Sucked In?

As a newbie to blogging, I can also admit that I am, or was, also a newbie to Twitter until just recently.



This was thanks to a very smart marketing scheme created by a well loved magazine here in Australia – “Shop Till You Drop”. Shop Till You Drop’s marketing department came up with what I thought was a really smart and strategic marketing idea, which got me completely sucked in, and you would think that as a marketing student I would know better!!


Using social media such as their Facebook page and also online and in their magazine, they created a one day shoe treasure hunt in the city! Yes, that is right, all around Melbourne they placed FREE pairs of shoes, (no wonder I was sucked in!). Using Twitter, they provided clues every few minutes as to where the shoes would be, and first in first served.


In my desperate attempt for more pairs of high heels, not only did I create a twitter page, but I joined the Shop Till You Drop group and followed them and also signed up to receive regular updates on my mobile!


I am so sure that I was not the only one doing this, which leads me to think that this promotion was a really unique and interesting approach and use of social media to promote the magazine. There were literally cars of screaming women following the Shop Till You Drop group, and each pair of shoes was literally snapped up in a matter of minutes! It shows just how powerful using social media for a promotion can be – the news literally spread around so quickly, from shoe loving woman to woman!


In addition to this, those on twitter could comment to each other and report on their progress and what had just happened at the last ‘shoe drop’. There was this feeling of everyone getting together to help each other in the search!


I would love to know if anybody else knew about this promotion?? Or if there are any others out there like this? It can be really astonishing the way information can spread like wildfire through places such as Twitter!