On Being Generous

Continued.... Geoff's rules for being a great marketer:

1. Be positive
2. Be generous
3. Be social
4. Be unique

If you can afford it, why not show some generosity towards your customers in your marketing? A few good deeds (and some free stuff) can lead to a whole lot of good word of mouth.

Case in point: The BC Moments Campaign this summer. Tourism BC Created the 100 BC Moments website, where you can find travel moments for any interest. To match it, the Tourism BC folks went and created a fantabulous publicity stunt in San Francisco. They set up a gigantic vending machine where people could fill out some information about themselves and their hobbies, and out would pop something related to the trip they could take.

Like mountain biking? Here's a free bike!

Feel like going golfing? Here's a free set of clubs!!! Yayyy!!

Another case: 7-Eleven's Dip-a-Drip Campaign in 2011
Last year 7-Eleven gave consumers the chance to vote on and dip a "drip" (an annoying, stereotypical person that you wouldn't want to meet before your morning coffee). From September 19-23 Americans were able to vote which obnoxious person of their cast they would like to see dunked in some water. Then, on September 28th, they could log on to 7-Eleven's Facebook page and virtually control the ball launcher (set up live in Washington, D.C.) to dunk the top candidates. 

If you succeeded and dunked them you won a $25 gift card. If you didn't, you could still get the free cup of coffee that 7-Eleven gave out to everyone on September 29th, National Coffee Day (or, as 7-Eleven called it, cofFREE day).

7-Eleven gave something in order to get their word out. They didn't just interrupt with the usual commercials, they gave their customers a chance to play a game and get some frustration out :)