TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Pick Up That Penny! You Might Get Free Pizza

Photo courtesy of CiCi's Pizza

CiCi's Pizza early this morning scattered one million sticker--covered pennies arround sidewalks in the United States.

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 30, 2009

Updated: 03/30/2009 11:14 am

If you see pennies laying on the ground this week in Tampa, pick them up. CiCi's Pizza early this morning scattered one million around sidewalks in the United States, specially marked with a sticker worth a free meal at CiCi's.

"This is the first time we've done a PR stunt like this, and we're really excited," said Craig Moore, president of CiCi's Pizza. "It attracts attention from the oddness as much as anything. But it links very closely with the value part of our brand, and the fun nature of our brand."

If the campaign works well enough, any time anyone sees a penny anywhere, they'll think about CiCi's, coupon or not, Moore said.

Thus emerges the latest round in what's becoming a golden age of advertising stunts -- kicked off in February by Denny's giving away Grand Slam meals to whoever came to their restaurants on a given day. Millions of people showed up.

Companies love such advertising stunts, especially given the weak economy and the scattered attention spans of Americans. Compared to mainstream advertising, they tend to be cheap, fun and build a brand name.

And best of all, the best stunts show up on local TV news.

Case in point. Kentucky Fried Chicken started a stunt in recent days in Louisville where people could spot a pothole in the road and call KFC, which would send a private road crew out to fix it and place a temporary KFC logo on the patch -- "Re-freshed by KFC."

The stunt didn't really have anything to do with chicken. However, "It worked," said Scott Liu, an assistant advertising professor at the University of South Florida. The story showed up on local news across the nation. "All the free publicity is worth millions."

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT