Challenge Coins
Heads we win, tails go snooze, what if it lands on edge?
Challenge Coins
And how they’re used in the geeky world!
As stated in a previous paper Your A-Z Swagman is a geek! Attending science-fiction conventions has long been a fun pastime — and this past weekend I attended one of the longest running of the mid-south, if not the entire US! Chattacon has been going on for 44 years in, you guessed it, Chattanooga TN.
One of the panels I attended this year was the Baen Traveling Slide Show. There the folk at Baen Publishing (publishers of mostly military science-fiction novels) talk about their recent publications along with the artwork chosen for each book. Of course it doesn’t hurt that they give away several books during the course of the slide show!!
However, this year Toni mentioned something different during the talk. Apparently Baen has manufactured several challenge coins related to their more popular titles, and are offering them for sale on the website (http://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/4930s). Now, being the good, ever-alert Swagman, I listened for more details, spoke to Toni after the slideshow, and emailed her after the convention.
The long and short of these challenge coins is, of the fourteen coins available, thirteen are related to a specific series. They allow the readers to borrow some of the panache of that particular series — much in the same way that wearing a tee-shirt of a favorite brand (Coca Cola, Hard Rock Cafe, AZOR inc.) gives the wearer some of the brand characteristics (especially wearing an AZOR inc. shirt!). Baen sells these coins to their readers so that they can feel more of an affinity with the characters in the books.
The fourteenth coin (or first, depending on your orientation) is pictured at the start of this blog entry. It has their tongue-in-cheek slogan I Read Baen’d Books on one side and RIP Joe Buckley on the other. (The reference to Joe Buckley is an inside joke that you’ll just have to appreciate for yourself by reading Baen books!)
Profits from the sale of this coin are used to support two Baen charities: Baen Bulk, which provides care packages for deployed service members, as well as Read Assist that serves disabled readers (http://www.readassist.org/).
What is the point of this (somewhat verbose) green-ish paper? Quite simply to help our A-Z clients realize that promotional products are NOT JUST GIVEAWAYS! Use promo to raise awareness, raise money, or to raise the roof (yes, your Swagman has promo for that!) Let’s start with your unique challenges and see if we can find a solution!
Challenge (coin) accepted? (name the reference)
swag.azorinc.com or swagman@azorinc.com