Crush or Flush introduces branded profiles

We covered Crush of Flush back in December 2007. Briefly, it's a mobile social network but with an additional dimension of flirting between members. Basically, members can rate each other's profiles (pictures) by "crushing" (liking) or "flushing" (disliking) them, but not only that, as there are numerous ways to interact by sharing pictures, chatting and flirting.

They've introduced a new feature on the site. Since members average about a hundred page views a day (it was said the service was addictive), Crush or Flush decided to test an advertising feature on their site called Golden Tickets. Basically, marketers are given the opportunity to introduce and advertise their brand by registering a Golden Ticket, which is a sponsor labeled profile. When members browse profiles they can also see the sponsored profile, usually having to do with the context of their search. For example, a member browsing content tagged with music could be presented with a sponsored profile for 106.1 KISS FM, which used the Golden Ticket option. This advertiser, and some others, has had a positive experience advertising this way, which resulted in significant brand engagement.

Golden Ticket sponsored profiles consist of a photo of the brand and tags describing the product. A member has the option to "Crush" or "Flush" the profile. If they crush a profile, they're usually given an option to continue interaction by signing-up for a product or service, or by downloading content. What happens if they flush the profile though? Or if many members flush the same sponsored profile? During a testing period for Valentine's Day this year, the advertising feature gained positive feedback from Crush or Flush members. I am not sure, but it seems the whole platform is "opt-in" from the members' point of view, so if you find sponsored profiles to be something you'd rather avoid, well, simply don't opt-in. Alternatively, by opting-in you can get some interesting offers, discounts, freebies…

"We're excited to launch an immersive 'opt-in' brand experience and open up a new revenue model," said Josh Levine, vice president of marketing for IceBreaker (Crush or Flush is an IceBreaker product).

Here's their press release, in case you want to see it.

Are you using Crush or Flush? We'd be interested to hear your comments about this.

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