The Big Picture

Latest #Bellwether Survey reports new low in confidence: Sales Promotion IS an effective, economical, measurable solution

The latest Bellwether Report, 19th January 2012, reveals an 11 year low in confidence of
-44.9%, executives assessment of their own company's prospects had deteriorated for the first time since the beginning of 2009 and the recent trend of increasing marketing budgets is running out of steam, dropping from 3.4% to 0.6%. All pretty gloomy.

More worryingly, for our industry at least, is the fact that 'Below the Line' and Main Media spend were the only marketing sectors to see a reduction in spend losing out to Discounting and Online strategies, particular pay per click or 'search' marketing. To my mind the winners here strike me as either quick fixes or, in the case of discounting, a rocky road to fuelling consumer expectations for lower prices and long-term margin erosion.

Why is sales promotion missing out?
If we ignore for the moment the fact that discounting is a form of sales promotion, why is the more creative end of sales promotion faring less well? Compared with the other disciplines, Sales Promotion stands up well to the competition*:

Comparing Marketing Disciplines
Category	Easy to Set up	Economical	Quick to Launch	Reach a big Audience	Visible at Point of Purchase	Targeted	Measurable
Advertising				✔		✔
Direct Marketing		✔				✔	✔
Sales Promotion		✔		✔	✔	✔	✔
Search Marketing	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Social Media Marketing		✔		✔			✔

On this assessment sales promotion is second only to search marketing in terms of ticking all the boxes, but let's face facts: search marketing can only drive traffic to your site and not much else; it doesn't add value, develop your brand personality or capture consumer data; it's no real use for grocery and drinks brands which don't sell directly off their website and if competition for pay per click spaces gets too fierce you'll either end up paying over the odds or only seeing traffic for very narrow search terms.

We suspect, the reason that marketers are shirking sales promotion comes down to:

1. Perceived cost of setting up a promotion (it needn't be - see below)
2. Fear of failure. It's so much easier to run a discount promotion and see immediate results, but beware - it's a slippery slope. Or maybe you've had a bad experience before? If so, work with a reputable IPM Award Winner for complete peace of mind.
3. Lack of Knowledge. It's hard to feel comfortable working with something you don't fully understand. Sales promotion is not one of the dark arts and a good agency / supplier should be able to demystify anything that isn't obvious. Equally plenty of brands feel more comfortable with running Social Media Campaigns because we're all familiar with the platforms. However that doesn't make you an expert and it's very easy to get this very wrong. Familiarity does not always equate to understanding. 

Cost effective sales promotion solutions
Okay if you're still reading you must be slightly tempted and you want to see what's possible for a modest budget before seeking out that reputable supplier? Well here's some for starters...

• Work with a single complimentary brand partner offering an appealing discount offer or prize (Tip: maximise the relationship by providing samples of your brand in their outlets or co-branding menus, running a treasure hunt etc)
• Run a tried and tested off-the-shelf discount programme as a gift with purchase
• Liaise with a Movie / Music / Book publisher on a contra basis to promote a forthcoming release, offer exclusive prizes etc. (Tip: try and secure a discount off the wider release or catalogue stock as an everyone's a winner element)
• Use Facebook / Twitter as a platform to run a simple member get member reward or loyalty scheme. Use a combination of discounts on your own product or service as entry level rewards and consider complimentary third parties, premiums or experience providers for higher tiers
• Taste Guarantee - e.g. if you don't agree with the statement, write in with 15 words or more to say why and get your money back. Surprisingly economical and a very powerful tool for establishing brand quality in the eye of the consumer (Tip: more beneficial to newer brands or relaunches)

* We've taken a general view of typical activity in each case and, before any of you start, I'm sure there are exceptions to every rule and you could argue the relative merits of every discipline for each of the criteria. Arguing against our own gradings for sales promotion - it can be relatively easy to set up and quick to launch but we were basing our rating on the fact that most FMCG sales promotions often require sell-in and subsequent buy-in from the retailers that carry the promotion. This is rarely a quick process. 

Writing Sales Promotion Terms and Conditions: should be template-driven, pre-approved by law and above all fair

Compiling the reviews on our sister blog, PromoWatch, we read a LOT of terms and conditions. Geeky I know, but they are there for a reason. They lay out the terms of engagement, the rules of the game and SHOULD allow consumers to determine if a promotion lives up to its headline. Often terms and conditions are unwieldy, jargony, inconsistent and unfathomable. Indeed, most people don't bother reading them, until they have a problem by which time the damage has already been done.

When we reviewed sales promotion in Italy last summer the most striking element, apart from the beautiful people used in the packaging, was the consistent nature of the terms and conditions. They followed the same template and you knew exactly what was on offer with total transparency. Sadly the same cannot be said for UK Sales Promotions. Here are a few examples of promotional issues we come across - many of which we have seen in the first two weeks of this year alone:

1. No clear link to or non-existant terms and conditions on the website - illegal
2. Displaying out of date terms and conditions for a previous promotion - illegal
3. No explanation of how instant win prizes are allocated - should be illegal
4. No details of exactly what the prize includes - should be illegal
5. No way of determining whether discount offers are available nearby BEFORE participating in the promotion - again this surely should be illegal
6. No obvious channel for customer service queries - ideally a phone number but at worst an email
7. Changing the terms and conditions during the promotion - talk about moving the goalposts. Surely a full risk assessment / worst case scenario should be independently evaluated before a campaign runs  

Ultimately the only people who lose out on the above failings is the consumer. Well, we know that it might be a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas but we're going to stick our head above the parapet and formally make our plea to the sales promotion authorities:

We want a universal template for terms and conditions with mandatory legal approval for ALL promotions

There really is no reason in this internet age why the whole process of terms and conditions shouldn't be process driven, strictly regulated with ALL promotions having to use the same master template, the final version of which MUST be pre-approved by a recognised body be it bodies like CAP, IPM, ASA or private companies like PromoVeritas and Enable before a campaign goes live. After all a checklist of the essential elements of sales promotion techniques is taught in the IPM diploma, so, why not take the logical step of creating a framework for terms and conditions which every promoter should adopt? No arguments, no ambiguity and no exceptions.

Template for Sales Promotion Terms and Conditions

Here's a general framework to be going on with:

1. Summary - particularly long terms and conditions

• State type of promotion, e.g. Prize Draw, Instant Win
• How to enter, e.g. unique codes, voucher on pack
• What's on offer - headline and synopsis of runners up
• Value of prizes
• Chances of winning, e.g. 1 in 100K for top prize, 1 in 10 for runners up
• Important dates, validity, redeem by etc

2. Who is eligible to participate, e.g. age, geographical, excluding employees of promoter and their agents
3. What's on offer - if necessary provide details later 
4. How to enter / entry requirements
5. Restrictions on entry - no defaced entries, no bulk or automated entries etc
6. How are: winners determined / rewards attributed / winning entries assessed and by who, e.g. independent judges, computer etc
7. Dates for entry, claiming, redeeming, time to fulfil prizes etc to the consumer
8. What is the likelihood of winning the advertised reward
9. Winner notification / publicity
10. Winner details
11. Data protection policy / notification
12. Exact details of what's on offer
13. State whether a cash alternative is available
14. Promoter's name and address
15. Customer Service details if different to details in item 12.
16. Disclaimers - can't be held responsible for injury, loss, damage or negligence as a result of participating in the promotion etc.
17. No correspondence will be entered into and the promoter's decision is final on all matters
18. State who legally approved the terms and conditions and who was responsible for administering the promotion if different to the promoter.

Conclusion
We're sure that there'll be plenty of opposition to our campaign to legalise and formalise sales promotion Ts & Cs from people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. But, ultimately, we're all supposed to be looking after the best interests of consumers first and foremost because, like it or not, successful engagement in sales promotion is built on trust. Terms and Conditions are the only mechanism we have for spelling out the parameters by which all parties participate in a promotion, so it is imperative that they are regulated within a framework which itself instils that trust.

Sales Promotion on the internet is becoming dull and formulaic - our hopes for 2012

Not so very long ago there wasn't an internet. Back in the days when evening telly was good, Britons weren't obese and fuel was less than 50p a litre. Imagine that. What we did to fill the time was far less virtual and very much more real.

20 years or so later and the internet is so fundamental to our existence that it's a wonder we ever survived without it. It's brought amazing convenience, unbelievable information and an equal amount of disinformation, anytime, at the click of a mouse. Of course marketers have embraced the medium as much as anyone and it's hard to find any sales promotion which doesn't have a web element. But with so many sales promotions out there why do we mourn for the sales promotions of yesteryear when people used heat and reveal labels, inserted blue sachets containing fivers into packets of crisps and even a miniature plastic house inside your tin of beans to tell you, in no uncertain terms that you had won, a house? It might be the excitement, buzz and awe-inspiring creativity which seems so lacking in their internet descendents.

Looking at the 88 or so promotions which we featured on PromoWatch last year, 56% of them had exactly the same mechanic: "enter a unique code from promotional packs on the website to qualify". Assuming our blog is representative of the sales promotion industry as a whole, if more than half of all brands thought that running a competition with a unique code entry mechanic was the best way of establishing a point of difference with their competitors, they were sadly mistaken.

Why has the internet stifled creativity?
In the early days, putting up a microsite for an on-pack promotion was relatively pricey and they were primarily used by market leading brands to support the principle activity. But before too long the microsite has evolved to represent the promotion in its entirety encompassing the customer journey from start to finish. The reasons are obvious - money. Websites are now cheaper to create than ever before, while producing innovative promotional devices and customised product packaging has become, for the most part, more expensive or in some cases a logistical headache.

Now, in the same way that nearly all tv programmes seem to be about property or cooking, once a winning formula has been established promotions agencies realise they can re-package a successful concept and sell it in to clients again and again. Taking it to its logical conclusion, a general acquiescence in mediocrity increases the profusion of mediocrity to the point where it becomes the accepted norm. This all leads to one big yawn for the consumer - and the intrepid sales promotion commentator.

Injecting innovation into sales promotion
The Sales Promotion Industry's utilisation of the internet is a bit like most people's use of the processing power of their home computer - barely taxing its capabilities at all. The internet is far more than just an interpreter of unique codes or a means of plotting pretty dots on a map. So how else can we maximise the power of the web within our sales promotion activity?

If we assume that most brands need to prove that a purchase has been made, can we first look beyond the reliance on unique codes?

Small and discreet, QR codes or Snaptags could easily be incorporated into product packaging and, using a simple reader, would automatically take consumers to the promotional website right on their device (think webcam, tablet or smartphone). As they would have to be in possession of the product to access the on-pack graphic it is fair to assume that they've made a legitimate purchase and have qualified for entry. This would make the all important 'simplicity of entering your promotion' integral to the customer journey.

Can't fit a graphic on your pack - develop a barcode reader for your microsite. With such a heavy penetration of smartphones, tablets and webcams and even smart TVs now, most devices will have the necessary lens to view the barcode for your chosen platform. The CD and DVD purchasing website Music Magpie employs this to great effect.

Go a bit retro. Combine the online and offline worlds by cutting out a token / logo / masthead or whatever from the offline packaging and affix it to a downloaded voucher as the ultimate photocopy / scanner proof online coupon. NB only works for proper redbrick high street retailers*.

* Available while shops last

If you just can't get away from using a unique code why not try and wean yourself off the  Instant Win habit? Here's a few ideas for using a unique code, some of which you may have seen in the wild already or covered in other posts:

• in-game currency for a freemium or bespoke online / mobile game
• proof of purchase token for a collector scheme
• validation for submitting user content for an online competition
• discount / promo code for a third party partner site
• a security tag for a downloaded voucher - could be used in conjunction with the physical proof for offline venues
• unlock treasure hunt clues - again possibly for the pursuit of an offline treasure

if you can't avoid 'instant win' why not make the act of telling people the win/lose verdict more interesting? In keeping with the theme of your brand / promotion it could be the turning wheel on the front of a safe or animated lottery balls which might match up with your unique reference. This simple animation would not be expensive but it would make the engagement and overall impression of the promotion, feel like it was given some modicum of thought rather than just being churned out on a conveyor belt.

The Good News...
The dominance of Twitbook provides a ready platform for smaller brands to promote themselves with very little capital outlay. We should be celebrating the fact that a lower cost of entry means that smaller brands can contemplate sales promotion at all.

Some brands are doing great promotions which really harness the power of social media, sharing user-generated content and integrating their activity across multiple channels. We featured one such promotion from Visit Britain today. So there are reasons to be optimistic. But, woe-betide the sales promotion industry if we have a similar proportion of 'instant win unique reference number monotony' in 2012. You've been warned!!!

P.S. If this blog existed 50 years ago (and I had been born) no doubt I'd have been writing a provocative article about how television had made promotions less personal or relevant. Blah, blah, blah, moan, moan...

Daily Deals websites are great for the consumer but could be putting small businesses at risk

I have to admit that when the concept of group-buying to achieve unbelievable discounts came to the UK, that I initially felt concern for our own USP - that of providing discount partners for sales promotion and loyalty. But, on closer scrutiny, I realised that the short term and ultra-localised nature of most of the offers would not represent any real threat to our business.

But you could perhaps forgive me for indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when the wider world, including the BBC no less, wake up to the fact that the business model employed by the likes of Groupon, KGB Deals etc is grossly unfair on the merchants providing the discounts. 

Now it would be foolish to criticise the concept as a whole. I myself enjoyed an unbelievably cheap two course meal for four a few weeks ago in a venue (and a part of town for that matter) that I would have never ventured into unwittingly. And the chances are, I probably never will again. Not by any failing on the part of the restaurant but purely because there is always another deal to try. And therein lies the problem. If merchants are providing a higher than 50% discount this is an almighty loss-leader if they don't receive any (full-paying) repeat business or are unable to up-sell them on any additional services. In this scenario the promised deluge of new customers can soon turn from a dream into a costly nightmare.

This approach is completely against our principles at Mosaic effectively leaching the lifeblood of your own business. For Mosaic the welfare and success of our partner's business is paramount and fundamental to our mutual survival. We strive to protect the brand interest and objectives of our partners every bit as much as our clients. Mosaic is in it for the long haul in all our relationships. Without a willing, enthusiastic and trusting database of partners we wouldn't survive.

Our advice to anyone embarking on a Daily Deals campaign is be careful. As experts in third party marketing, here is our advice on how to protect your business:

1. Think long and hard about whether this option is right for you. If you're a new business it's tempting to get as many customers through the door as possible. But there are good customers and bad customers. Bargain-hunters who are out to just enjoy the deal and not buy any extras will cost you more than not having a client at all. 
2. Don't be pressurised into offering more than you can reasonably afford - ideally structure the deal so that you at least break even
3. Remember to brief staff for the inevitable flood of bookings at all steps in the process. If you're a face to face service business ensure that everyone raises their game: friendly manner, product knowledge, attentitiveness
4. Up-sell sell sell - but don't be pushy. It's a fine line I know.
5. Consider talking to a third party promotions specialist like Mosaic. We can partner you with some of the UK's leading brands reaching customer bases of millions at no cost.

myWaitrose is point-less: a new generation of loyalty schemes that redefine the genre

Our interest in the evolution of loyalty schemes was piqued by a recent article on Marketing Week online heralding the new guard of consumer driven programmes. 

To quickly condense that article into a few soundbites for the FB status generation:

• a Colloquy study shows only 31% of people think loyalty schemes are relevant
• 3 new models have emerged putting consumers first through data-mining and harvesting
• Model 1: data-matching e.g. NPower who match offers to known leisure and lifestyle interests
• Model 2: paid-for privileges e.g. Ocado Savings Pass to save money on a basket of products
• Model 3: Social Network loyalty e.g. nearly every brand on Facebook getting you to like them in return for something (in)tangible

Another new innovation in loyalty schemes landed on my very own doormat this week, myWaitrose. Hence this article.

On the face of it, the concept is very refreshing.

1. You can't earn points but you will be sent random offers of relevance (see below)
2. If you remember to show your card at the till, Waitrose will 'learn' what you like and let you know when your favourites are on offer
3. One shopper per shop per month will win back their whole month's shopping
4. One customer per month will win a year's worth of Waitrose groceries
5. Check in online regularly for exclusive competitions, discounts, experiences etc

So, quite an ambitious package and, of course, we have our own opinion but Waitrose (bravely) have a Tell us What you Think forum where real life punters share their thoughts. Here's a summary of the main complaints:

• Various: why do I have to enter myWaitrose card number again for each competition entry?
• Cookie: "no real incentive to use the card every time... I'm guessing the novelty will wear off"
• Bluemental: "your cashiers didn't even know of it's existence"
• Mrs Lincoln: "not impressed that the vouchers for special offers can't be used online"
  (Editor - it's hard to buy petrol online!)
• Various: I can't use myWaitrose card with QuickScan self-checkout. Waitrose clearly haven't thought this through 

Conclusions

So are all these innovations going to change the face of loyalty? Yes, up to a point. On the whole myWaitrose appears to have been well received apart from the odd compliance or technical issue which often happen in the early days. They might be late to the supermarket loyalty party but with their enigmatically different approach they could be partying late into the night while other schemes have long gone to bed.

Overall data mining is a logical advancement in making the most of your customer relationship. The trick here is clearly how well the data is interpreted and actioned. The potential picture could have so many permutations that making the offers relevant on a macro level would be impossible or mega expensive. Clearly the Waitrose route of offering universally appealing Christmas wrapping paper, sweets and petrol can't go far wrong.

Finally, we are astounded that companies confuse Facebook likes with any real sense of loyalty. It becomes a rather meaningless playground popularity contest. If you're 'bribing' them with an offer in the first place, then what sort of people are you being liked by? Bargain hunters or loyal fans? How many ever come back and interact once they've liked you for a freebie?
Hello?... Marketeers?

What can we read into the latest Bellwether report? Budgets up / Confidence down

According to the latest IPA Bellwether Report for quarter 3 2011, there are some conflicting messages coming from the marketers of UK companies:

• A net +3.4% of companies have increased marketing budgets in Q3, the first up-tick after 3 straight quarters of decline. This budget increase is a one and a half year high.
• Executives' confidence for their own sector is -23.3% down from -10.9%. Optimism is at it's second lowest since the beginning of 2009.
• Executives are slightly more confident about their own company's prospects than the category as a whole.
• Sales promotion and other below the line activity recorded a positive index for the first time in nearly 4 years at a modest +2.8%.

Compiling statistics is an imprecise artform, hugely open to interpretation. Such manipulation has inevitably lead to such unflattering quotations relating to the practise as "There are lies, damn lies and statistics" or "You can prove anything with statistics except the truth". 

Now we haven't seen the Bellwether report in it's entirety, but just looking at the freely available headline figures from various websites you could equally draw the following conclusion:

• 21% of marketers have increased their marketing budgets in Q3.
• 79% of companies have cut their marketing budgets or left them completely unchanged.

Whilst it is interesting to compare these net figures across various business benchmarks they strike me as being rather meaningless without any context or sub categorisation. If you asked the big utility companies how they see their prospects over the coming 12 months they're probably going to be more up-beat than a chain of estate agents. And do we know if the company raising their budget enjoyed a particularly successful Q1 and Q2? Or, did they too revise their budgets down in the earlier quarters and have ended up with a war chest to spend in the all important run up to Christmas? How much have budgets increased as a proportion of their previous budget or even as a proportion of their turnover versus the average for that category?

We're all for spreading positive news and agree with the widely touted view that the media, the Bank of England and politicians can play a hugely damaging role by constantly talking down the economy.

So, if we're going to end on a positive note, let's concentrate on the astronomic shift towards internet and internet search spend? The highest ever quarter on quarter jump in the history of the report saw the index rise from +1.9% to +16.6%. Marketers know that they have to keep promoting themselves, especially when times are tough so they are understandably shunning traditional 'old media' and concentrating spend on measurable, good value channels which the internet has in abundance. 

Has Walkers Crisps abandoned sales promotion?

Walkers could always be relied upon to deliver an annual blockbusting, groundbreaking, mammoth sales promotion which would get people talking, create a real buzz in the marketplace and re-define the genre for others to follow.

But, despite our regular trips along the crisp aisle, no sales promotions have been forthcoming on their core range of flavours. Have Walkers decided that the ROI doesn't justify the expense? Is discounting the best strategy for the current austerity climate? Or are they waiting for 2012 the year of Jubilees, Euro Football and the London Olympics?

Whatever the reason, we at Sales Promotion Blog can only mourn such a stalwart, bastion and pioneer of the art taking a sabatical and sincerely hope they return soon. The last time they took a break from sales promotion in 2005 it lasted for 3 years!

In the meantime if, like us, you miss the humour and innovation of these marketing maestros, here are a few examples of their craft from yesteryear. Ahh, happy memories...

Sales promotion in Italy is exciting and sexy - can you judge a country by its promotions?

David Cameron wasn't the only one working during his recent holiday in Tuscany. But of course he wasn't having to deal with quite so weighty matters as how Italian's do their sales promotion. Whilst he was falling out with local waitresses, I was scouring the shelves of our local Co-op to see how the mañana Mediterraneans motivate their consumers to make a purchase.

Headlines

One headline which particularly caught my eye was the succinct and catchy 'Bevi and Vinci' or in English 'Drink and Win' hung proudly round a bottle of Montepulciano! None of your namby pamby responsible drinking nonsense here. Get the wine down your neck and see if you've won a car. It makes Txt and Win seem decidedly dull (which of course it is).

Another which particularly leapt off the shelf was on a similarly brief consumptive theme on a packet of crisps: Fai il pieno... e gassss - fill me up and gas. Not that this relates to the prizes on offer - see below. 

Promotional Rewards

When you think of Italy, you think of style, fashion, mopeds, ferrari, pasta / pizza and philandering old media moguls. And to a large extent, excluding a Berlusconi related offer, most of the promotions we saw reflected these Italian preoccupations:

• Special K cereal - win 500 pairs of Miss Sixty Jeans
• Dixi Crisps - win San Carlo Honda Gresini Limited edition Watches or a Honda CBR125R
• La Caciatora wine - red Fiat 500
• Tuborg Beer - mega party at home, beer station
• Schwarzkopf Taft - Ducati Monster 696, helmets, tickets for moto grand prix
• De Agostini - iTunes card, iPod shuffle, Mac Book
• Kraft Foods - NBA game in New York, €100 Cisalfa outlet voucher
• San Benedetto water - 1.6 Petrol 2WD car, Xbox 360 video game
• Dr. Schär Srl gluten free mini pizza - Piaggio Vespa LX125, iPad 3G, Russell Hobbs toaster
• Energizer batteries - Energy efficient light bulbs, electric bicycle, solar and hybrid torches

As you will see just across the quite random selection of different brands there is a predominance in motorbikes or cars, premium gadgets and desirable labels. Certainly a hint at the perceived machismo of the Italian male?

Mechanics

Like in the UK, most of the promotions we looked at were enter code online or Txt n Win reflecting the digital age and cost of other fulfilment methods. One interesting difference was the requirement to actually finish a particular product in order to reveal the unique code, e.g. Dixi crisps the code was on the inside of the pack and on La Cacciatora wine, you had to drink the whole bottle to reveal the code behind the label. The neck collar in this instance was purely advertising the promotion and not the mechanic in itself. As you will no doubt have seen in the UK these often get stolen without a legitimate purchase having being made. 

Summary

Can you judge a nation by it's promotions? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it depends on the nation. The UK is diverse, cosmopolitan and progressive but arguably without the strong sense of identity, personality and loyalty to their culinary heritage. The Italian promotions have charisma, bravado, excitement and energy. They're offering sexy jeans, sexy bikes or sexy gadgets nearly always illustrated with sexy people or cars. They urge you to 'drink and win' for goodness sake and hang the long term consequences. Life's too short. Eat the whole packet and THEN see if you've won. Enjoy the product first check out the promotion after. 

In marked contrast was the uniformed and seemingly formulaic nature of their terms and conditions. All the online terms we saw included the same information, detailed the territories, the prizes, the value of the prizes / rewards on offer (including VAT) and what and how you win them. Sure the UK has regulations, guidelines and enforcement agents but nothing like the consistency that appears to underpin the Italian sales promotion industry. As someone who reads a fair number of Ts and Cs it astounds me that we don't have a defined template which legally HAS to be approved by an independent body. Surely in an industry where protecting the consumer is paramount, prevention is better than post-regulation? 

Is ASA wrong to uphold complaint about Walkers Tenner if it Rains promotion?

The ASA has upheld a complaint about the Walkers Tenner if it Rains promotion giving consumers the chance to win £10 if they correctly predicted where in the British Isles it was going to rain during a 3 hour period.

Looking at the adjudication something doesn't seem quite right. On the one hand it states that Walkers underestimated the potential uptake on their 'Win a Tenner if it Rains' promotion which they state, in their defense, was based on the uptake of their previous campaigns Gary's Great Trips ('GGT') and Great Brit Trips. Now, the Tenner if it Rains concept was absolutely unique and there was no precedence set in terms of previous participation for them to draw on. However, on Pepsico's own website they say that 596,524 consumers registered an account for GGT. So you would imagine that even if Walkers were being extremely pessimistic, they would have assumed that a promotion offering the chance to win £10 when it rains, in a country where rain is not exactly rare, in a financial climate of ever-tightening austerity, it might do at least as well as GGT which offered people a far less tangible rewards than £10 cold hard cash. Equally, by their own proclamation, 10 million people eat a packet of Walkers crisps every day and they originally gave consumers 2 plays per day to make a prediction with only 21,271 grid spots available every day. That's only enough grids for 0.1% of their daily consumers to play twice. 

On the other hand, what was Walkers supposed to do? 2 and a half weeks into the campaign, uptake had exceeded their expectations. They took steps to ensure that the promotion was open to as many consumers as possible by adjusting the terms and conditions to limit the number of plays to 1 per day. This was emailed to all registrants and, on the face of it, was not exactly a big deal to the consumer. If Walkers hadn't taken action there could have been many more consumers who complained at not being able to participate at all.

In any event the outcome for Walkers is fairly benign. The ASA ruled that Walkers cannot run the campaign again in it's current form. Ouch that must have hurt. Whilst they have a history of running successful campaigns for a second time, they were extremely unlikely to run it in the same manner (or perhaps even at the same time of year) again. At the last count they've paid out £1,383,930 pretty expensive even by Walkers standards. Our guess is that they would need to increase the number of grid locations and probably provide a stronger alternative offering to take pressure off the number of predictions. Or why not do predictions around something else? Snow, football, potatoes, alien invasion...

Final Thoughts
Ultimately the whole case was brought about because of 1 individual out of about 40,000 who felt aggrieved enough to complain. Hardly the uprising of a baying public hungry for blood. 

The framework of the CAP Code and the ASA's remit over the internet is all well and good, but by the very nature of the viral virtual world we live in, promotions are always going to produce unexpected outcomes which wrong-foot marketers. Surely there needs to be a mechanism whereby promoters can legitimately adjust their terms and conditions to achieve the fairest outcome for the many, whilst being protective of the few? If the ASA is to be the supreme judge, should it not also be charged with agreeing the promotional parameters before a campaign goes live? 

Merry Christmas one and all!

Whatever your customers, consumers or staff like doing in their spare time, Mosaic can help them do it for less. Contact us now to see if we can help deliver a happier new year for them all.

Merry Christmas to all our subscribers, readers and contributors. See you next year!

The Mosaic Team