On the heels of all the Superbowl parties last night, I thought you might like to hear about a new way companies are helping you host parties using their products. It’s called House Party.
Here's how it works: You sign up and they send you e-mail notices of companies with upcoming product parties. You gather your friends and the company provides some products. All they ask of you is to take pictures and talk about your experience on Facebook and Twitter. The products can be anything from pizza to house cleaning products to TV programs.
For example Hershey's got 10,000 people across the country to host chocolate parties to get people talking about the candy Bliss.
You can go here to find a list of upcoming parties. And check out some of the pictures people have taken at their parties here.
A few things to keep in mind, just because you sign up to host a party doesn’t mean you’ll get picked. There is a limit on the number of people who can host a particular party. I’ve signed up to host several parties and have yet to be accepted. The companies also select the dates in which you must host your party.
Companies look for people they want talking about their product. So obviously if it’s a child product, having children and lots of friends with children helps.
The companies provide you with a party pack which typically includes their product and some party planning materials. For example, my girlfriend recently hosted a party for Microsoft when Windows 7 came out. It was pretty cool because she and several of her friends ended up getting free software for their computers just for taking part.
If anyone has done this around the Austin area let me know. Or if you get picked to host an upcoming party let me know.
