Promotion | Penny for your thoughts?

Don’t get too excited yet, unless you’re big on dog food.

But first, what is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a popular website that allows users to “check in” at places they are and earn points to unlock badges. The application has platforms on smartphones, check ins through texts, and real-time updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

TechCrunch has an article that talks about the benefits towards businesses that engage their customers with Foursquare. Companies offer free drinks for those that check in a certain number of times or reach a certain ranking (ex. “Mayor of ___”). A great pull promotion strategy for many restaurant – type businesses.

However, most of us only recognize Foursquare as a medium to other companies, and have had little if any actual reward from Foursquare itself.

An article on AdFreak sheds light on a cross promotion between Foursquare and GranataPet (a German pet food company). In short, GranataPet has set up billboards that urge users to check in on Foursquare, which then triggers for dog food to be dished out for your four legged friend to enjoy.

As GranataPet themselves put in their video, they want to catch the attention of their “target group” while also giving the pets something to enjoy. Not only that, but the interactive billboard also attacks all steps of the AIDA model. The large colourful billboard attracts its customers/target group, then they are interested to check in on Foursquare to see what will happen. Their desire/action to do so thus lets their dog have a free sample. The owners watch as their dogs are enjoying the treat and might go straight to a shop to buy the food that they seem to like so much!

Looks like GranataPet has successfully leashed their customers!

I was reading Marketing Mag again, and another article caught my eye.

Coke vs. Pepsi.

We’ve always known the two soft drink powerhouses to be the first and second, but just recently, a change in the the US market has put both Coke, and now Diet Coke ahead of Pepsi.

AdAge, another of my favourite blogs also had a similar article.

Both Marketing Mag and AdAge questioned whether it was a smart move by Pepsi to suddenly drop from the loop of Super Bowl commercials this year. Instead, they chose to give $20 billion in grants to consumers as opposed to spending it on celebrity endorsements in the new Refresh Project. I personally had an encounter with the project since a friend of mine was working the promotion. In short, students were asked “what do you care about?” and then had the opportunity to take a picture, proudly holding their idea written on a whiteboard in front of a select background of their choice.

I must be perfectly honest, this push promotion strategy seemed to work at the time, and I was intrigued with the concept behind the project. But since the picture, I have forgotten about the project until now (that was in Oct.) and the picture is probably buried under some marketing notes in my room. In fact, when I think Pepsi, I think about this commercial:

and not the project.

So perhaps a funny commercial with a well-known celebrity is a lot more long lasting? Especially since only a select few will have their Refresh ideas granted, as opposed to using a celebrity in a pull promotion.

Coke, the long leader seems to do this well. With a well-known product placement in popular reality singing competition – American Idol and its long-time sponsorship of the Olympics since 1928!

Penny for your thoughts?

Well here's my two cents…

Category Archives: Promotion