If They Want It, Flaunt It

A pair of web entrepreneurs has created a series of “vanity” sites designed to make finding that holiday or special-occasion gift a bit easier for shoppers – and sales a bit easier for retailers.

In addition to Flauntable.com, a general site for gift-givers, Matt Steckler and Andres Krogh operate iamsaintnick.com for Christmas and iamsaintvalentino.com for Valentine’s Day.

Gift-givers visit the sites and input the recipient’s contact information; a site representative calls the recipient and asks what the person wants for the holiday or occasion in question. The list of potential gifts is then e-mailed to the gift-giver.

A low-key viral marketing campaign and some media hits generated approximately 15,000 calls from iamsaintnick.com during the Christmas season. The blogosphere has taken a shine to the concept, deeming it a great idea in a bad economy and “proving once again, of course, that where consumers feel pain, crafty entrepreneurs can gain,” according to Internet Redux’ Jamison Douglas Hiner.

Flaunt built the sites quickly using the Twilio.com platform, which provides the API voice communications that allows the site to call online users.

In a statement, Twilio.com founder Jeff Lawson says his company helped get iamsaintnick.com up and running in two days. “We loved the idea that a couple of developers can stay up late one night and build a creative, useful and reliable voice application — just like applications that large companies spend millions to build,” he says.

Initially, Steckler and Krogh were just having a little fun with children in mind. “It would be for children, to find out what they wanted for Christmas,” Steckler says. “It changed after we realized there was a great retail opportunity to target people wanting to buy items.”

At first, Flaunt sent MP3 audio files of the phone calls to the initiating parties. Using voice-to-text technology, it now can match keywords to specific products. Targeting general Internet retailers, Flaunt will send to the gift-giver a list of the retailers’ products that match the keywords.

“It allows us to target customers on their needs,” Steckler says. “We’re able to strengthen brand loyalty by delivering timely content. People are looking to be extra careful with money, and we are able” to deliver to gift-givers “exactly what [the recipients] want.”

Direct marketing opportunity
All users are directed back to Flauntable, where retailers can conduct direct marketing. After the gift-giver inputs his recipient’s information, there is also a chance for upselling. On iamsaintvalentino.com, for instance, Gifts.RedEnvelope.com appears after the phone number and e-mail are entered. The site markets Sweet Expressions Bouquets and other flowers from ProFlowers.com.

Flaunt intends to create vanity sites for all major holidays, “but our main goal is to focus on Christmas, Valentine’s, birthdays and baby showers,” Steckler says.

Flaunt has a group of “angel” investors and is looking for a big retailer to sign on. Industry response has been generally positive, Steckler says. “Retailers are excited because we are not generating wish lists and relying on somebody coming to the site — we’re targeting people who actually want to buy.”