Claim it!

Product: Marketing Giveaway Platform - Consumer Mobile App
Role: Head of Product, Design, Branding & Marketing
Year: 2014-2017

Description: Claim it! is a tech startup that empowered consumer brand giveaways, and enabled people to win free stuff on their smartphones. We created a first-of-its-kind product that combined branded giveaways, location-triggered prize winning with Bluetooth beacon technology in our hot pink prize trucks. Claim it! launched in 2014 (almost a year before Amazon Treasure Truck) and raised over $2 million in venture funding while partnering with brands including: Nike, Sprint, Crumbs, GoPro, AMC, Red Bull, Vita Coco, Under Armour, and Starbucks

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM BEING SOLVED?

A) Consumer brands didn't have an easy way to launch, manage and promote giveaways of their products.

B) Consumers looking for product giveaways had to download various brand apps on their phones or be lucky enough to stumble upon the giveaways at physical locations.


WHO ARE WE SOLVING IT FOR?

A) Consumer brands who would welcome a product giveaway solution that handles engagement with a large existing audience while also handling logistics.

B) Consumers who would welcome downloading and using one mobile app to engage with multiple giveaways in a fun and repeatable way.


HOW WE SOLVED IT

The team approached the solution in three main phases. 1) Developing business relationships with brands that give away consumer goods. A critical business dependency that was in place by my co-founder prior to the start of my product leading efforts. 2) Deciding on the logistics to take control of the consumer goods, manage the inventory and determine the best way to distribute them to consumers. 3) Create a compelling user experience that would not only drive daily, weekly and monthly engagement but also help promote the product, spark organic growth, and generate free publicity.

Brand Partnerships → Giveaway Logistics → User Experience

Giveaway Logistics

In the early days of ideating and prototyping Claim it! we debated different fulfillment approaches. The finalists were in-store pickup, delivery, and public vending machine. All of these options were complicated, expensive and at the end of the day not very ground breaking. One radical idea ahead of the others. Prize trucks.

Through the use of beacon technology consumers would be able to locate prize trucks around New York City. Being close to the trucks would unlock features in the application such as instant claiming of small prizes (snacks and drinks). Over time we expanded to placing beacons at the retail locations of our partner businesses to drive direct traffic.

The design and development of a suite of tools by myself and my CTO co-founder gave us complete control of inventory management and fulfillment. We could check when winners claimed their prizes and if someone tried to cheat with a fake, used or expired code.

User Experience

Pitch Concept (National)

1) Users scroll through claimable giveaways, 2) Users can claim multiple giveaways before they expire, 3) If they win users receive a bar code scannable at retail locations for their prize.

Beta Experience (Local)

1) Users claim one of three curated giveaways per week 2) Win chances vary based on giveaway value, 3) Users retrieve prizes by locating and scanning a QR code at prize trucks.

Initial business partnerships were not as consistent as we expected. Some brand giveaways were high-quantity, low-cost items, while others were low-quantity, high-cost items. The product adjusted to this reality by using curated weekly giveaways with high, medium, and low tiered items. This introduced a seven-day expiration period on both prize claims and prize redemptions. We turned scarcity into a product feature.

Iterations

As a small very agile team, we took a very data driven approach to how we iterated on new features with the primary goal of retaining existing users and growing the audience.