This post is guest-written by marketing guy Darren Barefoot.
In helping to launch DreamBank, we wanted to devise a clever way to introduce the site to Canadian bloggers. We brainstormed on a bunch of different possibilities loosely themed around dreams and sleep. Sample rejected idea: send a live sheep to every blogger.
We happened upon the idea of granting wishes, and that got us thinking about genies, fairy godmothers and other wish fulfillment (and occasionally, destruction) myths and fairy tales. It would be fun, we thought, if we could empower a bunch of online rock stars to help fulfill a dream on DreamBank.org.
So, we made up little packages for 20-odd bloggers. Each had a voucher that looks like this:
The voucher enabled them to bestow $20 on any dream on DreamBank’s site. Maybe it’s Rebecca’s dream of going to BlogWorld, or maybe it’s Annabelle’s dream of a grey chinchilla.
As a fun little gift, we included a wish-themed present. The women received a toy tiara, and the men received a little genie lamp. Rebecca and Beth have already posed with their fine crowns (photos by Rebecca and Beth respectively):
Here’s a big stack of all the boxes before we put them in Canada Post’s capable hands.
The initial response and reviews thus far from bloggers has been fantastic. In these early stages, it’s important to see–both in terms of the product and the marketing message–what works and what doesn’t. Online social media folks are smart and usually aren’t shy about offering their opinion, which is fantastic. Better to trouble shoot when we’re crawling instead of when we’re running.
This is the list of bloggers we contacted this time around. We wanted to start close to home. We’ll contact some specific topical bloggers and sundry American folks in the coming weeks.
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