As the No. 9 Ducks get ready to take on the California Golden Bears tonight in front of ESPN and the rest of the nation, University students have the opportunity to garner some attention from College GameDay sideline reporter Jenn Brown themselves.
In a promotional effort by Brown and Zaarly, an online proximity-based marketplace, students in the Eugene community have the chance to meet the ESPN broadcaster — and make money doing it.
Zaarly launched last February in Los Angeles and has taken root in New York, San Francisco and 20 colleges across the nation. The service works like a newspaper, where users interact to exchange goods and services based on where they live. For each listing, users immediately can haggle, make counteroffers and send anonymous messages to each other.
“I get notifications on my phone every time somebody needs something,” said Tyler Elliott, University senior and president of the Warsaw Sports Business Club. “I think it could redefine how students interact around the campus area.”
Brown will be using the service tomorrow before the Ducks face the Bears. In return for bringing her a chai tea, one University student will get $20 from her in person. University senior Kevin Franks is one student who will be using Zaarly in an attempt to help Brown.
“Why not? I think Jenn’s gorgeous,” Franks said. “Why not bring her a tea and go from there?”
Brown will ask Zaarly users why they think they’re the biggest Duck fan and will ask the author of the winning entry to bring her the tea. As an added bonus, Zaarly has promised that for every response Brown garners, $5 will go to a charity of Brown’s choice, the Carrie Brown Foundation.
Although still in its infancy, Zaarly has found a niche on college campuses.
“I’ve done it a couple times,” University senior Bayley Fensel said. “I’m a business tutor, and I’ve already had a couple of responses. I haven’t gotten exactly what I was looking for yet, but there’s definitely a fast turnaround.”
Zaarly recently launched at the University, and getting users on board may be the biggest difficulty it faces. The Zaarly Facebook page for the University has just 20 likes, and the University does not yet boast its own section on the site. But West Coast colleges like USC and the University of Washington do, and with the expansion of a campus-only version of the site, ZaarlyU, the potential to grow exists — students just need to sign up with their University email account.
“You can tell it’s in its beginning stages,” Franks said, “but I feel like the more people jump on, the more successful it will be.”
Franks recently got an iPhone 4 off the site and rates his overall experience as positive.
“It’s not quite as popular as it should be,” Elliott said. “It’s about community sharing, and that’s what Eugene is all about.”