Coffee. Junk food. Pretty girls.
No, that's not my new version of "A Few of My Favorite Things."
It's all about free! Today, there is a lot of free stuff up for grabs. In New York City pretty girls are handing out hotel room keys. Really. It's all about creating buzz for Harrah’s new Waterfront Tower in Atlantic City.
McDonald's is giving away free chicken sandwiches at 14,000 locations today. I'm not sure what it says that I see a ton more buzz about the free chicken than the pretty girls....what is this society coming too?
And, Dunkin Donuts is giving away free coffee. (again, more buzz about coffee than the Harrah's models)
Sure, this is all a great way to get people to try a product, but even more so, it's a great way to create buzz. Would anyone write about new hotel, sandwich or coffee if there wasn't some hook? Probably not. But free? Free is worth talking about.
One word of warning. Free is worth talking about. Cheap? Discount? Coupons? Not nearly so much. Many clients will shy away from free, assuming that discounts or incentive programs are almost as good. Not so. Free is free. There aren't degrees of free. If something is free, it's worth talking about. Coupons, incentives and discounts equal "strings attached" to consumers.
Worried about over exposure? Don't be! Limit the free promotion to the first 500 customers or to a 24-hour period. Scarcity of free is even better than plain old free, when it comes to buzz.
Ask yourself this...would you talk about free tonight at the dinner table? Probably. Would you talk about a great coupon? Not so much.
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