Alright, let’s rip this parcel open, and expose it’s glossy innards for all to see.
I was curious to see approx. how much ScreenScape has spent to mail and create the supplies. Remember that ScreenScape is $9.54 in the hole so far, that’s the cost of shipping the package.
 First up is free plastering supplies. Two black sharpie markers for marking the posters, a package of one hundred brass thumbtacks, a roll of double-sided mounting tape, and two blocks of sticky tack. A pack of 12 black sharpie markers comes to $9.99 on the Staples website. 2 markers would therefore cost about $1.67. A package of 100 brass thumbtacks is $1.96. The double-sided mounting tape is $3.56 a roll, and the two blocks of sticky tack (‘adhesive putty’) is $2.36. The total cost of poster-sticking supplies comes to $9.55. So that’s nearly $10.00 of free useful stuff even if you don’t do any work. Schweet. |
 Next is a package of wrapped stickers. There are about 50 in a pack, and just look like smaller versions of the ScreenScape posters. They have perforated peel-off backs, which will thankfully spare my nails. I was expecting the stickers to be smaller and thus easier to plaster around, but these are pretty large (4″x6″). I’m not really sure where I should stick these – they’d damage walls and cover too much of other people’s flyers. I guess that’s a big deal if I’m supposed to be, you know, courteous.
The printed supplies are a little harder to price, since I’m not sure which company ScreenScape used. I did a search on printing services in PEI and came up with ‘Plus Printing’. It looks like this company does handle stickers so I’ll base my guess-prices off of there. Each sticker would run around 40 cents to print. For 50 stickers, that’s another $20.00 cost for ScreenScape. |
 You’re also given 10 fancy-smanzhy double-sided tri-fold brochures on THICK paper.
These were also a little hard to price – it looks like with a double-sided print on the thick glossy card-stock, coupled with the cost for folding, each brochure should cost around $1.50. Thus the total cost for printing the brochures is $15.00. |
 And finally, the meat of the package – the posters themselves. I’m supposed to have received 50 in my starter pack (you can ask for more if you use them all up). They’re printed one-sided on thinner, glossy paper, and measures 11″x17″. You can see a comparison with a regular sheet of paper here, it’s quite a bit larger. The space on the bottom is where you’re supposed to write the venue name with the provided sharpies.
You can see a much larger version of the ScreenScape Poster here. Full colour 11″x17″ posters on glossy paper is $1.00 each. If we assume there are 50 in the starter pack, it cost ScreenScape $50.00 to print the posters. Ouch. |
| So in total, the ScreenScape package contained: two sharpies, double-sided mounting tape, thumbtacks, stock tack, stickers, brochures, posters, and some photocopied-sheets explaining venue-plastering procedures and a grid to keep track of your posters. In total, the cost of purchasing, printing, and mailing these supplies comes to ~$104.09. Keep in mind they probably would get some sort of discount since they’re bulk-ordering this stuff, but that’s still close to $100 out of ScreenScape’s pocket for each person they hire, and that’s BEFORE they pay the $2.00 – $3.00/poster salary.
And even though they mail you all this extra stuff, you are only paid for the POSTERS that you put up – not for the brochures you leave lying around or the stickers you slap everywhere. ScreenScape does mention that there are bonuses involved for going the extra mile and using the brochures/stickers, but this incentive isn’t fully explained. Also you don’t need to submit any proof of sticker or brochure-ing. Presumably the ‘secret ScreenScape members’ who check your work will also alert HQ if they see you’re doing extra work, but it seems like a lot of work and good luck for the possibility of an unknown bonus. |
But we’ll see. I have some time this weekend to trek downtown and put these posters up. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know just how long you can expect the job to be.
So you don’t need to pay shipping to get this whole package?
Nope, it’s free if you’re approved!