#VancouverGetsIt piggy bank giveaway draws crowd
An online marketing campaign by a B.C. credit union offering a free piggy bank stuffed with cash convinced several hundred hopeful participants to get out of bed early Thursday morning.
By 6 a.m. PT there was a line-up stretching around the block outside the credit union's branch at West Georgia and Thurlow in downtown Vancouver, with anxious folks hoping to get their hands on one of 300 special piggy banks promised to hold up to $1,000 in cash.
The viral marketing campaign — promoted on Twitter as #VancouverGetsIt — was intended to give people struggling with Vancouver's high housing costs "a little bit of a break," according to a press release from Coast Capital Savings.
"People are facing pretty hefty housing costs in the city and we want to give them a bit of a break – a little extra to help with other important financial goals ... it might be $5 for their morning coffee, but it could be $100, $200 or even $1,000," said the statement.
Viral marketing campaigns on social media have become popular ways for corporations to reach a younger demographic that don't buy newspapers or watch much broadcast television, but as Starbucks learned with their recent #racetogether campaign, they can also lead to consumer backlash and online derision.
Sometime the events themselves can get out of control, such as last September when the RCMP was called to control the line-up for new iPhones outside the Metrotown mall in Burnaby.
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