PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

So I’m going to steal an idea. Well, slingshot off it hopefully.

This concept was initiated (I don’t dare say invented) by Hugh at Gapingvoid for a wine client of his and well, I thought I might give it a go. I thought it was a reasonable example of innovative marketing. What he did was to give away a few cases of wine (single bottles) to people who would write about the wine. Bloggers and such with the intention of creating a ripple in the blogosphere. Pretty cool I thought.

To background a little, one of the things I do is run a site that coordinates a number of caricature artists who do custom caricatures based on your supplied photos. We are going OK, but time to ramp things up a little!

So here I am, about to give away some caricatures in order to make more sales. Uh?

My plan follows Hugh’s - with a variation - he gave away product first then asked, I am doing the initial asking. This could be deceptively simple - or stupid - time will tell….

I am going to give readers the opportunity to get a free caricature drawn of themselves by one of the six artists on Caricature King.

That’s the easy part. The hard part for me will be selecting who will be selected to get a free caricature, that is if anyone asks….

Oh and there is another benefit - **I ask that you ask via comments**

But hey this allows you to get some publicity for your blog .

I’ll be selecting some to get an amazing caricature drawn by the artist of their choice, based on their photo, that can be used on their blog/forum/site, printed and put on the wall, put on a coffee cup or any other non-commercial purpose.

And if you get a caricature? All I ask is that you write about this excercise, or the caricature you get, or some other promotional bit on your blog or forum etc. Simple plug really.

The plan is that exposure by influential people will drive traffic, which in turn will drive sales and will help prove that by giving something away you can make more sales.

Or just write about this post…spread the word - give some love.If you feel your bloghas too few readers, or is new, feel free to enter to win one in our competition. You can of course, do both.

Nominate now via comments - closing date no later than July 30, 2007 or sooner if stocks run out

My decisions will be totally arbitrary and not subject to argument or begging.

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