MANHATTAN BEACH–Today, G&M Plumbing announced the reason they haven’t sent out their annual Holiday Greeting Card was due to poor test scores. The agency admitted they created several cards that were then sent directly into online focus group testing and mall intercepts.

Of all the ideas tested, “Puppy With Santa Hat” worked the best among respondents, but still didn’t score high enough to make the cut. Some of the comments about that particular idea were “I like the photograph but I think the puppy should be white, like all Christmas-y” and, “I think there should be a kitty in the shot cuddling with the puppy.” Others noted that there wasn’t enough information about G&M as an agency. “I like the simplicity but there’s plenty of room to put in what the agency does, what services it offers, some of their past work and maybe a website address and contact information,” said one respondent.

G&M executives were disappointed with the testing results but understood. “We were hoping the puppy card would have been a home run with CMOs but clearly we were off the mark.” The agency also said at this point, making changes to the card in time for the holidays is highly unlikely but could have something new by early February of ‘07.

“We apologize to our clients for not sending out a card but we just couldn’t in good conscience send out an idea that we weren’t 100% positive would work,” noted a G&M strategic planner. “Next year we plan to get ideas in front of client marketing people in early Fall so that we can analyze the results and make changes before the Holidays,” he added.