Matterbox: not just a box of old crap, honest…

(cross-posted from Knitware Blog)

Just signed up for a free ‘Matterbox‘, an idea I heard about via Lloyd Davies on a Seesmic video post. (I wrote two posts about Seesmic yesterday: I’m already dangerously addicted and just found myself checking in whilst waiting for an airplane).

Matterbox is an imaginative joint venture between Artomatic and Royal Mail. In a world of increasingly intangible stuff, they’ve set up to champion the physical: ‘real’ things you can hold and touch. As they say at the Matterblog.

Sure, this will take time, but if digital media continue to dominate even more aspects of our lives, there’s going to be a growing demand for the need to get to grips with things. Matter is a long-term project,

The Royal Mail’s interest is pretty obvious. They must be worried about the stuff of their business is disappearing into ones and zeroes. Artomatic have re-invented themselves as a consulting business, described like this at their (partially completed) blog: The Royal Mail’s interest is pretty obvious. They must be worried about the stuff of their business is disappearing into ones and zeroes. Artomatic have re-invented themselves as a consulting business, described like this at their (partially completed) blog:

So, yes, Artomatic returns: this time as a kind of think-tank about how real things fit in a virtual world; it’s here to offer tangible solutions to business problems.

Described as a “refreshing interlude to the fast-moving blur of modern media”, the Matter Box is like a magazine made of objects that comes in a box. The choice of objects is tailored to audiences, and the idea is that they will work with companies to assemble sets of objects that explain what the company does, “its ideas or its values, or simply something to try out”.

…It’s also a thoroughly modern concept–it’s advertising you’ll want to keep.

Err – okay. So, not worthless promotional giveaways then…? Well, Lloyd got his in the post this morning and described its contents as:

It’s full of… well, it’s full of sh*t basically… it’s full of little bits of goodie bag type of material… but quite nice stuff.

And it contains:

A top trumps game by Evo, a Wii wristband.. and a pad… and some play-dough… and some shower-gel kind of stuff…

Oh dear. Seems like an irony-lite version of Valleyschwag:

The Chronicles of Valleyschwag is a blog covering the best and worst of promotional giveaways in Silicon Valley, the schwaggiest place on earth.