UPS Regifting Holiday Promotion Aims to Go Viral

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we all survived Black Friday we can turn our attention to the Christmas Holiday promotional marketing campaigns. It's December 1st already so I thought I better get started reviewing some of this year's top online holiday promotions.

This one from UPS that launched last week got my attention. It's a take-off on the regifting phrase that originally was coined on a Seinfield show back in January of 1995. Regifting, the practice of pawning off unwanted gifts that you may have received to unsuspecting friends and family, is now going virtual in this viral marketing campaign.

UPSRegifter.com is a comical Web site where visitors can upload a photo of an unwanted gift or choose one from UPS' gallery, and then regift it. The site makes it possible to send these virtual regifts to friends, family and co-workers in an eco-friendly way which requires no wrapping paper.

Michael French, a spokesperson for UPS said that the effort is an attempt to find the cutting edge: "UPS delivers packages, and we want people to know we can deliver fun in cyberspace." The company hopes the idea goes viral to promote general brand awareness as well as UPS' desire to promote sustainability.

This 1950s-era B&W instructional video is available to help explain the concept to amateur regifters.

A recipient of a virtual regift item will receive an e-mail with a link to claim the regift. Then the regiftee can join in by regifting the item they received to someone else or by uploading a photo of a new item to regift.

UPS partnered with integrated marketing agency T3 to design and develop the site.The campaign is meant to raise awareness of UPS at a time when DHL has left the domestic shipping business, said Chris Wooster, group creative director at T3.

"We wanted to find some touchstones for the holidays that everyone shares. Everyone has had the regift. We all have closets full of them," Wooster said. "We didn't have to explain [regifting] to everyone. The less you have to set the stage, the more success these things can be."

UPSRegifter.com also is integrating social networking site Facebook by offering a downloadable regifting application. The Facebook distribution is "gravy" for the UPS campaign, said Wooster, citing the network's recent layout changes that downplay the role of applications. Banner ads on ups.com and on Facebook are promoting the campaign.

We'll have to wait and see if this viral campaign gets anywhere near the success that Office Max's Elf Yourself has had over the past couple of years. Check it out and let us know what you think.