Get merry with a little help from Purple Frogfiled in: blog archive
written by James on November 24th, 2008 |
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My inbox has just gone “ping” so being ever alert to my clients’ needs I looked immediately. Only to see the sender was my sister. At this point I sagged a little wondering what or who she was going to moan about now but to my pleasant surprise she sent me something interesting… a voucher entitling me to 40% off all wine and champagne at any store within the Threshers’ group between now and the start of December!
Being my usual cynical self and having seen a million and one web scams over the years I thought I best check the validity of this. After all whom amongst us hasn’t handed over our bank account details to the son of the deposed former Minister of Finance for Zaire to help him get $100,000,000 out of the country?
Anyway to cut a long story short it’s real. So download it here and make the most of it and if any of you are buying lots or even planning to use this for the work’s xmas party then please think of where you heard about this and slip a bottle in the post to me!
What makes this really interesting is the viral nature of this voucher. It first surfaced (in a different guise) 2 years ago as supposedly a leaked voucher to staff and suppliers that was never meant to reach the public. Even Thresher announced that they were worried that they may not be able to handle demand and may run out of stock and guess what happened? Even more people rushed through the doors! What a terrible mistake for Thresher to make. They were even worried it may damage their profits for the year.
And so like all big mistakes we make sure they never happen again. Unless you are Thresher in which case you leak it out again the following year and again this year. I can guarantee most of you will receive it in your inbox from a friend, a colleague or even my sister encouraging you to rush there and take advantage of their “misfortune”. The good thing is though that everyone wins. Thresher corner the non-supermarket wine sector in the busiest period of the year. You all get to save money during these tight times (or maybe even indulge a little more!). And best of all at least one of you will make me smile by sending me a bottle as a little thank you. Pinot Noir produces the biggest smile!
Viral marketing is a powerful tool. How else can you reach 10 million people overnight at the almost non-existant cost of an hour or two of design work and a couple of well targetted emails? Letting the public publicise your offers for you is brilliant. Letting them think they are getting one over on you at the same time is genius!
So make the most of this offer, have a wonderful Christmas and please remember not to drink and drive this festive season.
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I hope some of you made good use of the voucher! The offer has now expired and the link has been removed. Although at time of writing you now probably only have about three months until the next one gets accidentally “leaked” out…