Snacki.com, an online service offering customized merchandise to college organizations, event planners and small businesses, is in the process of distributing 10,000 free CD samplers across 20 college campuses.
Snacki.com hopes the free CD, which includes current musicians such as The Suicide Machines, Crazy Town and Powerman 5000, will get student organizations to click through to links at the site that provide information about Snacki.com services and merchandise, as well as rock band biographies and links to the artists’ sites.
Snacki.com’s core service is to provide “custom gear for your group.” In other words, if a fraternity wants 100 pairs of boxer shorts with Greek letters embroidered on them, all it needs to do is pick the boxers and customize them by uploading graphics. Once that’s done, members can come to the site to purchase them.
“A client sets up a project on site like a fraternity. Then they put together e-mail that says go to Snacki.com to choose your own size and pay for your own merchandise,” said Meesh Joslyn, CEO of Snacki.com, Los Angeles. “It saves the hassle of collecting checks and sizes.”
Each member must enter the project name and a password to purchase the product.
Free music was chosen to reach the college consumer because “In college, music is a big thing,” said Joslyn. Also, associating Snacki.com with new recording artists “builds a lot of loyalty and people’s impression of the brand.”
The record labels were eager to partner with the site because “This is also a chance for record labels to promote their artists to their target audience — Gen Y college students,” said Joslyn.
The CD program also is feeding the company’s e-mail marketing efforts. Snacki.com is putting together a database of user’s e-mail addresses when users come to the site. Every two to three weeks it sends an e-mail newsletter address promoting site specials. To keep college consumers interested, it also mentions upcoming promotions and giveaways.
