would take off better than throwing away an advert that has a picture of it on,telling us to buy it!
looking forward to receiving the “matter” and hopefully telling more people about the concept.
Great idea. I love the clever way things are marketed..
I got my Matter box on Saturday. I didn’t remember ordering it, so it was a nice surprise! I thought it was a great idea, and have already attached the monster to my (Sony Ericsson) phone! It’s definitely a great talking point, and is much better than the normal leaflets that you get advertising items that you aren’t interested in. All the products included were all aimed at the right age - there weren’t any products that I thought were too old or young for me.
I was trying to access the ‘matterbox’ survey you emailed me. I put in my age and gender and the survey ended? Not sure what happened?
Anyway, got mine today. Opened it in bed, my boyfriend is already wearing the Wii sweatband and taken the badge for his coat, we liked the idea and the packaging with the badge.
We played top trumps in bed and i won- woo hoo! It made me want a fancy car- so kinda worked i guess?!
I liked the little touches with the sony monster like the bed of hay and the nibbles out the side of the paper- he’s ace.
Calender will go on my desk at work, thought it was nice and colourful.
Original Source leaked a little bit and seemed a bit out of place.
Will enjoy the cereal one day this week.
Crayons will be experimented with in the bath but we weren’t convinced they helped us to understand Nissan?
Overall a wicked idea, felt a bit like Christmas and made me feel like companies spending this kind of time and effort on advertising made me like them more, so a success i think!
“if I can use it, I’ll use it, if I can’t, it goes into the bin.” Noooo! Give them away, charity shop, ANYTHING but more landfill
Haven’t got one yet, unfortunately.
I’m still waiting for my blue box!!
Not recieved anything yet very disappointed.
saw the article in the mail on sunday got home and signed up as soon as i got on the laptop. cant wait for the first box to arrive.
mine still not arrived
mine hasn’t been delivered- i have waited for over a year now and no sign of it yet. had emails saying it would come today but nope- postman came before with no parcels!!!!!!!
mine is with me in my bedroom but i want the matterbox that you get play doh in x