Yesterday I saw this headline flash across my inbox:

Compuware launches $1 million giveaway for customer testimonials

Surely it couldn’t mean Compuware is paying, publicly!, for customer success stories. I saved it to read this morning when I could give it a bit more time. Turns out, it is for real and Compuware “plans to award $1 million to a business customer of its mainframe software with the best story about its use and cost savings.”

What’s interesting is that all the customers’ stories will be under non-disclosure and will “not be used in future marketing campaigns.” I wonder if that also means the stories won’t be leveraged in any sort of customer reference activities. Seems like a big lost opportunity if that’s the case.

If your company launched this compaign, what would you do? Celebrate, cringe, or something else?