Slicing and Dicing the Cashtomato.com Promo
Is bad publicity really good publicity? It depends on how want to slice Cashtomato.com’s free money event on Feb. 29 in New York.
Here’s what Cashtomato.com did, as reported by our sister publication Promo.
Three event organizers dressed as tomatoes went to the Union Square section of New York, to give out bags and boxes of tomatoes, each containing up to $29. According to a report in the New York Daily News, the crowd jumped the organizers, who then dropped their tomatoes and ran across Union Square Park, leaving the assembled to scramble for a trove of $4,000 attached to tomatoes and balloons and in envelopes.
The crowd was generated through postings on blogs and on Craigslist. Apparently, the site—a YouTube wannabe that gives out cash prizes for videos posted by users—ran similar promos in San Francisco and London that went off hassle-free.
So what went wrong in New York? On one hand, you could say that the fledgling site got their name out there. On the other hand, they put together a guerilla marketing plan that flopped so badly it looked like they were out there trying to instigate a riot.
What’s the take from the promotional marketing community?
“Simply put, next time someone tells you that marketers don’t have special skills, show them this,” said Erik Hauser, founder and executive creative director at experiential marketing firm Swivel Media. “Oh, what I would have done to have been a fly on the wall during that brilliant strategy session.”
Others cut Cashtomato some slack, noting that it livened up a relatively slow news day.
“Despite claims to the contrary, Cashtomato enjoyed a riot of PR coverage, much of which faulted overzealous hooligans versus the stupidity of the promoters,” said Drew Neisser, president and CEO of experiential marketing firm Renegade. “The article on the Daily News site garnered 89 comments, and many felt that this was a stain on New York’s already dirty streets.”
On a side note, Neisser said the appeal of a six-foot tall costumed tomato running for its life cannot be overstated.
“If caught, perhaps that anthropomorphic fruit might have become an oh too real vegetable,” Neisser said. “This is just another example of amateurs turning guerrilla marketing into guerrilla warfare. Friends don’t let friends play with street stunts.”
Matthew Glass, chairman and CEO of event marketer Grand Central Marketing, credited Cashtomato.com for making a go of it, but felt maybe the start-up needed to do a little research.
Glass pointed to a similar guerilla cash distribution stunt it did for one of its clients one recent Black Friday in New York’s Herald Square.
“What we did differently to avoid creating a mob scene was to provide security personnel, remain mobile – we gave out the cash in envelopes which we held in backpacks, and limit each give-away to $1,” Glass said. “We managed to get a photo of the 2-hour blitz on the AP wire without any injuries.”
So what can Cashtomato.com take away from all of this? Glass said it’s critical for brands and agencies executing such events to be true to the brand, understand the risks, and weigh the rewards.
“Controversy and flirting with disaster will always have a place in marketing,” Glass said. “Good for Cashtomato for ‘failing’ successfully.”
Click below for a YouTube video of the Union Square event, and one man’s two cents:
