Marry Spenders and Sellers for a Viral Response

I can across this promotion this morning and I think it has the potential to be a great idea with a little additional directed promotion. The idea is the “Damn Receipt Project” and essentially it is an attempt to create a link between people who have receipts in their pocket and advertisers that want to target their specific brand to the owners of those receipts. The concept as described in the Damn Receipt Blog is

“Damn Receipt is a brand new original and buzzy project where advertisers from
all horizons catch attention and promote themselves by refunding people's
shopping receipts (rather than spending large amounts in impersonal
advertising)!”

The creator of this project is trying to create a link between advertisers and those individuals who have receipts in their pockets (it doesn’t mention what types of receipts.) The concept is that the advertisers will reimburse the receipt owners the amount on the receipt in a direct marketing approach instead of spending their cash on mass media.

There are a number of holes in the idea, specifically because it does not specify the types of receipts, and therefore provides no targeted demographic for the prospective marketing company’s advertising spend. However, overall, it could be a great campaign idea for individuals or companies that want to really target their prospective clients.

So how would you adopt this idea for your own use?

There are three components that I would put into place before launching this type of campaign.

1) Identify and create a cooperative marketing partnership with a company that wants to use this type of marketing. It may be difficult to get a national chain to participate, but you could get local businesses to participate and take the campaign online and offline. To save on the ad spend, arrange the promotion so that one receipt per day will be selected for reimbursement.

2) Identify exactly what type of client you are looking for and what receipts they are likely to have. Reimburse only those and spell that out explicitly in your campaign materials; once again, online and off-line.

3) Launch the campaign both online and off-line by letting local media and press know. Co-opt with your marketing partner to print cards, flyers and collateral. Announce the campaign in your local and online newspapers, and let some local bloggers know about the campaign. When you launch, go off with a rocket using multiple promotional mediums.

Finally, before you begin on this type of promotion, make sure that you explicitly spell out the rules of the promotion and have written agreement with your marketing partner.

TAGS: WOM, buzzy, co-operative marketing, damn receipt, word of mouth, promotional campaign, promotional idea, online newspaper advertising, local wom

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