giving it away - kmart and izea (w interview!)

Pepsi hands their new cans out to select bloggers and... they blog!

Izea gives bloggers $500 Kmart gift cards and invites them to share additional gift cards with their readers/followers, and... they talk!

Sure, Izea gave out gift cards and Pepsi gave out social equity... but with full transparency, there's nothing unethical about Izea's campaign, is there?

Twitter's all abuzz, with top social personalities including @emom, @1938media, @chrisbrogan, @shefinds and @shoemoney allowing participants to participate by commenting on their blogs or, more impressively, by RTing (retweeting) - extending this contest into new social circles, activating the ripple effect! 

Amazing!

Multi-platform, inexpensive and efficient.  Right?

And it's transparent... with big names in the social industry like Chris participating! 
    Is Izea now certified kosher? 
        Have they kicked the PayPerPost stigma? 

Or is there more to this than that?

Consider, as of 3:30PM EST, Tuesday, December 2^nd 2008, look at the spike in buzz on twitter below.

The Interview
Izea founder and CEO Ted Murphy agreed to a short interview, please find below.

What was your key insight for Kmart?  How did seasonality and timing effect your campaign strategy?

Ted Murphy:  Timing was key for this campaign, we wanted to take advantage of the holiday rush. In addition to the holidays I believe that the downturn in the economy has created a huge opportunity for Kmart. Everybody is looking to save money and Kmart provides brand name products at low prices.

How did you go about identifying and reaching out to influencers?  How was this campaign different? 

Ted: IZEA has spent the last year building relationships with key players in social media. We know what they blog/tweet about, how much traffic they have and how they are connected. For Kmart we tried to select bloggers that represented a diverse audience of readers and specifically targeted people that weren't active Kmart customers. We wanted to show them what Kmart had to offer and give them a chance to share that experience with their readers.

What are your metrics for success?  How are you substantiating these metrics?

Ted: We are measuring impressions, clicks, tweets and conversations. Everything within the campaign is tracked and we have set some internal targets (sorry, can't share those).

How do you see campaigns like this driving sales?  Where do you see campaigns like this playing in the lower funnel, driving spend in today's economy?

Ted: Kmart's biggest hurdle is getting their value proposition in front of a younger, connected audience that isn't watching television anymore. Social media has enabled IZEA to execute a relatively low cost awareness campaign that is completely measurable through to the sale.

What's next for Kmart and Izea?

Ted: Kmart is part of the Sears Holding Group. We will be working on other campaigns in the near future.

PS - the campaign doesn't end here.  Izea is also using their cewebrity personality's personal shopping journeys and testimonials in ad creative (included below), lending additional credibility to the story KMart is telling.  Check out some sample ad units (going live on Thursday) below.

 

 

... so what do we think...