Roll up the rim and tweet

UPDATE: April 29, 2010
The Roll up the Rim campaign is *rolling* to a close and according to my RimRoller app, my final win/loss ration was 2-7. There were definitely more 'Try Again' cups which I didn't record, so really it's probably closer to 2-15. It was a worthwhile experiment, I think. And by the way, I won two donuts. I'm curious to see whether anyone won any of the big prizes. Please comment!

March marks the return of the Roll up the Rim to Win campaign at Tim Hortons. For me, this marks the opportunity to follow my large triple triple with an opportunity to win.

In conjunction with the iPhone, rolling up the rim becomes an online social interaction with fellow coffee drinkers. I downloaded an application to my iPhone called RimRoller by ReCat Film.


With this app, after I finish my coffee and roll up my rim, I can post whether I won or whether my cup said 'Try again' to Twitter. It's a neat way to track your wins vs losses ratios and also track other people's wins.

What I find interesting with this app is the PR implications and how it can motivate or discourage the masses to participate in Tim Hortons' campaign. Primarily, this app is not sponsored or affiliated with Tim Hortons, but works as exposure of its campaign. It also connects Tim Hortons coffee drinkers on Twitter.

Posting Roll up the Rim results to Twitter can have a positive effect:

If many people are winning, there are higher hopes of me winning.

If many people are losing, there's more prizes out there for me to win.

However, it can also have a negative effect:

If not many people are winning, what chances are there of me winning?

If many people are winning, all the prizes are probably already won.

I personally like this app because it combines online social media with drinking coffee. You can search for other users of this app on Twitter, by searching for #RollUpTheRim.

Do you think the RimRoller application is effective PR for Tim Hortons? What are some pros and cons?