As Paul McCartney once sang: “The best things in life are free.” Though as I recall he suggested that you keep them for the birds and the bees. And so it is that we reach the day and age of freebie gift-giving and online mayhem of late that was first Cadbury Nibbles and now the BlueDot Real Good Chair online campaign.
“To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its Soho flagship store, design-minded furnishings store BluDot teamed with Minneapolis shop Mono on a socially-driven outdoor experiment that seeks to address the question, “If good design can be anywhere, exactly where can it go?” BluDot has dropped 25-30 of its Real Good Chairs at various locations in the city, where they’re free for the taking to passers by.”
There seems to be an unwritten rule that if you leave something in the street that you no longer need or desire it is free for the taking and will find a good home. Its a subconscious free-cycling process that requires nothing other than a chance encounter and which saves the planet’s landfill sites and undesirable consumption of an ever increasing scale.
I love the concept that BluDot is using, to drop chairs all over the city, but is it the right kind of juxtaposition you wish to make, furniture + detritus? Or is it more about moving the crowd, getting them out on their feet and scouring the city for a bright and brand spanking new chair, and gabbing left right and centre about it? It reminds me of a high-profile brand that ran a campaign seeding handbags to a range of street traders around NYC and putting the word out that they had done so. Needless to say the mere mention of a free or cheap handbag sent the girls scurrying, running amok for a bargain.
Giving away things for free is always a great driver, even more so in the present age where social media generates a hard currency of its own in response to spontaneous gift giving. The concept of free tinkers at the human psyche. We all love a free bargain don’t we? Some real value! And when we win, we love to bang on about it to all and sundry.
This process of free gifting is a great way to steel your advocates & evangelists to continue to do the great work they already do for your business online and off, as well as to win new disciples to your cause. Think of it, less as losing potential revenue, and more as gaining free advertising, and in the digital realm where the cost of production is nil, even more reason to give your products away in a controlled and highly public manner. Giving FREE licenses to Mac Creatives and Geniuses is one way alone to drive word of mouth sales and is one amongst many potential drivers for your goods and services.
Anyhow, if you want to find out more about the Real Good Experiment, check out their Flickr Stream, or search for the #realgoodexperiment hashtag on Twitter.
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I am, for want of a better word, a web developer. Practising since '96 and
focused on front and back-end work with a slant for optimisation.
I love music, art, and helping people, traits which I hope are borne out here.
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