The coupon was available to download for two days, by the 2nd day no one could download because the site was too busy. Now we hear that the free meal coupon is sparking riots at KFC across the US. So I ask myself,

Did KFC get more than they bargained for using Oprah as their promotion vehicle?

Should one person posses that much power?

Are people really that hungry?

And finally, which KFC location will take my coupon?

More articles

Oprah’s KFC free-for-all sparks civil rightes era-style protest. Wonderful-EW.com

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/oprahs-kfc-free.html?iid=top25-Oprah’s+KFC+free-for-all+sparks+civil+rights+era-style+protest.+Wonderful

Updated: Oprah in hot water with chicken lovers on Twitter-LATimes.com

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2009/05/oprah-in-hot-water-with-chicken-lovers.html

Oprah Stirs the Pot with Free KFC Offer-YumSugar.com

http://www.yumsugar.com/3122940

Oprah Must Calm America’s Furious Chicken Riots-Gawker.com

http://gawker.com/5243984/oprah-must-calm-americas-furious-chicken-riots

I recently read a blog post about the Domino’s Pizza mishap that resulted in 11,000 free pizzas given away to customers over a twelve-hour period. What interests me most about this promotion gone wrong isn’t the fact that a computer error resulted in pizzas inadvertently being given away for free, but that someone actually figured out the error based on sheer ingenuity (or boredom), which then spread so wide, so fast, that Domino’s was forced to take an 11,000 pizza hit.

Let’s backtrack a bit. This whole mistake came to light when someone – most likely bored, hungry and low on funds – had the idea to type “bailout” into the coupon code box when ordering a medium pizza on Dominos.com. The “bailout” code rewarded the customer with a free medium pizza. The catch – Domino’s never advertised nor publicly released a “bailout” coupon code, though they had set the promotion up in their system but abandoned it a couple of months ago. Though Domino’s had been using a bailout theme in their advertising, the code was discovered by complete mistake. No one knows how it happened, though Domino’s has come up with a theory: a college student in Cincinnati discovered the code and told a friend in Salt Lake City, or the other way around. They drew this conclusion based on the fact that restaurants near college campuses in those cities had the most orders with the “bailout” free pizza code. Regardless of how it started, word spread to nearly 11,000 people who got their free orders in before Domino’s realized their mistake and fixed it.

The Big Fat Marketing Blog makes an excellent point about the inadvertent promotion – thousands of people were drawn to Dominos.com that may have never thought to use the site to order Domino’s online before. They were drawn there from word-of-mouth spread from friend to friend and across the Internet at lightning speed. Had this promotion been planned, Domino’s could have acquired a great deal of valuable customer data as well as stats on how wide and how fast such a promotion could spread. They could test different variables – does releasing the code in a certain part of the country, or certain time of day result in more orders or a faster spread? Just what kinds of people are redeeming the code – college students, families, single people? There is a deep well of information and data that could be tapped with this type of promotion executed in a well-thought out manner.

The moral of this story? A great offer – intended or not – will attract new customers and expose them to your products and services, especially with the power of word-of-mouth and the Internet behind it. The other moral of this story? Um, people who are bored and hungry spend time on pizza chain websites trying to come up with coupon codes that will give them free pizza? I actually don’t know if there is much to learn from that point…

The best way to get people interested in your show is to simply give it away to them. For no cost at all. Showtime took this tactic to a whole new level for the launch of “Tara”. They researched where potential fans of the show spend their time and found out that there isn’t one particular website or channel that they are using or viewing. They soon realized that streaming the show for free on their website, or any single website, for a couple of days wasn’t going to do the trick. So Showtime came up with a very unique strategy: put the show everywhere that their audience might be. Their strategy put the first episode of the show on 100 multimedia platforms before its debut on Showtime. The platforms included online outlets such as popular blogs and social networks, as well as mobile video and on-demand cable outlets. Sites such as TV.com, EW.com, BestWeekEver.com and Gawker.com featured the debut episode. Mobile outlets such as Verizon’s VCast and Joost’s iPhone app offered the debut as well. Additionally, Showtime offered the show on its SHO.com site in HD. This strategy has paid off quite well – “Tara” has averaged 2.1 million viewers over its first few episodes, which is far better than “Weeds” or “Dexter” averaged in their first seasons. Showtime has already renewed it for a second season.

This is a great strategy for getting eyeballs focused on a new show when it launches. Rather than plaster every website (not to mention billboard, bus bench, etc.) with advertising for the show, give people something they might actually want. Give them something that might actually get them interested in watching more of the show and might get them to tell their friends about it. People appreciate getting a little piece of something for free, and if they like it, they are very likely to come back for more. “Tara,” with its award-winning writer and actors, should have no problem entertaining its fans. The trick is to get those fans there, and Showtime succeeded with their innovative and consumer-friendly marketing initiative.

In a recent staff meeting our company President, Terry Dry, posed an interesting question – would you wait in line for over an hour for $6.00 in cash? I’m sure there are those of us who would say “yes,” but I will take a guess that the majority of people would not.

And yet 2 million people flocked to Denny’s to get a free Grand Slam breakfast this Tuesday after the Super Bowl – a value of $5.99 on any other day.

It got me thinking – is it all psychological? Consumers (especially in our current economy) get some level of satisfaction in getting what they perceive is a great deal – no matter the value of their time, or cost in gas money to get there. Everywhere you look some brand or another is giving away free products (Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A) as part of one promotional offer or another, and customers are willing to wait for hours if necessary to get the free coffee or donut.

Maybe we think the brands owe us something, or maybe we think we are secretly “sticking it to ‘em” – but is it really worth it? What’s really apparent is how much brands mark up their actual product – keep in mind it only cost Denny’s $1 per breakfast (2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 sausage links and 2 pieces of bacon for $1?).

Second best to free is of course the discount. I like to think of myself as a promotional code connoisseur. I do no online shopping before visiting RetailMeNot.com – a coupon deal resource/community. But yet I’m so caught up in getting the discount that I don’t spend my time actually shopping around for the better deal in the first place. A little jolt of excitement comes over me when I see that shopping cart price adjust itself to minus $5, but if I did a bit more research I’m fairly certain I could find that same product $5 cheaper somewhere else.

I think that I, along with many other shoppers, feel truly accomplished when we’ve eaten that free breakfast or gotten that deal on a pair of Joe’s Jeans – it’s the thrill of the chase. Sure you spent the rest of the day with heart burn, but at least you didn’t pay for it.

It will be interesting to see how far brands take it this year – maybe I’ll finally get that free house I’ve always wanted.