My childhood revolved around giveaways; if my mom heard on the radio that you could pick up free tickets to see movies like "Flubber" before they were released to theaters, she would corral the family into the minivan and quickly drive to wherever the radio crew was located that day.
She and I became an unstoppable force in the world of giveaways.
ASU has adopted this new era of advertising. Photo by Courtland JeffreyShe won free groceries for a year and a trip to San Francisco, and I won a summer fun package from Radio Disney and a complete entertainment system including a big screen TV, audio system, VCR and a box set of Star Wars on VHS at the age of five.
Sadly, those days of running around and collecting promotions have nearly come to an end, all because of technology.
Since the recent explosion of mobile technology and social media, the dynamic of the giveaway has taken a new place of residence. According to a post by Nielsen, as of March of this year, 50.4 percent of phone subscribers in the U.S. own a smartphone. That number is rising. This is a large demographic for marketers and many are taking advantage of it — including ASU.
Walking around both the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses, signs are posted saying, “Follow us on Twitter to learn about our promotions,” and “Take our survey online and enter to win.” ASU is realizing that their targeted audience is accepting these technological advances in their everyday lives, so they are working towards keeping up with a new era.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, QR codes (the square barcodes) and text messaging are just a few of the new weapons in advertisers’ arsenals. Digital communication is either cheap or free and a majority of people are utilizing these forms of communication, making this option of promotion the best for any business. Giveaways can reach wider audiences and can be evenly distributed in this controlled setting.
There is one problem to be wary of and that is if the promotion is a scam. Since this transition is still new to many people, scammers are acting on this opportunity to get your information. Make sure to be conscious of what contests you are entering and who the contest is run through (a trusted, safe source), so your information is not used against you.
This evolution of the giveaway is not yet complete. While some advertisers have made a complete move to online promotions, many balance an in-person and online presence.
The future of the giveaway seems fairly straightforward; people will be out and see a QR code or a Twitter handle and from there they can jump onto their internet-connected technology and enter into contests, making raffles and radio call-ins a thing of the past.
Since my mom has yet to immerse herself into the social media realm, I doubt that we will make many new giveaway memories together.
But, I am still hopeful for more of those fun times as I sign up for text updates, follow Twitter accounts and like Facebook pages.
You can reach me at cejeffre@asu.edu. Follow me on Twitter @Court_Jeffrey.
