{"id":4712,"date":"2010-12-01T19:53:19","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T00:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=4712"},"modified":"2010-12-01T19:53:19","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T00:53:19","slug":"find-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2010\/12\/01\/find-red\/","title":{"rendered":"Find Red!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"drop_cap\">A<\/span> couple of weeks ago, I got a really fun pitch.  I have to say, I get so many news releases and pitches and one-pagers these days, that I barely have time to scan them, let alone reply or take action.  But every now and then, one pitch stands out.  This was one of them.  The subject line said, &#8220;If you like chocolate, you might like this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One gold star for an interesting, informative and USEFUL subject line.  I can tell it&#8217;s a pitch, but it&#8217;s got potential.  So I read the e-mail, and the author has taken the time to at least skim my blog.  He tells me his wife reads it and loves it.  Note to PR folks:  compliments will get you everywhere!  You know what else gets you in the door?  Colloquial, personal style.  And?  Free chocolate.  So how could I resist a pitch like this?  &#8220;So we are doing a blogger outreach program for M&#038;Ms and would like to send you samples. That means chocolate. Like, lots of it. And most people love chocolate AND free. And almost all love free chocolate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of all the pitches I get, maybe ten or twenty per cent of them ask me for my mailing address, so they can mail me a free sample of something.  And of those, I am willing to share my address with about five a year.  This was one of those times.<\/p>\n<p>About a week later, I got a fun box in the mail.  I wish I&#8217;d taken a picture, but it was chaos that night.  The package was excellent!  The outer box was all decorated with maps of Toronto, and the inside box was a 12 inch red square box shaped like a giant red M&#038;M.  And it was filled? With M&#038;Ms, of course.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve seen it, but they&#8217;re running this amazing cross-social-media online contest called &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/findred.ca\/\">Find Red<\/a>.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"288\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/l1R4Nnbc9zI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/l1R4Nnbc9zI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"288\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Help the gang find Red by locating each of the 3 locations in the City of Toronto where Red is hidden at FindRed.ca.  Find clues at high-traffic check-in points around the City of Toronto and scan participating M&#038;M&#8217;S\u00c2\u00ae product barcodes* using your iPhone or Android to find even more clues. And look out for posters of the M&#038;M&#8217;S\u00c2\u00ae characters with QR codes in the downtown core of the City of Toronto. Find and scan one to reveal a Community clue in the &#8220;Clues&#8221; tab above for everyone to use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fun, eh? It&#8217;s a really clever promo.  I love the whole concept, and I wish I&#8217;d had time to blog about it before.  There are still three days remaining if you&#8217;ve got some time on your hands.  FIND RED!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks ago, I got a really fun pitch. I have to say, I get so many news releases and pitches and one-pagers these days, that I barely have time to scan them, let alone reply or take action. But every now and then, one pitch stands out. This was one of them. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2010\/12\/01\/find-red\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Find Red!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4712"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4714,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions\/4714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}