Name of business: Rare Digital; WonUp app
Type of business: Marketing services; Weekly giveaway app
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
Contact information: 209-202-3238; hello@getraredigital.com
Specialty: Local deals and chances to win free products/services
History of business:
Everyone loves free stuff, especially when it comes as easily as a simple tap of an iPhone screen.
That’s what Turlocker Zain Joyce was banking on when his company Rare Digital created the WonUp app — a simple feed of local giveaways that aims to drive customers to area restaurants, gyms and other businesses by providing an alternative to the typical social media contests often seen online.
The concept is simple: Users download the WonUp app and sign up by entering their name and email, then, they can view the current giveaway and hit the “enter” button to have a shot at winning. Contests are a week long and begin on Sundays. This week, WonUp users can enter to win a one-month VIP membership at Studio V Fitness.
Joyce developed 80 percent of the app, and works alongside his wife Liz Joyce and business partner Clay Sights to attract business clients and app users alike. Joyce and his wife are used to providing marketing solutions to others through Rare Digital, but this is the first product of their own that they’re hoping resonates with today’s social media crowd.
The app utilizes the concept of online giveaways, which are a frequent sight on apps like Instagram and Facebook that ask users to comment, follow, share or subscribe to a company’s page in return for the possibility of being randomly selected to win a prize. While often effective in increasing a company’s social profile, giveaways can be tedious, as selecting a winner at random has to be done manually.
“We run giveaways all the time for clients, but the problem we had with running all of those is that it’s very complex. We have to verify a bunch of info — did you actually tag three friends? Did you like the page?” Joyce said. “And for the businesses, they usually see a bump in followers but as far as the people who got tagged, they can’t really re-market to those people.”
WonUp has only been in the iOS App Store for a month (Joyce hopes to eventually make the app available for Android users) and already has 15 businesses who have joined to offer giveaways. There have been three giveaways so far with a combined 200 participants, and even the unlucky entrants who don’t win the grand prize walk away with something to show for their efforts: follow-up offers.
For example, those who entered the giveaway for a $100 Tresetti’s gift card received a buy one, get one free drink voucher for the restaurant. This not only gives people incentive to download the app, Joyce explained, but businesses motive to participate and generate more traffic into their locations.
It doesn’t cost a gym anything extra to welcome one more person into a class for free, he added, and the hope is that the winner will sign up for another month of workouts or inspire a friend to join. Winners can even gift their giveaways to friends if they’d like.
“What we’ve found and what I think a lot of businesses find is that it’s hard to get a new customer, but it’s easy to keep customers and make them repeat customers,” Joyce said.
WonUp is free for users to download, and it’s free to enter into giveaways. It’s also free for businesses to offer their giveaways on the app, which are also promoted on the WonUp Instagram page. Eventually, Joyce would love to see the app expand into a larger market and offer giveaways and coupons based on a user’s location. So far, participants in the giveaways have only had one negative thing to say.
“They ask me, ‘What’s the catch?’” Joyce said. “A lot of people think it’s too good to be true.”
To download the WonUp app, visit the App Store or scan the provided QR code with your phone’s camera.
