The short answer? Ice cream! Two paragraphs of your time to get the scoop.
Software start-up Ideavibes contacted Sunlight PR prior to its 2011 trip to Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Competing with hundreds of other software exhibitors, Ideavibes had created a website to collect ideas for improving SF’s transportation and housing woes– as a way to demonstrate its software in action. Now the challenge! How to get people to visit the website and submit an idea? Ideavibes had an advertising budget, and had considered sponsoring a traffic report, handing out fliers or purchasing print ads. But how many people actually take action from these promotions?
SunlightPR approached San Francisco’s trendy, booming ice-cream sensation Humphrey Slocombe, which has a massive 310,000 plus Twitter following– bigger than the weekday circulation of the San Francisco Chronicle. The scoop? Ideavibes pre-purchased 500 ice cream cones, Humphrey Slocombe “tweeted” the offer of free ice-cream to its massive following, for anyone who would submit an idea to improve SF. Ideavibes spent less than its original advertising budget, drove thousands of visitors to its website, and received press coverage about the unique arrangement, it never would have otherwise received.
