Entertainment/celebrity journalist and E! Entertainment front woman Giuliana Rancic told her fans via Facebook that she is “mildly uh-bsessed” with gift card app Gyft.
The mobile gifting service was founded by Yola founder Vinny Lingham last year and is funded by the likes of Google Ventures, 500 Startups and Founder Collective.
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The platform allows users to store, buy, send and redeem gift cards conveniently from a smartphone or mobile device.
Judging by some of the replies to Rancic’s post it seems she’s not alone in her obsession as her fans seem to love the app as well. Interestingly enough most of her fans that hadn’t heard of the app quickly downloaded it commenting that they did so because she recommended it.
Rancic stars in her own television show with entrepreneur and “The Apprentice” winner husband Bill Rancic, chronicling their day-to-day lives as husband and wife.
The app seems to be growing in steady popularity since its launch and Rancic is not the only television personality to notice it. A few months ago popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres featured the app on her show by giving each member of the studio audience a US$200 GAP gift card pre-loaded on their Gyft account.
To date Gyft has not released its active user numbers or the number of downloads. Though the company has stated that it has “hundreds of thousands” of users on its service.
Rancic’s mention of the app may help it gain more hundreds of users. Of added benefit is the fact that Rancic’s post seemed spontaneous, meaning that there’s no perception that her support for the app was bought. As a number of brands have found out, paying a celebrity to endorse your product can go badly wrong if they aren’t a real match for the product. It also means Gyft likely didn’t have to lay out the kind of massive fees associated with traditional endorsement.
