Find A Penny, Pick It Up...

All the day you'll have ... free pizza?

Sure. If you happen to wander past a CiCi's Pizza restaurant in the near future.

As the economy weakens, I've been hearing about a lot of creative promotions businesses are coming up with to drive sales, most recently, CiCi's pizza. The chain is getting consumers to rethink the value of the penny through its "Penny Picker Upper" promotion.

It works like this: CiCi's has dropped one million pennies printed with offers for free food outside its stores across the country. The campaign is being promoted via television, radio and and the Internet. Consumers who visit BeAPennyPickerUpper.com can look up CiCi's locations and make avatars of themselves.

"We realized that as a value brand, we had to take some action, and with the penny, many people just walk by it and don't look at it as money anymore," said CiCi's CMO Tom Koenigsberg. "It may be a penny, but it's still money and money is cool. As a brand, we value every penny, as well."

Check out the full Brandweek story here.