Communal Green Prizes Offer a Win-Win

As the chief Ecobunga! deal hunter, I've reviewed thousands of green giveaways.  Most of them are structured along similar lines:  an online entry, a random drawing, and a grand prize and runner-up prizes awarded to a few lucky winners.  So when a company runs a promotion that deviates from this basic formula, it catches my eye.

Seventh Generation, maker of non-toxic household cleaners, is sponsoring a community-oriented Earth Day giveaway that awards prizes to both a grand prize winner and that winner's community.  The top prize in the company's Green Your Town Sweepstakes is a green home makeover in the form of a $10,000 shopping spree at RealGoods.com, a Gaiam subsidiary.  That prize alone is enough to make the giveaway a stand-out.

But Seventh Generation added a twist.  Not only will the winner enjoy the chance to green their home, but 1000 people in their community will also receive a green home gift -- a reusable tote filled with free Seventh Generation products and educational materials.

Now, that's what I'd call a win-win!  You've got 1001 happy folks:  the grand prize winner and the other 1000 people who unexpectedly get some freebies and a chance to learn more about greening their homes.   Plus, by rewarding the broader community, Seventh Generation demonstrates that it is interested in helping more than just one home go green.  Widespread adoption of green cleaning habits is what they're after, which benefits both the community and, needless to say, Seventh Generation, too.

Of course, one of the considerations that marketers must be mindful of when they come up with a nifty promotion like this is the "doability" factor.   What, exactly, are the logistics involved in fulfilling those 1000 runner-up prizes?  Curious myself, I checked out the official rules for the fine print:

... up to one thousand (1,000) Green Home Starter Kits [are] to be randomly awarded to 1,000 households within a 100 mile radius of where the Grand Prize winner resides, or as otherwise determined by the Sponsor. Each Green Home Starter Kit will include a Seventh Generation branded eco tote bag and Seventh Generation products (products may be awarded as coupons).

This answered some questions.

1. By substituting coupons for actual products you reduce shipping costs and minimize the prize outlay (as it is almost certain that not all of the coupons will be redeemed.)  
2. "Community" is defined as a 100 mile radius around the winner's residence, which is helpful should he or she live in a sparsely populated area.  But, wisely, the rules leave open the possibility that this radius could change -- good news if the winner lives smack in the middle of Manhattan. 
3. These runner-up prizes are to be awarded randomly, so there is no encumbrance on the winner to provide names, nor the possibility that they would simply choose all their friends and neighbors to receive the goodies.

Even with these stipulations, this type of giveaway, with its relatively grand scale, is not a breeze to execute.  But, still, it's an interesting promotion to emulate and one that could probably be adapted to suit the resources and budgets of smaller companies.

I've seen many giveaways in which entrants vie to win a prize on behalf of their town (a "green your school" contest or a community garden giveaway), but Seventh Generation's Green Your Town Sweepstakes is the first I'd come across which offered individual rewards throughout an entire community based on a single winner. No matter who wins the the grand prize, I'd be willing to bet that they will have a lot more friends right after those 1000 runner-up prizes are awarded!