CK Hall of Fame Controversy: Advertiser Backlash?

Disgruntled Creating Keepsakes customers and Hall of Fame contestants are reporting on a variety of message boards that they have begun contacting advertisers and contest sponsors to complain about Creating Keepsakes’ conduct in the 2007 Hall of Fame contest. Apparently, at least one consumer has also contacted Sandler Capital Management, the investment firm that recently purchased CK as part of Enthusiast Media from Primedia and formed CK Media. Only time will tell if this controversy hits Creating Keepsakes directly in the pocketbook through the loss of advertising and sponsorship.

The prize sponsors for the 2007 Hall of Fame Contest were:

• 7 gypsies
• American Crafts
• Basic Grey
• C-Line Products
• Chartpak
• Clear Sky Publishing
• Clearsnap
• Close To My Heart
• Cosmo Cricket
• Crate Paper
• Creating Keepsakes, provided by Craftworks Ltd. and Notions Marketing
• Cropper Hopper
• Daisy D’s Paper Co.
• Die Cuts With A View
• Doodlebug Design
• EK Success
• Fancy Pants Designs
• Hambly Studios
• Luxe Designs
• Magic Mesh
• Making Memories
• one heart…one mind
• Paper House Productions
• Pressed Petals
• Queen & Co.
• ScraPerfect
• Stemma
• Technique Tuesday
• Tinkering Ink

How hard could Creating Keepsakes get hit financially through lost advertising dollars? I took a look through the last six months of issues to see. This is how much total advertising was done in those  six issues by the sponsor companies:

• American Crafts: 2 pages
• Basic Grey: 4 pages
• Clearsnap: 1 page
• Close To My Heart: 6 Back Covers
• Cosmo Cricket: 3 pages
• Cropper Hopper: 3 pages (But if you add up all their brands, the Advantus total is 12 pages.)
• Daisy D’s Paper Co.: 3 pages
• Die Cuts With A View: 6 pages
• Doodlebug Design: 6 pages
• EK Success: 12 pages
• Fancy Pants Designs: 6 pages
• Luxe Designs: 2 pages
• Making Memories: 5 pages
• Queen & Co.: 2 pages
• Technique Tuesday: 2.5 pages
• Tinkering Ink: 3/4 page

Several of the above companies are heavy, steady advertisers and losing even one of them would be a serious blow to Creating Keepsakes. Some of those companies are also involved in sponsoring various CK events. Losing sponsorship support for contests and events would also be a major blow to the company.

It will take awhile before the impact of this on CK will really be seen, between advertising contracts and issues that are already at the printer. Whether it will blow over or be a significant event in an already shrinking scrapbook market is still to be determined.

If any of Scrapbook Update’s readers who have contacted a CK advertiser about the Hall of Fame contest problems have gotten a response they wouldn’t mind sharing (and don’t mind their name being published), please contact me at scrapbookupdate@gmail.com.