The Cupcake Code Word

I'm happy to report that the mythical free cupcake is alive and well! Yesterday, a couple of girls from my office made a lunch-run to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills - a move that I both appreciate and admire. In their adventure, I saw scientific opportunity. I'm all about cupcakes in the name of science, after all!

"Waiiiit!" I bellowed enthusiastically on their way out. I proceeded to tell them about the Sprinkles Twitter account - and how they Tweet secret words every day in which the first 50 people who whisper them at the store can receive free cupcakes, flavors varying by day. I wanted to try it to see if the most popular store in Los Angeles would have any free cupcakes left by 1pm in the afternoon.

When they arrived at the Beverly Hills location - which sports lines around the block on Saturday afternoons - they were pleasantly surprised. They were literally asked to whisper the secret code word and BOTH received free red velvet cupcakes!

This is a great idea for any of you cupcakery owners! It's fun and it brings traffic to the Twitter account consistently. Because I spread the tweet (mainly since I thought it was so cool!), two more people could join Twitter, follow Sprinkles, and tell their friends about their free cupcake positive experience. I'm a big fan :-) Especially since the cost of offering free cupcakes is low - these girls each bought 5 more each to share on their cupcake sugar high! Brilliant marketing, Sprinkles!