CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- One in every three Americans owns a smartphone, and everywhere they go, their smartphones usually follow.
Nearly everywhere Desiree Kane goes, she uses that smartphone to earn cold, hard cash using the application WeReward.
After her meal at the Flying Biscuit Café in the Park Road Shopping Center, we posed for a photo with the restaurant logo. After a quick upload to the app, she gets a response.
“I just made a dollar!” she said.
Fifteen million locations and products from all over the United States are linked with WeReward. Think of it as a mobile marketing tool-- the app pays users between five cents to $35. One point equals one cent, all for uploading a photo.
Restaurants like the Flying Biscuit hope this viral marketing technique can bring in a new audience of customers.
“It’s the most authentic way to convey a message,” said Ted Murphy founder and CEO of IZEA, which runs WeReward. “If I’m here sharing a picture with others, it’s word of mouth on a much larger scale. Instead of five or ten people, your entire network sees it.”
That takes just seconds and anybody— iPhone, Andoid, or Blackberry users-- can do it. You never know who you’ll see using the app, or what your assignment will be.
“Every little bit counts,” said Kane. “It’s $100 I didn’t have before, for something I already do. I’m not diehard, but if you were that type and had a goal, you could make a pretty penny doing this.”
At the Park Road Shopping Center, we found dozens of participating retailers within a half-mile radius—Caribou Coffee, Wich Wich sandwiches, and Qdoba.
“Sometimes when I’m looking for a lunch spot, I’ll see who’s offering the most points and go there for food,” said Kane.
Don’t even think about cheating. Not only does your photo have to be approved before money is deposited into your account, the app geo-tracks your exact location to make sure you’re really there. As soon as you upload that photo of yourself, companies can use that image in any way they’d like.
So you never know--your face could be part of their next ad campaign.
