Give, and it shall be given to you - new generous marketing trend

“Give, and it shall be given to you." Luke 6:38



Generousity and giving without expectations is a hot trend at the moment. I founf this example at http://www.bestadsontv.com/:

"The agency Happiness Brussels has created a unique website for people everywhere to share Christmas with strangers and spread a little more happiness by sending presents to unknown recipients around the world. Their idea uses Googleâs Reverse Geocoding functionality to randomly select an address anywhere in the world which becomes the happy recipient of a surprise Christmas present completely out of the blue and from someone they have never met. The website is at www.giftastranger.net

Users enter their name, address, their gift and a photo or picture of their gift. Google randomly generates an address which the user can accept or reject, and request another address.

Gift a Stranger is already attracting users from around the globe and on the website visitors can view who has sent what present to whom. The number of present-senders has already reached 500 and is increasing rapidly with gifts being sent from Australia to Mexico and from the UK to Africa."

This gets me going, coming up with all sorts of ideas for my clients. What about you? :)

I connect this 'giving' project with others - like "kindness cards" from Wakeup Sydney, inspiring people to do something nice to someone and then give them a card that they can keep as a memory, and later pass on... http://www.wakeupsydney.com.au/Campaigns/Kindness%20Revolution.aspx

It also brings to mind the Interflora campaign in the UK designed to brighten up the lives of Twitter users by sending them flowers. As part of the campaign, Interflora monitors Twitter looking for users that it believes might need cheering up. Once found, the users are contacted by tweet, and sent a bouquet of flowers as a surprise. (from http://trendwatching.com/briefing/#rak)

Make sure you give from the heart though, and not only to get publicity and raise your status in the eyes of others. As it´s said in the Bible: "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." Matthew 6:2