Cool stuff for free

A year ago a Belgian blogger called Renaud Dehareng had an idea for a new online advertising model - wish fulfillment. He set up a website called Payittome where people post up a picture of an item on the site they want to have - an iPod, a laptop, a tent, a bike - and a company buys it for them. In return the company gets publicity on the site for purchasing the item and a big link to their own website. The company gets to look all generous and touchy-feely and the punter gets cool stuff for free. Everybody wins.

Dehareng's idea caused a bit of a stir at the time and I, like many others, thought it had real potential, as long as it was well-executed. Crucial, of course, was to get lots of people free stuff early on so that punters would keep posting items, watch as others were successful and then keep coming back to check. Companies would then see the click rate climb and want to get on board. It would become a spiral of success, very much like the Million Dollar Homepage.

So what happened? Sadly, not a lot. Only 13 items have been purchased for people by companies. The most generous gift was a $2,000 MacBook Pro bought for someone by a fishing technology firm in France. About 50 hopeful souls are still waiting to have their wishes fulfilled. It simply has not taken off.

Dehareng has revamped the website, issued a new press release about the project and created a Payittome community on Facebook to try and create more momentum. Here is his response when I emailed him about it:

"Well, the concept is 1 year old now and some people have seen their wishes fulfilled by generous advertisers : more or less 12 people to be exact. I'm not happy with that number of course :-)

"To be honest with you, it's one of the big problem of my concept : it needs huge traffic to be really attractive (for the moment the buzz generated by the concept is not enough to catch attention of big spending advertisers) and it's very difficult to provoke media interest about it.

"I think a lot of people think the concept cannot work and I want to prove they are wrong and that everything is possible on internet (even with few financial means and technical skills) with simple ideas." Dehareng, 31, a Brussels social worker, says that in these dire economic times, the concept has even more appeal. I am not sure about that but I do think that the idea still has great potential. The idea of connecting advertisers and consumers in a much more personal, viral way is a powerful one.

I have to say that despite Dehareng's best efforts, the website design was not helpful before and it is not much better now. The name also needs a rethink. My suggestion is Coolstuff4free.com. But that domain name will cost money. In the meantime I wonder if there are any companies out there who want to help make a Belgian blogger's dreams come true?

Comments

[Ian Kemmish]

The most depressing part of this article is the appearance of the word "many" at the beginning of the second paragraph. Every time one thinks that the "dumbing down" curve has bottomed out, something like this comes along!

Why the dickens would I - or anyone else - want to pay over the odds for goods in the shops to solely to increase the advertising budgets of companies so that they can give freebies away to moochers like these people?