GO CANADA GOLD!
23 Feb
Leverage community excitement with promotions to drive traffic and sales
Alex Bilodeau brings home Gold. Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images from YSportsVancouver via Flickr
With the entire nation following and rooting for Canada’s athletes in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics right now (including my friend John), why not celebrate with them.
Once the games got started, Randall Leavitt, our managing partner in Fredericton had an idea. He thought it would be fun to celebrate with our customers every time Canada won gold at the Olympics. He suggested that we give away free slush drinks to all our customers the day after one of our athletes won gold.
At Green Village Home & Garden, we notified our customer base through our Facebook fan page, Twitter and via e-mail of the free slush drinks at our stores the day after a Canadian athlete brought home gold. Canada has won a few gold medals so far and we’re seeing lots of traffic as a result. What has really amazed me is the feedback we’re getting from customers, both in person and on our Facebook fan page. Canadians are very patriotic and we really want to celebrate along with our athletes.
This simple promotion is a great way to celebrate with our customers. With Canada’s performance over the past couple of days, we’re giving away lots of free drinks, and generating a lot of excitement and traffic into the stores!
Everyone wins! GO CANADA GOLD!
Andy Buyting has been in the retail industry since he was six years old. Today, he applies his entrepreneurial know-how to Green Village Home & Garden, one of Canada's most successful specialty garden stores. Green Village Home & Garden is currently expanding into multiple locations throughout eastern Canada.
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Love this blog post and it’s similar to what we’ve previously discussed over on the UnderstandingMarketing blog – small business and entrepreneurs have had an enormous opportunity to jump into the Olympics with promotions and brand extension. Thanks for the great insight.
John Sternal
@sternalpr
I think the upside for businesses during major events like this create a huge opportunity. They also create a bit of a lull when the event ends, and businesses need to figure out what happens after.
I know there’s talk of a lot of people selling their business after the games – cashing out so to speak.
Interesting article I was reading on the subject
http://smallbusiness-help.blogspot.com/2010/02/selling-your-business-2010-winter.html