Inside the Mind of a Freelance Copywriter

Back scratch marketing

This morning I read something I am still struggling to believe. Seth Godin has been left wondering why on Earth did Continental give him a freebee of 10 song downloads from iTunes as a thank you for a plane ticket he bought. I think Seth must have skipped his Sunday morning coffee. Or maybe it’s the jet-lag!

To me it seems pretty obvious that Continental and iTunes are just doing some run-of-the-mill mutual back-scratching in the marketing department.

For Seth to enjoy his free downloads he has to visit the iTunes website, download and install iTunes on his computer and even enter an e-mail address on their website. In other words he has to become an iTunes prospect. If he already happens to be a customer, he gets to return to their online shop anyway – possibly buying some other stuff – so there’s potential gain there too.

Continental, on the other hand are simply offering customers an incentive to fly their airline – or pleasantly surprising unknowing customers like Seth.

How much sugar would you like with your coffee, Seth? This one’s on me.

P.S. My guess is that the drab copywriting in Continental’s promotional e-mail has nothing to do with dissuading people from taking advantage of the free downloads. Just shoddy work by a copywriter who forgot to put the magic word ‘free’ in the subject line.

June 18th, 2006 TrackBack URI