Nuco-International added social to something rather mundane. It worked.

Nuco-International added social to something rather mundane. It worked.

I have a little bit of a stationery obsession.  I just love stationery. Pens – different colours, ink viscosity, nib widths, rollerball vs felt-tip, markers, files, binders, paper clips. And my favourite thing to do is to arrange it beautifully on my desk so that I always have what I need, when I need it – and I’m not one of those people who frantically start looking for a pair of scissors on the day that I need it – when I haven’t needed a pair in over a month.

Anyway. So today, I took on 2 new customers. And, as is customary, I colour-coordinate (yes, I’m that sad) the colour of the notebooks, to my client’s brand – and today, I needed a blue and a green notebook.  So, off I trundle to the local supermarket to see what I can find.

Living in a beautifully (albeit slightly sleepy at times) town in Dorset – we are not spoilt for choice. If there’s a notebook or a fancy pen, you take it. The closest Staples store is miles away – and simply wouldn’t warrant a ginormous trip for just a blue and green notebook.  So the supermarket will have to do.

I’m lucky this time – and the last two on the shelf, are exactly the colours I’m after. I grab them up, along with a copy of Country Life and trundle back home.

It’s not until I get home over a cup of tea, that I notice the barcode sticker on the back of each of the notebooks. You know the stickers I’m talking about…. the ones with the barcode – that you scan when you check-out, and then never give another fleeting glance to.

Sitting neatly under the barcoded, on this sticker – are 3 little icons.

A Twitter icon

A Facebook icon

A QR code.

On a straight-forward, no funny-business, hardcover A4 notebook.

When was the last time you looked up a social profile on piece of non-descript stationery?

So on this occasion, slightly intrigued – I went online, and checked out just who Nuco-International (the producers of the notebook in question) are.

Here’s what I learn:

• Nuco-International produce a HUGE variety of stationery and are based in Coventry, UK
• They have just created the World’s Largest Notebook (a Guinness World Record no less!)
• You can buy a notebook where the paper is made from limestone
• You can apparently download an app from the iPhone store (which I can’t do – because I’m an Android fan, but I find interesting nonetheless…. what the app will do, is anyone’s guess).
• Keith Matthew’s, Nuco’s MD, favourite notebook is the A4 Nu Elite PU Casebound.

Interesting.

So – it did work.

Adding a little social information to a barcode sticker on the back of a notebook sold in a major Supermarket chain.

Not quite sure about the QR code though – but I guess there must be someone else like me out there that may find that useful.

Nice to meet you, Nuco.  And thanks for my notebooks.