EMAZING Embarks on Grocery Store Promotion

EMAZING, an email publisher owned by Sony Music, on Thursday began testing a promotion that will take it into grocery stores on its home turf in Louisville, Kentucky.

The company is working with Kroger and Winn-Dixie stores that will bring EMAZING’s content — specifically a Recipe Tip of the Day — to the check-out stand, where it will appear on the back of store grocery receipts. The receipts will also inform shoppers how to sign up to receive these recipes via email.

When they sign up on EMAZING, shoppers will be registered for a weekly giveaway — a $500 shopping spree. The promotion will begin on April 21 and continue for twelve weeks.

“Quite simply, our compelling online service jumps off of the computer screen and into a retail environment for mutual benefit,” said Joe Pierce, founder and general manager of EMAZING.

“In addition, we see this on- and off-line promotion as a terrific, non-traditional vehicle for building the EMAZING brand and site traffic.”

If the promotion is successful, EMAZING will roll it out across the country.

This isn’t the first time a dot-com company has discovered the grocery store as a distribution location. MyPoints.com recently entered into an alliance with Catalina Marketing, which, in turn, has relationships with thousands of grocery stores. Catalina has also struck deals with FreeRide.com, Cybergold, and Gold Points.com, leveraging its presence in the stores. In addition, Priceline.com has launched a name-your-price service in grocery stores called WebHouse Club.

This promotion by EMAZING, though, is part of a larger effort to extend its reach offline. The company sponsored a car in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, and it’s currently sponsoring a six-month 25-city guerilla marketing tour, in which a Humvee limousine emblazoned with the company logo appears at shopping malls and at events.