Rangitoto blows her top … or did she?

Mintshot.co.nz officially launched this morning at 7am. To many people it appeared that Rangitoto was erupting however on closer inspection it was revealed that the simulated eruption was part of a guerilla marketing campaign by the new entertainment website www.mintshot.co.nz.

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The publicity stunt was lead by mintshot director Marc Ellis, who along with fellow directors Ben Hickey and Nick Dalton ascended Rangitoto in the early hours of the morning and using smoke flares simulated an eruption of the extinct volcano.

“The Mintshot tag line is “it pays to watch” so naturally we wanted to give New Zealand something massive to watch, and we thought this would do the trick! It also reflects the non conformist realities of the online domain where marketing can be a lot more edgy.

“Months of preparation and training have gone into this marketing exercise so that it was conducted in a safe and effective manner. Hopefully by the end of the day, everyone is aware of a great new company called mintshot.co.nz,” says Ellis.

The stunt has been a covert operation for all involved. A behind the scenes account of this guerilla marketing stunt will be revealed on 20/20 (TV2) at 9.30pm tonight (Thursday 15th November).

“Secrecy has been paramount to the success of this launch. As part of the lead up to today we ran a teaser campaign over the week with television and newspapers ads alerting people with our mintshot.co.nz tag line ‘it pays to watch’,” says Ellis.

Mintshot.co.nz went live on Monday and has already had an overwhelming number of visitors to the site.

“Tens of thousands of people have already registered and we have given away around $100k worth of prizes in the last few days which is fantastic both for consumers and advertisers,” says Ellis.

The site is an entertainment website which rewards people for watching ads online. Viewers are rewarded with ‘mintshot’ currency which can then be spent on their online auctions. So far over 50 of New Zealand’s top brands have come on board for the launch including Mini, ANZ, Pacific Blue, SKY TV, Progressive Enterprises, McDonalds and Harvey Norman, Slingshot, Lion Nathan, and Fonterra.

As part of the launch activity viewers can go online to www.mintshot.co.nz and view a video of the simulated Rangitoto eruption. A competition to come up with the best picture caption of the launch stunt will see one lucky person walk away with a fabulous new Mini.

The site, which is believed to be a worldwide first, combines three of the biggest aspects of online media: TV quality broadcast, entertainment and online auctions, and is set to change the way we look at advertising and entertainment.

As well as being an opt in entertainment portal for viewers to watch and give their opinions on advertiser’s latest products, services and commercials, the site provides advertises with invaluable back end data profiles on consumer behaviour.

“Mintshot provides an accountable marketing solution at a micro level whilst capturing direct market intelligence through communication with their consumers,” says Ellis.

www.mintshot.co.nz

About Mintshot

Mintshot was founded in 2007 by Ben Hickey, Nick Dalton (IT Specialist) and Marc Ellis (Marketing Entrepreneur). It is funded by private Equity firm Collins Asset Management, whose managing director Tim Cook is also a director.

The mintshot.co.nz launch is supported with an advertising campaign including TV, PR, internet print and radio.

ENDS

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