There are two sides to every story – or three, if you’re Popchips. 1) Super yummy snack. 2) Fairly healthy ingredients. 3) Savvy marketing of an image that keeps breaking through. Case in point: the case of Popchips I received this weekend as a Klout perk. (A Klout perk is an award made available to those who have certain social media scores and influence, as identified by Klout, by brands trying to reach said audiences.) The brand’s goal: get those social media influencers to chat up their products (hopefully in a positive way) to their tribes – who will hopefully repeat it, and so on and so on and so on. I don’t always share my thoughts on the Klout perks I am offered or that I accept, but this one was worth it. Here’s what Popchips, the three-sided self-proclaimed “love triangle” of snackdom sent me:
That’s pretty elaborate, considering the cost to produce and mail a custom box of that size – in a day when getting a printed coupon in the mail is reason for celebration. Here, in addition to the coupon for a free bag of popchips were six individual-serving-size bags (in 4 varieties) of Popchips – as well as what appeared to be (but couldn’t possibly be) a hand-written note. Nice touch of human going on.
The box happened to arrive as I was setting up for a party – perfect timing. We dove right in to the tasting:
The Popchips were a huge hit. And just like that, we were talking about them. Admittedly this is a best-case scenario, but this is one of the primary benefits of Klout, imo. Klout: a small benefit for @AdvertGirl, a larger benefit for Popchips (and other marketers) who use it to mine the socialsphere for potential ambassadors.