In a world obsessed with Instagram, influencers and free stuff, dog Instagram account owner Bex Dorman has often felt pressured to give back to her followers with physical gifts.
‘Dog tired’ of this expectation, Bex sought inspiration from The Good Registry and came up with what she calls a ‘reverse giveaway.’ Here at The Good Registry, we were thrilled by Bex’s innovation and we think her idea deserves a big paws-up!
In 2017 Bex adopted her furry friend Frankie. Soon after, the Instagram account @frankieandbex was born. With more than 1.5k followers who Frankie and Bex connect with daily, the dynamic duo share all things to do with Frankie’s training journey. Instagram has been amazing for documenting Frankie’s progress and connecting the pair to like-minded people. With positives often come negatives, and for Bex it is the mass consumeristic behaviours that the platform promotes that gets under her skin.
Whether it is in the dog account world, the beauty influencer industry or food-based Instagram pages, thousands of physical gifts are distributed to followers daily. In many cases, these gifts are unused and unnecessary. As Bex said, “in no world does someone need to be gifted 50 dog bandanas!”
After receiving one of The Good Registry’s Good Gift Cards for her birthday from her Wellington-based workplace Catalyst IT, Bex began pondering how she could use The Good Registry’s platform to provoke thought around Instagram’s consumerist culture. This led to some impressive innovation and the reverse giveaway was born!
In early February, Frankie and Bex voiced their want to reduce the endless quest for free stuff on Instagram. To action this call out, they set up a Good Gift Registry and asked their followers to rethink the concept of giveaways by introducing a shift in focus from quantity to quality. Bex was stuck on which charity to choose, but it was her and more importantly Frankie’s love for the beach that encouraged her decision to collect donations for our awesome friends at Sustainable Coastlines.
In just two weeks they raised $215 and received an abundance of positive praise and feedback from followers. In Bex’s words, they were able to achieve “$215 less stuff and more goodness in the world!”
Although, Bex and Frankie have been able to lend a big helping hand towards the protection of Aotearoa’s marine and beach life as a result of the giveaway, Bex expressed that the most rewarding part of the experience was hearing that she had encouraged thought-provoking conversation surrounding waste and mass consumption.
When asked what she would say to encourage people to continue to choose to give goodness over stuff, Bex talked about the “warm fuzzy” feeling. She said that if it is giving that makes us feel so warm and fuzzy inside, why don’t we do it in a way that is better for our environment and the wellbeing of our people!
This is not the last reverse giveaway we will see from Frankie and Bex and here at The Good Registry we hope their story might inspire other influencers and account holders to act differently when planning to give back to their audiences. After all ….. sustainable gift giving is pretty paw-some!
If you'd like to set up a reverse giveaway - or a registry for any kind of life milestone or special event (for yourself or for a four legged friend!) you can do that here.
By Maisie Gray.
Comments