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It's one thing to entreat consumers to change their behaviour for the better, but when corporate rewards are involved, the win-win turns into a win-win-win... or more. Much the way Plus 3 Network matches corporate sponsors with consumers who work out for the benefit of the charities of their choice, so Bolder works with businesses to sponsor a different challenge each week.
California-based Bolder teams up with businesses to challenge consumers to complete a certain action every week. This week's challenge, for example, is to “make a car trip a bike trip,” and it's sponsored by Timbuk2. Consumers who complete the challenge must then log it in along with a tweet-length story about their action; in return, they get the promised reward. In Timbuk2's case, that's USD 20 off a custom-made bag. Such stories also go to the site's action feed, meanwhile, where the Bolder community can see them, comment on them and vote for them. Those voted “boldest” will be featured on the Bolder blog and may receive extra special rewards.
At a time when change needs to happen, consumers need motivation, and companies need to show more generosity, Bolder seems to be positioned nicely to satisfy all three needs—and benefit itself in the process. How can your brand help consumers do good....?
Showing posts with label Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Press. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Bolder gets a great, thought-provoking call out by Umair Haque in a recent Harvard Business Review post
Read Article Here
A synopsis:
Here's what I like about Bolder: it turns the relationship between companies and people inside out and upside down. Instead of activists pressuring companies to do something responsible, companies ask people to take small steps with them. So it asks us to recognize, in other words, that real change begins with sets of interdependent decisions. From an economic perspective, Bolder asks companies to subsidize second-order decisions (those one step down the demand chain) that are the most socially beneficial. By doing so, it lets companies and people work together to create more meaningful, authentic benefits.
Bolder, in fact, is a tiny but vivid example of many of the principles of next-gen marketing, Instead of "consumers," there are people; instead of "consumption," there's positive impact; instead of "loyalty," there's reciprocity; and instead of zero-sum "responsibility," there is generosity.
Bolder is a baby, taking its first halting steps. There are many ways to improve it. I'm not a great fan of the word "rewards" — it's so frequent-flyer lock-in. And it might be just as cool (or cooler) to do the reverse, and let people challenge companies. Yet, its promise is what I find compelling: a radically innovative new kind of market, that begins to create incentives for both companies and customers to behave in more beneficial ways — together.
A synopsis:
Here's what I like about Bolder: it turns the relationship between companies and people inside out and upside down. Instead of activists pressuring companies to do something responsible, companies ask people to take small steps with them. So it asks us to recognize, in other words, that real change begins with sets of interdependent decisions. From an economic perspective, Bolder asks companies to subsidize second-order decisions (those one step down the demand chain) that are the most socially beneficial. By doing so, it lets companies and people work together to create more meaningful, authentic benefits.
Bolder, in fact, is a tiny but vivid example of many of the principles of next-gen marketing, Instead of "consumers," there are people; instead of "consumption," there's positive impact; instead of "loyalty," there's reciprocity; and instead of zero-sum "responsibility," there is generosity.
Bolder is a baby, taking its first halting steps. There are many ways to improve it. I'm not a great fan of the word "rewards" — it's so frequent-flyer lock-in. And it might be just as cool (or cooler) to do the reverse, and let people challenge companies. Yet, its promise is what I find compelling: a radically innovative new kind of market, that begins to create incentives for both companies and customers to behave in more beneficial ways — together.
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