Surf-Wear Maker Offers Free Accessory: CDs

Does it seem like those free CD-ROM discs are showing up all over the place?

They’re in your grocery bag and your mailbox and at Target’s checkout stand, urging you to sign up for a free trial of America Online service. Eager techie types are even handing out miniature discs as business cards these days.

Two weeks ago, Costa Mesa surf-wear maker Toes on the Nose started shipping its new spring line along with miniature discs featuring surf videos set to mellow beach music, links to surf reports

and info on new products and surfing events sponsored by the company.

“They have just hit the stores,” said Tami Knappman, Toes on the Nose’s marketing director, so it’s too soon to tell if the tactic will work. So far, the discs have generated about 50 hits.

And, she said, “with the weather the way it has been, who knows if anyone is thinking about spring yet?”

The discs are a high-tech twist on an old-fashioned concept: increase the brand’s awareness and whet the customer’s appetite for more products.

That is if anyone bothers to view the discs.

“We have so much information thrown at us that you need a big incentive to go after more information,” said Marina del Rey advertising executive Robert Chandler. “There’s got to be a prize in the Cracker Jack box.”

Knappman said her company is counting on its ties to surfing site Swell.com to draw interest, rather than offering financial incentives on the CDs.

The discs are the brainchild of TagCD, a division of the year-old San Diego company Trellion Technologies. Toes on the Nose is one of its first customers.

Karen Alexander covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5637 or at karen.alexander@latimes.com.