Yes puerile we know, but we came across the following typo on Speedo's website, TotalSwimming.co.uk referring to the 'Brish Gas Poos 4 Schools' initiative. It later goes on to invite people to join the make a splash roadshow. We had to laugh.
Don't worry, we have now told them about their mistake. The link above should take you to the corrected site by the time you read this.
Before we get immersed in the inevitable 'look back at the last year/decade' retrospectives and endless Channel 4 top 10s of every cultural phenomenon under the sun, we at the Sales Promotion Blog thought it was worth getting in there first and asking the question that's secretly on every marketeer's minds... just what is the best sales promotion campaign ever?
We propose to open nominations from today and invite suggestions as to possible candidates, and depending on the participation, either open it up to a global poll from the beginning of January, or draw our own conclusions from the entries.
To get the ball rolling, here are a selection of our favourites, some of which score marks for longevity if nothing else.
Esso Free Mixer Glass
Talk about a promotion having a lasting effect My parents still have tumblers in their glass cabinet from collecting petrol coupons in the 1970s! They're still as good as the day they were first blown and have even gained a certain retro chic.
In the earliest days of internet marketing strategy, Andrex wanted to drive increased traffic to their website and attract 1000 more users.
In return for 6 tokens and £2.50 consumers were offered a Free Beanie Puppy. Purchasers were then offered other puppy items and a 10p donation was made to the Canine Defence League for every puppy purchased.
A well groomed promotion covering multiple disciplines and communication channels.
Co-Op - Green Shield Stamps
The veritable godfather of retail loyalty schemes, still fondly remembered if you run a Google search.
No plastic card shenanigans here, just collect your stamps from your weekly Co-Op shop and stick them into your stamp saver book.
All sorts of exciting premiums to collect for, like a treasure trove from a Generation Game conveyor belt!
Walkers - Comic Relief 2004
The iconic red nose was used to great effect in the supporting advertising campaign and a limited edition Baked Bean flavour added to the mirth of the theme.
Multi-packs offered a choice of three different branded Whoopee cushions to collect. A guaranteed £1,000,000 donation was pledged with no link to how many crisps were purchased.
Plus 1p was promised for every sale of individual baked bean and Monster Munch packs and 5p for baked bean multi-packs.
A typical Walkers promotion: well-executed and capturing the zeitgeist of the moment.
Not a serious suggestion, but included for curiosity-sake:
Hoover's Free Flights
The world famous 'bad boy' of sales promotion, responsible for the classic planner's cliche:
'We don't want a Hoover on our hands!'
Launched in 1992, in an era when bucket airlines didn't exist, they initially offered 2 Free Return Flights to Europe in return for spending over £100 on Hoover products. While travel agents were struggling to fulfil the European flights, the offer was extended to the USA!
£48m later, this promotion enjoys dubious notoriety for being too successful.
Well, you've read our suggestions - a mere taster menu to get your juices flowing. Like any 'best of' discussion opinion will be divided so, the only way to ensure your favourite sales promotion is featured in the final vote is by adding your nominations below.
The Sales Promotion Blog does not claim any credit or responsibility for the above promotions - particularly the Hoover one!
So the planned postal strikes have arrived today (even though we had both a delivery and a collection at our office - go figure!), and we find ourselves wondering if Royal Mail will soon make it's 'Last Collection' for good.
Regardless of the fact that the Communication Workers Union is effectively the 'turkey voting for Christmas' by crippling their employers business, jeopardising their own jobs all in the name of protecting member's interests. Crazy!
With an unreliable postal service and more people opting out of receiving unsolicited mail through the Mail Preference Service, does direct mail have a viable future? As Royal Mail is responsible for the last leg of the delivery to our front doors, even if you have used an alternative provider like Business Post, the options for cost effective distribution of direct mail on a large scale are limited to say the least. If you have an idea how Direct Mail can survive this, send your answers on a postcard... doh!
Of course, many sales promotions rely on the post to fulfil offers, premiums and competition entries, so there are wider implications for our industry. Ultimately, this industrial action will only serve to drive even more activity online*, perhaps never to return.
* If you want some outstanding solutions for delivering sales promotion solutions on the internet, the experts at Mosaic Marketing promise to deliver the goods.
The Marketing Communications Consultants Association (MCCA) has shown some bare-faced cheek in their annual call for entries to the MCCA Best Awards. This year they've taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and persuaded top executives from leading agencies to literally embody this year's theme 'creativity uninhibited' by stripping off for the camera.
Mike Spicer, Group Managing Director, EHS Brann - the theme was their idea!!!
Cembre Knights, Director, Pulse Group
Hugh Robertson, Managing Partner, RPM
In these straightened times, pushing the boundaries of creativity is vital to stand out from the crowd. "For the Marketing industry I think this pressure has resulted in some great and uninhibited creative work," says Scott Knox, Managing Director of the MCCA. "It’s therefore more important than ever that those innovative agencies who are delivering results, take time to reflect on and celebrate the best creativity. We are looking forward to seeing the range of campaigns that will be entered into this year’s awards."
If your agency has a body of work to be proud of and you want an outlet to show it off, then don't delay; your entries are needed by 1st October. So, avoid a dressing down from your boss and visit the following link www.bestawards.co.uk to download the entry forms. Express yourself today!
Don't worry clothing is very much part of the dress code for the event, which will take place on 4th March 2010. (If naturism is your thing, I'm sure there are other events that will cater for this.)
Whether it is because we are supporting the fantastic work of Pace, or because we have such a great line up of starring partners in our GoldStars portfolio, living legends in their respective fields are happy to be seen with our GoldStars programme.
David Brent1 dropped by The Office, yeah? And, if you can identify with this quote from the great man...
"If your boss is getting you down, look at him through the prongs of a fork and imagine him in jail."
...perhaps you should talk to your personnel department about improving company morale with our GoldStars programme? (Or get another boss I suppose.)
DLT, David Brent and Mark Webber supporting Pace and GoldStars
1. Okay, we admit that David Brent was a lookey-likey.
Drawing inspiration from cash-strapped student days, a new scheme, StudentsInNeed, has been launched to help the UK’s six million students save money and find a job.
Not to be confused with a charitable organisation supporting impoverished undergraduates, StudentsInNeed offers exclusive online discounts of up to 20% on top brands popular with students and comes at a time when they are facing mounting debts and struggling to find part-time jobs to make ends meet.
Students can save up to £700 per year on major retail, leisure and entertainment brands, based on a typical average annual student spend of £3,500. SIN membership is open to youngsters at school, college or university and mature students or graduates are also eligible. For a modest annual membership fee of £4.95 students qualify for discounts on items such as books, CDs, DVDs, clothing and travel purchased either online, or using a SIN ‘partners’ voucher book containing up to £200 worth of savings, provided by Mosaic Marketing.
So, on the one hand Students have access to genuine discount offers on things that students buy, need and like. On the other, this is a superb opportunity for youth oriented brands to reach this influential audience without the hefty premium associated with alternative channels.
The SIN website also has a jobs section, putting students in touch with part-time jobs to help them earn while they learn, as well as finding permanent graduate positions throughout the UK. The timing of SIN's launch could not have been better, with recent surveys suggesting that new students starting university this autumn can expect to graduate owing £23,000. No small amount. With the jobs market particularly challenging at the younger end of the spectrum, these young people need all the help they can get.
Note:
Discounts are exclusive to StudentsInNeed and not available through any other type of student discount card; this is what makes SIN unique. Top brands include Borders Books, AllPosters.co.uk (the world’s largest poster and print store), Oasis (ladies fashion) and Moss Bros. Savings are unlimited, but are obviously dependent on an individual’s level of spending.
A recent Free Hair Cut or Taster Facial treatment with Saks Hair & Beauty offered in the News of the World severely over-redeemed leaving many dissatisfied customers for both parties. Not the desired result, I'm sure. Obviously, when you find yourself in this undesirable situation, what do you do when a promotion proves too popular?
Well the old adage, prevention is better than cure is especially true of sales promotion offers. Obviously a Free Hair Cut with Saks, worth £35, just for buying a £1 newspaper is a very attractive offer; perhaps even more so in these stricken times. Lets do the math: If we assume that The News of the World sells around 3.5 million and it pulls only a conservative 0.5% across the 80 participating salons, that would be 218 redemptions per salon or, put another way, more than 50 per week or over 8 per day. These days newspapers tell a number of websites about forthcoming promotions to bump their circulation, so we suspect that the redemption rates are more likely to be 1-2% or higher. In which case the salons would be swamped.
This simple exercise would have demonstrated that the promotion was not sustainable and you would either need to:
If it's too late for such smug hindsight, you're obviously facing a public relations disaster if the situation is mishandled. Again, proper planning would ensure that all of the participating venues actually know about the promotion. (It would only add insult to injury if the venue denies all knowledge of the promotion.)
These are our suggested measures to minimise the damage, and perhaps even win over hearts and minds:
Mosaic Marketing has put together a number of FREE MINI TREATMENT & 2 for 1 Beauty Promotions for major clients providing at least 500 venues to cope with the demand. If you want to pamper your customers, why not give them a shout?
According to a recent survey conducted by YouGov asking consumers how their behaviour has changed during the recession, 55% said that they are looking for discounts or extra free promotions. A respectable 24% said that they were more likely to look for added value promotions, like Walker's Gary's Great Trips or Becks - Do Something Different.
Here at the sales promotion blog, we are real advocates of consistency, honesty and fairness - especially when applied to sales promotions. After all when a sales promotion campaign goes live, there is a lot at stake:
What happens when media headlines undermine your USP?
Stick or Carrot?
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) stole the headlines this week when their research findings concluded that "Organics offer NO BENEFIT!" thereby denigrating all organic food manufacturers; the organic movement in general and the firmly held beliefs of foodie middle Englanders across the land. What a potentially catastrophic claim to make about an industry which must surely be struggling enough when consumers are already tightening their belts. And this from a government agency too - surely this is verging on irresponsible? Imagine if the Financial Services Authority (Also FSA!!!) had made such a damning claim about one of our precious banks?... New research by the FSA claims "Banks are reckless with your money". Billions would be wiped off share values in an instant and there'd be a run on every high street bank - bigger than the cue for Tamiflu.
One of the key targets of such a claim is of course The Soil Association, a charitable organisation and recognised stamp of approval on many leading organic brands. There response is that the conclusions of the research are misleading, selective and do not mention the other benefits of organic production to the environment and long-term health of consumers. Obviously they're being polite - what they want to say is probably unprintable. Unfortunately lazy journalism and sensationalist headlines have already got their message across to time poor, money poor consumers that organics aren't worth the extra money. Now the issue is settled for many and the Soil Association could struggle to regain the initiative and put their points across.
So, how can sales promotion help? What the Soil Association really need to achieve is big headlines, mobilise the troops on the street and get their message over at grass roots level - if you'll pardon the pun.
Our action plan would be:
Posted by Mosaic Marketing on July 31, 2009 at 15:36 in Comment | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: food safety, Food Standards Agency, guerilla marketing, initiative, Organic, research, Soil Association
Digg This | Save to del.icio.us