What lengths will people go to in order to get their hands on £1,000 worth of free printing?

Quite a way, as it turns out. An ingenious New Year promo at Printing.com and its franchise network involved the company giving away a £1,000 print voucher to one lucky punter every Monday throughout January. The really clever bit, though, is that this viral promotion centres on people carrying out shameless plugs for Printing.com itself, with customers sending in pics and videos demonstrating the extent of their activities.

Thus, we have "I heart Printing.com" projected onto the side of a large building, a man driving around with a big sign proclaiming the same on the back of his Chevy truck, another chap running bare-chested down the street with the message emblazoned on his torso, banners being hoisted from cranes, people skydiving, a bevy of scantily-clad models, innumerable Tweets and Facebook mentions... the list goes on, and the reach has been impressive. I can't begin to imagine how many thousands of people will have seen the Printing.com name because of it. You can view some of the entries here. And in a nice you-scratch-my-back touch, Printing.com has included links back to the websites of the various small business owners who've submitted entries.

Clever, very clever. And I've just learned it's been so successful that they're extending it to run through February too. I imagine the ROI on the marketing and print outlay for this particular promo will be something to shout about in itself.