It pays to follow Newcastle Brown Ale on Twitter. Not much, but it pays.
The British beer brand continues its tongue-in-cheek ribbing of traditional marketing by pledging Monday night to pay the next 50,000 people who follow @Newcastle "the princely sum of $1." To take the brewer up on this, visit follownewcastleontwitter.com.
This is all in the name of transparency. "Why should people endure the unsolicited marketing of other beer brands for free when they can endure Newcastle's unsolicited marketing and get paid?" the brand rightly asks. The brand is actually going to mail 50,000 checks for $1 each. ("Newcastle-branded checks, of course.")
The stunt, orchestrated by Droga5, is called "Follow the Money," and it's not a complete joke. Despite having some big YouTube hits, and almost 1 million Facebook fans, the brand has fewer than 16,000 Twitter followers. "We really do want 50,000 more Twitter followers," the brand tells us.