EMAZING, an e-mail publisher owned by
Sony Music, on Thursday began
testing a promotion that will take it into grocery stores on its home turf
in Louisville, Kentucky.
The company is working with Kroger and
Winn-Dixie stores that will bring
EMAZING’s content — specifically a Recipe Tip of the Day — to the
check-out stand, where it will appear on the back of store grocery
receipts. The receipts will also inform shoppers how to sign up to receive
these recipes via e-mail.
When they sign up on EMAZING, shoppers will be registered for a weekly
giveaway — a $500 shopping spree. The promotion will begin on April 21 and
continue for twelve weeks.
“Quite simply, our compelling online service jumps off of the computer
screen and into a retail environment for mutual benefit,” said Joe Pierce,
founder and general manager of EMAZING.
“In addition, we see this on- and off-line promotion as a terrific,
non-traditional vehicle for building the EMAZING brand and site traffic.”
If the promotion is successful, EMAZING will roll it out across the country.
This isn’t the first time a dot-com company has discovered the grocery
store as a distribution location. MyPoints.com recently entered into an
alliance with Catalina Marketing, which, in turn, has relationships with
thousands of grocery stores. Catalina has also struck deals with FreeRide.com, Cybergold, and Gold Points.com, leveraging its
presence in the stores. In addition, Priceline.com has launched a
name-your-price service in grocery stores called WebHouse Club.
This promotion by EMAZING, though, is part of a larger effort to extend its
reach offline. The company sponsored a car in the NASCAR Winston Cup
Series, and it’s currently sponsoring a six-month 25-city guerilla
marketing tour, in which a Humvee limousine emblazoned with the company
logo appears at shopping malls and at events.
