Like it or not, people take a lot of selfies. And not just young hipsters, we all take them and more importantly, we share them. According to a recent Pew Research report; 55% of Millennials, 24% of Gen X’ers and 9% of Baby boomers share selfies. The average millennial takes more than nine selfies per week and spends seven minutes per selfie. Add it all up and millenials will take around 27,500 selfies during their lifetime.
Share a Branded Selfie, Get a Free Drink
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App developer, CHCK-N (Check-In) thinks those selfie takers should get rewarded for all that hard work. The concept is pretty simple, when friends and family go out for social drinking, they often take selfies of their adventures. So, why not get rewarded for those selfies by getting a free drink. You pick a bar, go there, open the app and choose a drink from the app’s menu. The user takes a selfie and shares it to their Facebook page to “bring about a hurricane of likes.” The sponsor gets exposure for the brand and the bar and the participant gets a free drink.
“The old marketing techniques focus on building brand awareness rather than brand loyalty,” says Lev Filimonov, Co-Founder at CHCK-N. “Our application helps liquor companies create a genuine emotional contact with their customers and create good memories that they can share together. With CHCK-N, we’ve laid down first brick in the creation of a technological marketplace for the most demanded currency of the new age — emotions.”
According to research by Nielsen, recommendations from friends remain the most credible form of advertising, with 83% of consumers trusting testimonials from people they know, while only 46% of consumers trust ads on social media. CHCK-N empowers alcoholic-beverage companies to tap into the potential of social media through the social aspect. It allows them to communicate with the audience through friends’ advice, rather than a direct advertisement.
The mobile application allows liquor brands to build personal relationships with their consumers and utilize the power of personal recommendations to boost brand loyalty.
Instant Stats for Bar and Liquor Brand
In addition to the social media sharing, the app provides sponsors with real-time check-in information and instant statistics for the marketing team. Full reports on all of the brand’s activations worldwide provide in-depth analytics.
What’s the Cost?
The application charges advertisers solely on the number of likes that each branded selfie scores. CHCK-N charges $.01 per like up to 100 likes per post for a maximum of $1.00.
We reached out to Lev Filimonov to get more details on the cost of using the mobile application. Filimonov said, “Chck-n bar is absolutely free for users. The alcohol companies set a certain budget that they are ready to spend on a single bar, city or a country. They can’t spend more than they planned. Also we don’t charge for more than 100 likes. So if the picture got more than 100 likes, we would only charge 1$.” And who covers the cost of the free drink? “If it is a small bar with no marketing budget from liquor brands they will have to cover the cost of the free drink that they give out. But we never charge them fees from our side.”
CHCK-N Inc. was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, and has already partnered with major brands. It’s currently being tried out locally by beverage companies, such as Ab Inbev, Heineken, Brown-forman, Diagio, Pernod Ricard, Bacardi Inc., and Redbull. The application will be presented at the Collision Conference in New Orleans, May 2nd – 4th, and the founders of the company will be there in person on May 3rd to talk about the product.
A Bit More on the Reach and Cost from CHCK-N Makers
CHCK-N says, an average selfie from the app gets 27 likes on Facebook. Every like expands the coverage by 13 people bumping it up to a 351 person reach. If the average bar gets 72 shares from its app, that equates to 25,000 Facebook users per week.
Assuming 72 shares from the app and 27 likes on Facebook the CHCK-N commission would be $19.44. Add in $40 for the cost of 72 vodka shots and the marketing expense would be around $59. CHCK-N says a brand would have to spend about $250 for a paid Facebook promotion to acheive a similar reach.
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