Giveaway buzzing with social media

Within the last 5 minutes, I was alerted for two give-away promotions on Twitter and Facebook. Coincidence?

Number 1: Febo, the famous wall of snacks, is giving away free French fries tomorrow between 14:00 and 16:00. This reached me through a RT (retweet) on Twitter. Since April 8, Febo is using 100% bintje potatoes for their 'traditional' fries and they want everyone to know (and taste!) that.

Number 2: Starbucks serves free coffee on Thursday for anyone who brings their own mug, to create awareness for the garbage issue. Quite an extraordinary deal for a company that is known for its disposable (!) cups. I found out about this through this advert on Facebook:

My prediction is that these promotions will be highly successful, although they take minimal marketing costs and effort. Giving away free stuff will probably always be a winning formula (because: hey, we're Dutch, right?) but using the power of social media to create a buzz around it is incredibly smart. As soon as people find out, they are likely to use their networks to tell their friends, they will tell their friends and soon a buzz is born. I just feel sorry for all those poor employees who have to serve the hordes of people.

How Zeeman became a cult brand

For years, many self-respecting adolescents wouldn't even want to be found dead in a Zeeman store. I admit I walked away quickly and hid my yellow plastic bag after I bought a skirt there for carnival a few months ago. However, the textiles discounter managed to turn around their reputation and uses the recession to re-position the brand.

Since November, Zeeman has been giving away free boxershorts, which are available on their website. Customers only have to pay the shipping costs. Quickly, the hype was picked up by a large audience and the boxershorts, that came with a tag that said 'Wear it with pride!', were out of stock for months. At the Überstoere zeemanboxers group on social network Hyves, members have uploaded pictures of theirselves wearing the boxershorts, with pride indeed.

Jacques van der Bom, marketing and communication manager at Zeeman, explained that the campaign was an ironic hint at the trend of youngsters clearly showing off their underwear (such as the popular Björn Borg boxers) but that it is also an expression of their new brand identity. (source: marketingtribune)

With this campaign, Zeeman won the Positive Young Media Award 2010 this week. This is a prize for creative initiatives that set new, positive rolemodels for young people. According to the jury, Zeeman offers the youth a worthy alternative for the expensive branded boxershorts.

Now, Zeeman is also aiming at the female recessionista's while advertising during Project Catwalk on rtlgemist.nl. It appears that the company successfully made use of the current economic situation and used it for their benefit. Do you think Zeeman will be able to maintain the success once the recession (and the boxershorts buzz) is over? Let me know!