Cupday.com, a marketing initiative by MassMedia Studios, has recently been developed to support online office sweeps. It is a free service that allows workers to set up sweeps at the push of a button. Interested parties need only log into the Cupday.com site, choose a dollar value for the sweep, name it, invite workmates to enter, run the draw, and notify the winnersâ€"all via the Web and e-mail.
According to the Michael Liubinskas, media manager at MassMedia Studios, all necessary legal permissions have been sought, and granted, following discussions with the Department of Gaming and Racing and the Victorian Racing Commission.
Approval from authorities was given easily due mainly to the fact that the site does not offer transaction facilities, nor does it actively encourage involvement in gambling. Liubinskas assured ZDNet Australia that "all money will be handled internallyâ€"by the [office's] facilitator".
He states that the service will run in much the same way as the traditional newspaper-based sweep, which have traditionally provided the names of racing horses in easy-to-remove, coloured strips.
"Its just like the Daily Telegraph uses the colour bars for the horses, except [with Cupday.com] you don't need to cut them out, so ours is much more fun," said Liubinskas.
Given the sheer number of annual participants in office and unofficial sweeps, there just may be a market for this service, after all.
"Over 500,000 sweeps are run in over 200,000 offices in Australia alone. With an average of 18 unique people per sweep...it makes over 9,000,000 Australians...Producers are expecting that ten percent of these will be run this year via Cupday.comâ€"leading to one million page views and over 500,000 e-mails," said Liubinskas.
The results so far are encouraging, with more than 100 sweeps signed-up within the first few hours of operation. This equates to approximately 1,000 players from companies such as Telstra, Optus, Macquarie Bank, Rothschild, NCR, Deakin University and TAFE.
Liubinskas states the estimates reveal that the e-mail advertising the service has already been forwarded to at least 30,000 users.
He also believes that Australians have forwarded the e-mail to English and American counterparts, given that subscribers from both companies have signed-up.
To ensure the success of the service, MassMedia Studios set up an aggressive, integrated marketing campaign, including viral e-mail and SMS-based messages in its strategies.
All privacy requirements have been adhered to, according to Liubinskas, who has revealed that all e-mails and SMS are "opt-in only" and that data collected will not "be shared with any of our partners".
The marketing strategy has also included the involvement of high profile partners, such as WebCentral (hosting providers), TeleClass Live (training and consulting), 5th Finger (SMS services) as well as prize providers such as RosesOnly, BlueSkyFrog, and FHM.
Prizes are offered for competitions run on the Web site, leading up to the main event.
Liubinskas said the main aim of the Web site, apart from providing people with an easy and fun way to organise sweeps, was to "show off our ability to integrate multiple mediums...for marketing purposes and internal communications."
Allright, great stuff. It actually works quite well. Congrats! About time the Melbourne Cup moved on.