COMMUNICATION>Should You Create A Buzz Campaign Based On Cash Distribution?

Long ago marketers have been using money based direct-marketing incentives to motivates consumers:

- Discounts or coupons have a virtual money value available for buying a specific good / service at a specific time
- Cash-back is Real money that is credited back on your account for a specific purchase.

The techniques are different but the final price paid for the purchased item and the money you have left in your pocket after all are exactly the same. In February 2009 a web cash back company (www.bailoutbooth.com) has decided to go one step ahead. They asked themselves: should we invest our half a million dollars budget to get one 30 seconds TV commercial during the Super-bowl final to reach our targeted audience and create awareness? 90% of marketers would have said “yes, let’s go”, but Bailoutbooth marketing team came up with a complete other idea that had create one of the bigger buzz of the year: The entire communication budget will be distributed in cash in New York’s streets. “Cash booth” were installed in different part of the city and people will queue to receive 50$ or more. In just 2 days media from all around the world started to spread the word about this cash distribution. Since then, many companies have tried to implement cash distribution techniques to generate the buzz around their brand with more or less success. So is the Cash distribution a good instrument to create awareness and leverage sales or just a fad?

On November 14th 2009, the french web site (www.Mailorama.fr) had decided to execute a public distribution of cash in Paris’ street based on the same model that has been used by Bailoutbooth. This campaign has been a real disaster as too many people came, particularly from Paris poorest neighborhoods, and the police had to cancel the operation at the very last second. The result was that people get angry and the situation got out of control with fights, aggressions and car burnings. The organizing company has been recognized as the responsible for the mess, which had result to a very bad buzz for the brand.

Few days ago Uniqlo have opened its first shop in Moscow. The advertising message that was spread in outdoor, press, radio and online media channels was: “first 2.000 buyers will receive 500 rubles (15 $) cash”. That very day of the opening, 5 minutes before shop opens I had the curiosity to see how people will react to this massive ad campaign. Approximately 150 persons were calmly waiting on the line for the shop to open. For 5 more minutes I saw maybe a dozen of old ladies rushing in the shopping center to join the line. Taking a closer look at the people waiting up there, I must confess that this was nothing like Uniqlo targeted consumers, but only apparently low income people coming for the money. Later that day, when the number of 2.000 buyers has been already reached, people in the line changed for younger, richer and more fashionable consumers. Which mean that the promised cash award wasn’t a strong enough leverage to create the buzz or rush Uniqlo’s real targeted audience.

So why a cash campaign in New York has created a worldwide buzz and a same action as generated riots in Paris? What are the conditions for a successful cash distribution campaign?

First, the buzz should come from the campaign itself and not from its announcement. If we look back at the cases in New York and in Paris, we see that the New York campaign wasn’t announced. People just stepped into the cash booths as they were installed in streets. In Paris’ case Mailorama spent a lot of time and money to announce high and clear that they will distribute cash on streets. The buzz actually worked too well so everyone was really expecting to receive something even if there was only 5.000 envelops to give away. In Uniqlo case, a 500 rubles cash gift was clearly not enough for the targeted audience to create the call-for-action or generate conversations. However I am convinced that a 500 rubles unexpected cash gift would have been much more efficient to create buzz and affinity.

Second, as any marketing action, the campaign must be targeted to a specific audience. In New York’s case, the distribution was executed in Manhattan, not in Harlem, so the audience reach was mainly executives and white collars going to work. In Moscow’s case, the announcement should have been only on the Internet: 43% of Russian Internet users have higher incomes (1.500$ / month or more) when only 6% of Internet users are needy. It is clear that the old ladies rushing at Uniqlo grand opening didn’t knew about the campaign through the Internet. In Paris’ case, important Internet and TV coverage have had massive impact on poorest population. In this case it would have been wiser to use business and economic newspapers to spread the word and to organize only micro-distribution, not more than 15 to 20 envelops at the time in targeted and unexpected locations (at a traffic light for example).

Third, the cash distribution should create engagement. If every company in a market will start to give away there marketing budget in cash, consumers will be very happy, but this won’t really help the sales of any of those companies. The strength of Bailoutbooth’s campaign was that in order to receive money, people had to meet with “Bailout Bill” a strange character with sunglasses and bodyguards and tell him why they need money. The brand has create an astonishing and involving interaction with consumers whom even if they will not visit the web-site, will remember this enigmatic Bill. In Paris cash distribution campaign, Mailorama team was just planning to have a distribution desk without personal contact. An idea could have been to execute a Twitter contest where everyone should explain in only 140 letters why they need money. Best tweets could be immediately cash-awarded, and doing so create an online buzz and traffic to the advertiser’s web site. In Uniqlo’s case, first 2.000 customers automatically received money from the cashiers. Again no personal involvement. An idea could have been to create a one-arm-bandit-like “wish machine” that could upon quick registration (name + e-mail address) either offer you money (lets say from 100 till 5.000 rubles) or coupons for free clothes. Consumers would have definitely remembered and discussed that brand experience.

Thierry Cellerin, Consumer Engagement Marketing Specialist

Follow me on Twitter: @thmoscow