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.

Holy smokes that was fast! After applying and being accepted as a ScreenScape Street Team member earlier this week, I’ve already received the package of supplies in the mail (took a total of 4 days – one of those being a holiday). Being a Canuck and an avid eBay shopper, I’m used to waiting 3-4 weeks for parcels to arrive. However it looks like these ScreenScape parcels are being mailed from Charlottetown, PEI, which is just a couple of provinces away. Canadians signing up for this program can therefore expect their parcel to arrive pretty quickly.

The package was gigantic, and pretty heavy.

I think it’ll be a neat idea to see just how much ScreenScape is spending out-of-pocket to hire ME, and from that try to guesstimate how much of their product they need to sell to at least break even.

A quick check with Canadian Post shows that a package 18x12x1.5″ at 1.9kg cost them $9.54 to mail from Charlottetown to Halifax in three business days.

Check back soon to see the contents of the package – I’ll also try to put a price on all this stuff.

While getting my daily distraction fix on facebook, I noticed an ad in the sidebar promising $150 to stick up 50 posters around my neighborhood.

Being a student at the largest University in the Maritimes, and growing up in my home town of Halifax, I figured that I knew the city well enough to spam its bulletin boards with posters. I would be performing some street-level marketing for ScreenScape (just a link to the facebook application for now, they have their own website but no mention of the advertising job as far as I can see). Their program allows users to display news tickers or menus, sell rich media advertising, play videos, etc. on LCD TV screens to keep their patrons entertained.

The payout looks decent for a ScreenScape Street Team member – $2.00 per poster, an extra $50 if I stick up 50 posters within my first two weeks (which comes to $3.00 per poster!). However it’s not just the poster-sticking that gets you the cash – a sharpie pen is used to create a subdomain for each location you plaster (ex. spiffyowl.screenscape.net) to a) help draw attention to the poster and b) prove that you didn’t just stick up fifty posters in the same building. Each and every poster also needs to be photographed and documented to prove that you actually put it up (they’ve also employed ‘secret street team ninjas members’ who periodically check on your work). Upon returning home, you will need to fill out an individual form for each poster, uploading the photo, location, venue type, and subdomain. And it seems that your earnings are still not guaranteed – ScreenScape admins will review each submission and will grant the $2.00 based on the quality of the venue! I can’t comment on how strict this review process is as of yet, but it will certainly make or break the deal.

Suddenly putting up 50 posters seems like a lot of work, but I’m not too quick to dismiss it. I signed up on facebook and quickly received a reply the next day letting me know that I was on the team. I’m currently waiting for my free package to arrive in the mail (they provide the posters, along with a sharpie marker, sticky tack, and scotch tape). Once I’ve earned a minimum of $50, they are supposed to mail me a check.

Currently it looks like this program is limited to those living in Canada or the United States. You will need to be 16 or over, and provide an address (so they can mail you your package and checks) and tell them a little about yourself.

There are other ways to make money with this program – they allude to bonuses for plastering stickers and leaving brochures in appropriate places. A currently poorly-defined referral system also seems to factor into these bonuses as well (I’ve asked them if they will set up a system to perhaps track the number of referrals and grant me a % of their earnings, still waiting to hear back on this).

I don’t know how long it will take to find places to stick up these posters and report them, but once I receive the package I’ll document my day and review the program on the Spiffy Owl!