We like supporting Canadian businesses. And free stuff.
We decided to bring together Canadian brands in one place for the month of February to share the best deals they can.
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We thought-- 'there must be other brands that would love to get their products into people's hands as well?' Some can do it with a BOGO on their website, and we've included those, and others may opt to do in person giveaways or other fantastic offers.
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We've narrowed the scope of the program a little since last year, focusing on Canadian-made products, either physical or virtual, rather than retailers, hospitality or service businesses. We hope this will improve our engagement even further. Retailers can support the program by sharing with their audience, knowing that the makers and manufacturers in their stores will benefit as well as becoming sponsors.
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We've also partnered with some new supporting organizations to help with all aspects of the campaign. Watch for updates about that. Get on the email list if you're not already.
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Andrew & The Freebruary Team
Application Form for Brands
Some general offer ideas:
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Free Sample
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Buy One, Get One Free
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Buy X, get Y sample added
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Spend X, get Y special gift added
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Categories:
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Packaged Goods & Food
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Home & Lifestyle
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Makers
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Mobile Apps / Web Services
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No B2B
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No MLM
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No Hospitality/Restaurants
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No Importers/Resellers
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Criteria subject to change. We reserve the right to reject any brand or business for any reason.
To participate, you agree to share your Freebruary post with your email subscribers and/or Social Media followers. This is a stone soup marketing tactic.
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New for 2023: Participating brands are required to pay a media participation fee of $125. This fee is to ensure that Freebruary gets the reach and impressions needed to benefit your brand, as well as cover overhead, shipping, and other minor expenses. After polling 2022 participating brands, the overwhelming majority of those asked said that this fee would be well received and deliver an ROI.
For Brands:
Three great ways to reach consumers:
Posting
Every eligible company starts with a posting on the main page. This posting showcases your Freebruary Offer (see below) as well as information about your company, a product image, links to your social media, and anything else you want to include.
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The offer is your way to get your brand in the hands of consumers. The best offers are ones that give free product, spend and get, gift with purchase, BOGO, and the like. Some will choose to execute on their ecommerce platform with a code like FREEBRUARY2023 while others may choose to collect a mailing address and ship a coupon to use at retail. Every brand is different. Supporting retail velocity for some categories is important, while others are just starting out and need website traffic and email signups.
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The best Freebruary profiles have lots of media, links and ways for consumers to connect with brands. Here's an example.
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This profile is a chance to get awareness with the thousands of visitors browsing the site each day. Categories, tags, and keywords are important for this, so we try our best to add meta data where we can.
Draws
Companies provide product to be included in the draws. Consumers love contests and the value-seeking audience of Freebruary all enter the draws. Get your products into these amazing prize packs. 11 Winners will be chosen at random in February 2023. Details here on the WIN page.
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The Draws are the main, promotable campaign feature beyond 'brands supporting brands' or 'Support Canadian Entrepreneurs' and those kinds of messages. Consumers respond tremendously to "Win over $10,000 worth of Canadian products" and it's easy to share, even though most brands are contributing less than $200 worth of products. This is why this approach is powerful.
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By staggering the draws, with each new draw opening for entries as the last one closes, we ensure fresh eyes on the site, lots of chances for everyone, and an opportunity to fine tune each prize pack later in the month as late-registrants join.
Videos
Tell your story AND share behind-the-scenes video of your production, in our YouTube Channel through Founder Videos and other opportunities throughout the year.
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If you have content you want to share with interested Canadians, we can find ways to incorporate that content into our various channels, pages, streams, reels, posts, and more.
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How brands support Freebruary:
Put a hyper-linked Freebruary logo in your footer. Link to the main page so your visitors see all the offers and can sign up for email. Use this same logo in an email you send or overlay it in a social post. (It's a transparent PNG)
Follow the Freebruary LinkedIn page and when you see posts, engage with them, share, comment, and direct others you know to have a look. The more manufacturers and makers on board, the bigger the audience looking at your business.
Subscribe and Turn on Notifications for our Youtube channel, and like the videos you see there. Share the videos on your own sites and on other platforms.
