Cold Stone Creamery Hopes to Boost Sales with eGift Social Media App

Cold Stone Creamery is rolling out a novel way to make virtual gifts very real.  The popular specialty ice cream shop has partnered with First Data Corporation to offer a new gifting application through Facebook.  The application allows users to send and receive eGift cards, redeemable at any of the 1,300 creameries, making Cold Stone the first company to use First Data’s new eGift program.

With consumers spending $10 million in 2009 buying and sending virtual goods on Facebook (according to Inside Facebook), Cold Stone is very optimistic about the program.  Says Dan Beem, Cold Stone’s President, “Translating the company’s social media presence into real-world sales and profitability is what the company is striving for.  We’re seeing a huge amount of usage as people come to the mobile lifestyle.” Eventually Cold Stone is looking to implement the campaign into the mobile market, a prospect that is incredibly exciting to Beem.

The campaign is part of an increasing trend to send digital “coupons”, which can be redeemed for actual gifts. Earlier this year, Webtab developed an app, Bartab, which allows users to send free drinks to a friend. Once downloaded from iTunes, the app enables users for $1 to send a digital ticket to a friend, who can then go to a bar within the network and redeem it for a free drink. The app is live in San Francisco, with plans to be rolled out in other cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

Cold Stone is among the first brands to leverage this trend by linking its social media presence with concrete consumer behavior to increase profitability. First Data expects to soon announce a mobile client app for iPhones and other smartphones that will extend the capability to the mobile community.