Pawn'd gave away cash to get people to download the game, but very few iPad and iPhone owners actually bit

Seattle mobile app developer Michael Burford thought he’d come up with a brilliant brainstorm to find customers for his new mobile puzzle game, Pawn’d. And on the surface, the idea didn’t seem too far-fetched to us. But Burford’s mini-marketing experiment last Friday during Apple’s iPad launch “failed miserably,” Burford said.

Here’s what the veteran mobile app developer cooked up. Looking to capitalize on the buzz around the release of the new iPad, Burford recruited friends and family members in five cities across the country to visit Apple stores early Friday morning before they let in the throngs of iPad fans.

Each of the recruits (including Burford’s 15-year-old nephew in Spokane; a co-worker in LA; and friends in Pittsburgh and Colorado Springs) was armed with about 70 to 100 flyers describing Pawn’d, with a $1 bill attached to the flyer. The idea was that the Apple fans would use the $1 to buy the 99 cent game, perhaps installing it on their iPhones while waiting in line or make Pawn’d one of the first downloads they purchased once picking up their new iPads.

“All those purchases of the app we hoped would help it climb up in the App Store charts, becoming much more visible,” Burdord tells us via email.  “Plus we predicted all those people would be likely to show off the game and talk about how they got it by being handed a dollar in line. It’s a good story to tell, people handing out cash to a whole line at the Apple store.”

Burford's nephew, Zachary, hands out cash in Spokane

Sounds pretty smart, huh? Well, it didn’t really work.

About 350 cards were handed out at various Apple stores, and yet the promotion resulted in only about 10 additional app purchases. Given the shipping and printing costs (not to mention the $1 bills), Burford estimated that they spent about $750 on the promotion. And given Apple’s traditional 30 percent cut, that means they got back just $7.

Ouch. Even Burford said it’s hard to talk about the poor results, noting the irony that most of the people in line were already shelling out at least $500 on a new iPad.

“We’re very surprised by how few people did it, especially after all the comments from lots of the people getting a card that it was a great idea and they’d go get the game,” said Burford. “I think we bought a lot of people a cup of coffee that day.”

Previously on GeekWireiPad Launch Day: Why these crazy people are waiting in the Seattle rain

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