Online shoppers may be awarded credit points in return for clicking
on ads in a ground-breaking system mooted by e-commerce site
Letsbuyit.com.
The Sweden-based service is launching dedicated websites across
Europe.
Its debut in Germany on 1 November will be ’the biggest ever internet
launch in Europe in terms of television budget,’ according to its new
marketing director Soames Hines. The UK launch will follow hot on its
heels.
Letsbuyit.com enables consumers to club together and buy products at a
discount. Users become members under a loyalty scheme.
Hines said that, in the short term, the site would gain all its revenues
from e-commerce, but it was likely to carry advertising in the near
future.
’We would like to find a way of returning some of this revenue to our
members,’ he said. ’For instance, if they were thinking of buying
trainers and they clicked on a Nike ad, they would get paid for it. This
would be linked with our loyalty programme.’
Hines stressed that the plan was by no means finalised and that nothing
was likely to happen until after the German and UK launches. The service
has already rolled out in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ’Whatever we do on
the advertising front, we will act in the interest of our members,’ he
added.
Letsbuyit’s own advertising is being handled by DMB&B. ’It has been
appointed across Europe and has been running online and offline activity
in the Nordic region,’ Hines said. ’We are now talking about moving
ahead in Germany and the UK. Until now there has not been a full brand
strategy in place, so advertising has been done on a fairly ad-hoc
basis.’
Hines has joined Letsbuyit as global marketing director from J. Walter
Thompson, where he spent two years as global business director for
Unilever and UDV. Previously he was managing director of the agency’s
Shanghai office, which he set up from scratch. He also established
Ammirati Puris Lintas in Vietnam.
Even so, he said his new role at Letsbuyit presented a challenge. ’Most
global brands have taken in excess of 50 years to build. We’re
attempting to do the same in under three years.’
Meanwhile, natural health e-commerce site ClickMango.com has secured
initial funding of pounds 3 million in the run-up to its launch in early
2000.
Atlas Venture and the Rothschild family are investing in the
project.
The site will not carry advertising, but its founders Robert Norton and
Toby Rowland are currently preparing a brand promotion strategy
embracing public relations, online and offline advertising.
