The Million Dollar Coupon

The Million Dollar Coupon

Wow! What a rush! Here's the story!

Fort Myers homeowner Rich Ricciani approached me with a "crazy PR idea" to run a coupon for $1 million dollars off the price of his $7 million home. My first thought was, "Hmmm...I'm not exactly a "crazy PR" kind of a woman. But, I honored his call and went to visit him at his home. Wow. I was impressed.

Mr. Ricciani wanted to create "buzz" for the home on the Internet. This was in lieu of simply reducing the price of the home on the MLS -- that alone simply would not have created the awareness of his home being for sale. He thought it was a unique idea that just might work! I agreed, so off we went to coordinate with the Realtor.

I worked on the PR plan while the Realtor placed the ads. The $1 million coupon ad first ran in our local paper on May 31, and will run this Sunday in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe (because Ft. Myers is the home of the Boston Red Sox Spring Training facility -- many of their fans know the area well).

I sent out the release via the PRweb Media Visibility package and took full advantage of all of their SEO tools based on what I learned from reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. I also used www.prmatchpoint.com to compile a list of real estate writers in the south and northeastern U.S. I also personally targeted the big news outlets, such as CNN, Fox, NBC and more.

I added the story to www.digg.com and ireport on CNN. I've been tweeting headlines and continue to search for reporters to cover the story.

In 4 days on PRweb, their statistics say the release has been read more than 1,600 times -- around the globe! Headline impressions are over 88,000!

The story appeared front page in our local paper, The Fort Myers News-Press on May 31. It also aired on one of our local television stations, WINK-TV on June 1.

It is populating around the web in real estate blogs galore! Some people love the marketing tactic of a coupon, some hate it and call it a gimmick. Overall, the idea is being received very well! It has been very exciting and energizing!

Just last night we found it on the AOL news page. The homeowner uses AOL and was VERY excited to see it there! (Thanks, PRweb!)

Here are some links for you to check out:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/million_dollar_coupon/real_estate/prweb2447044.htm

http://realestate.aol.com/home-prices/home-selling-incentives?pg=2

http://www.1210gasparilladr.com/ -- this is the site the Realtor created for the listing

www.themilliondollarcoupn.com -- this is the site for the coupon

Will keep you posted!