Sprint Launches a P2P Passalong Campaign

OK, a lot of the marketing buzz these days is about the Web, but Sprint is out to prove that you can still execute a really cool person-to-person marketing campaign in the physical world too.

Sprint is launching a contest called Got the Hookup this weekend in Philadelphia and DC. It’s similar to the Ambassador program that I am participating in, but this time they’re giving away 150 phones in each market to opinion leaders. Other cities will follow later on this year.

After a given time period, a message appears on the phone asking the user to “pass it on” to a friend. The promotion logs the number of people who use each phone. Every person who used the phone with from the uber-passalonger will receive a free multimedia phone and free service for a year.

There’s a charitable element here too. For each completed registration, Sprint will donate $5 to a local charity, giving up to $25,000 to a charity in each market on our nationwide tour. Through our 20-city nationwide tour, Sprint will donate up to $500,000 to select charities nationwide.

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.