The Big Picture

What is good national coverage for 3rd party promotions?

There is no point running a promotional offer on pack if no one can use it. How often are you drawn in by a great headline offer only to find your nearest venue is 50 miles away? As we always say, coverage is king. But what is good national coverage? Well, it depends on what promotional partners you are wanting to feature. For example you're not going to want to travel for half an hour to collect your Friday night takeaway, but you might be prepared to travel up to 2 hours for a big day out or to visit the coast where you'll spend most of the day. So, adequate coverage for one will be poor for another. To illustrate this, take a look at the following chart.

You will note that only business and holidays / day trips achieve an average travel distance over 20 miles. In fact, trips for all other leisure and social purposes are less than 10 miles.

How can we use this to work out national coverage?
The UK covers an area of 94,526 miles². Dividing up the UK into 10 mile squares, you would get c. 945 locations. But, this of course assumes that the UK has an even spread of population and amenities.  

UK population density per hectare, with 25 mile grid

As you can see from the map, only about 1/3 of the UK has a population density above 1.5 persons per hectare. So 1/3 of 945 = 315 locations. However, as we can see from our chart, most people travel less than 10 miles for most leisure purposes. For a 7 mile grid the number of venues doubles to 630 locations and roughly doubles again to c. 1260 for a 5 mile square. We appreciate that the population density varies across the UK but this is evened out by the fact that we are basing the grids on average journey times for the different purposes.

These figures are obviously ideals, but are they achievable? We also need to take into account the universe of available venues for your chosen sector. Naturally the number of businesses in each sector tends to expands to meet available demand for mature leisure sectors; that's market forces for you. 

Approximate universe for certain leisure sectors:
Sector Universe     10% target
Public Houses 60,000 6,000 (nigh on impossible)
Takeaways 30,000 3,000 (we've done this!)
Hairdressers 20,000 2,000 (unlikely)
Health Clubs 6,000 600 (yes) 
Public Swimming Pools 5,000 500 (yes)
Days Out & Attractions 5,000 500 (yes)
Cinemas 780* 78 (n/a chains dominate here)
* Source: Screen Digest; CAA

As a rule of thumb, you are likely to secure a promotional offer from 10-20% of any target base. (Paradoxically landlords are far more reluctant to run promotions that will drive traffic into pubs. On the other hand Indian restaurants are very promotionally savvy.) So in most cases, the available universe of venues would not prohibit the recruitment of good national coverage.

Final Thoughts
Third party offer recruitment is 'self selecting'. Partners will participate where there is competition between businesses and competition exists in more densely populated areas. Ironically, this means that businesses in more remote areas have a captive audience and are less likely to participate, which in turn means that these people are least well served by promotions.

Clearly if you want to provide a great sales promotion that delivers on it's headline, good coverage and therefore accessibility is essential. Using our figures as a guide, will help you determine if a provider is offering a good proposition. Always compare like with like when considering a promotional offer and be wary of the offers fulfilled on a concierge service. Ask them for a list of venues and do due diligence. If the venues know nothing about the promotion - run a mile.

The best Sales Promotion campaign ever!

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.

Andrex Beanie Puppies

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.

Calling all nominations for the Best Sales Promotion ever!

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!

Is this the death of Direct Mail?

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.

Show off your wares with the MCCA Best Awards 2010

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.)

New reward programme offers student benefits

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.

Too much Saks Appeal? What to do when a promotion over-redeems!

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:

1. Increase the number of venues - obviously not possible with one brand partner
2. Put additional barriers to entry in place, e.g. buy more papers to qualify

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:

• Data capture the details of all complainants. You need to be able to maintain the dialogue with them throughout and your pro-activeness will be much appreciated. You only need a few happy customers to add their voice to twitter, facebook and forums to help turn down the heat of protest.
• Inform customers that might be suffering in silence: acknowledge that the promotion has over-redeemed through the appropriate channels. You might not want to draw too much attention to this, but you may not have any choice. It can always be a discreet flash on your homepage.  
• Extend the validity period to accommodate voucher holders who couldn't book.
• Alternatively look at a different value-added offer from the current partner, or even consider a new hero partner to save the day if relations have broken down irreparably.
• Recruit more venues to increase capacity - a brand partner might object to this, but this is fine for independent businesses.
• Communicate all these strategies with your existing venues so they are 100% briefed and ensure that they relate this to ALL staff. Ignorant staff will only infuriate customers further.

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? 

Government hits the booze... retailers

The Government wants to implement a mandatory code of practice for alcohol retailers in an effort to curb irresponsible binge-drinking. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Health Secretary Alan Johnson have just announced a broad outline of proposals which restrict the use of promotional tactics like selling alcohol as a loss-leader in supermarkets, and called time on ‘happy hours’ or ‘all you can drink for £x’ deals in clubs and pubs. 

Understandably the Institute of Sales Promotion (ISP) is not best pleased. Their CEO, Annie Swift, sees this as a restriction on marketeers ability to inform consumers effectively, whilst taking away any opportunity for self regulation.

Don't interfere

At the Sales Promotion Blog, we feel that this initiative reflects the more sinister trend towards Governmental interference in the promotions industry as a whole using the blunt instrument of mandatory legislation. There are two issues with this as far as we can see:

1) They’re not addressing the real cause of the problem

2) It sets a precedence for future intrusion into other promotional activity. What’s next? Curbing collector schemes or price promotions on crisps and chocolate which might lead to obesity? Can’t consumers decide for themselves what they should consumer?

Drink problem

We agree that if you pile booze high and sell it cheap, the punters will come running. Treating booze as a loss-leader in the same way as staples like milk is totally irresponsible. So why not enforce minimum prices on alcohol? The fact of the matter is that we are a nation where drinking is not only socially acceptable it is culturally ingrained. To compound this, the price of alcohol has become increasingly affordable over the last three decades and people no longer seem to recognise ‘when to stop’.   

Quiet neighbours

It has long been recognised that our European neighbours not only have access to cheaper alcohol, but they also manage not to go out for a spot of binge drinking, followed by a quick punch-up or rampage on the way home. This reflects their altogether more responsible attitude, stemming from exposure to alcohol at a younger age, usually in the context of eating a meal in company. So for them, drinking is a mere accompaniment to the main event, not the event in itself.

Easy option

Clearly tackling this endemic issue will not be stopped by withdrawing price promotions. Changing the UK drinking habit requires a cultural shift which would take a huge amount of time, motivation and money. 

No wonder our beloved government will always opt for the quick fix not the right fix.

Making sure your sales promotion is fair, legal and secure

Playing fair – Profiling Enable (Marketing & Promotions) Ltd: the firm that ensures promotions, and those who enter them, play by the book. 

“No-one ever wins these competitions, you know.”

“The prizes don’t even make it into the marketplace!”

“I bet the people on the factory line walk off with most of the winning tickets.”

You may have heard or even thought something along these lines before, especially in light of high profile competition fixing at ITV, GMTV and Blue Peter.  However, there are people out there working diligently to change this perception by making promotions fair, legal and secure.  Enable (Marketing & Promotions) Ltd is one such company, and, with over 15 years’ experience in the industry, there are few scams that would surprise the Bristol-based team.  

“’Just give the prize to the most attractive woman’ is not something I expected to have an agency instruct me to do in order to allocate a prize that was seen as difficult to seed into the marketplace,” recounts Neil Barnes, managing director of Enable. “I refused, of course, and we put the prize into the marketplace in a fair and random manner.” 

Then there was the time when Enable was advised that a claimant had found a defaced note in an in-pack promotion.  Not to mention an incident where a promotion’s prize was claimed very early, which automatically highlighted concerns. Further investigations revealed that the ‘winning’ ticket had actually been dropped on the studio floor after a photography shoot of the promotional material.  Fortunately, in both cases Enable had the documentation in place to prove both claims as false and avoid the potential PR disaster that could have ensued. 

Coupon mis- and over-redemption is particularly high profile at the moment and the Institute of Sales Promotions (ISP) has recently published a new set of guidelines that, if adhered to, will go some way to ensuring that this type of fraud is kept under control, if not eliminated entirely.¹  Promoters who distribute their coupons via the Internet are probably the most at risk of having these replicated and distributed electronically.²

Coupons printed from the Internet form only part of the new challenges and opportunities created by the web. “The online entry has had a big impact on the way that sales promotions are designed and operated,” says Barnes, “but it has also produced a new breed of fraudster.”

Barnes warns that promoters using the internet as part of their entry mechanic could be particularly vulnerable to fraudsters making multiple entries and taking an unfair advantage over genuine competition entrants.  “Those who habitually enter promotions might exploit loopholes in text messaging and email that do not exist in postal or more traditional entry means. 

"It is in the interest of brands to ensure that winners of consumer promotions are genuinely existing or potential customers and not just gold-diggers or professional compers who have no interest in brand loyalty.  Some months ago a company did not heed our repeated warnings that an individual was entering the competition repeatedly, but with slightly different email addresses. Unfortunately this individual ended up walking away with several of the major prizes;  great for that person, but not so good for the honest entrants, or indeed for the brand."

Enable (Marketing & Promotions) Ltd, based near Bristol, advises and assists promoters on combating fraud and cheating. It ensures the fair and legally compliant running of local, national and international promotions of all sizes by auditing all procedures, overseeing print and production, fair and random allocation of prizes,  independent judging of competitions and the provision of unique codes.  So if you want your next competition to 'play by the rules', please call Enable (Marketing & Promotions) Ltd on 01934 853770 or email: info@enablemp.com.

___________________________________________________________________________________

1. ‘Electronic Couponing Guidelines’, available on the ISP website: www.isp.org.uk

2. Mosaic Marketing & Promotions has some excellent solutions for delivering secure online promotional offers. Contact them through their website www.mosaicmarketing.co.uk or on +44 (0)1865) 877711.

How to build 3rd party sales promotion incentives without parallel

With the bite of the credit crunch beginning to take hold, more and more brands are looking for on-pack sales promotion incentives which save their customers money. This is where targeted, themed, 3^rd party leisure, lifestyle and retail discounts come into their own. But, if you are tempted to save precious budgets by putting together one of these campaigns yourself, think again. It could prove to be a false economy if the whole thing unravels and you count the cost of featuring on Watchdog or Money Saving Expert forums. To be safe, check out Mosaic Marketing’s guide below.

First of all, you need to have built up a black book of contacts, useful people to know, some you might even call friends, who work in the leisure and retail industries, ideally over a decade or more of relationship building. These are your lifeblood, on whom you will call to get them into your promotion. With so many companies demanding their attention, who are they’re going to listen to - people they know already. These should be stored on a state of the art contact relationship management system. A good one will allow you to mail, e-mail and fax your base in an instant, whilst tracking every piece of communication for future reference. You never know when someone might need to pick up the thread of conversation when you’re not there. This would set you back in the region of £10,000.

Develop an insight into the zeitgeist of not only the moment, but the coming year - brands plan ahead after all. What are the issues of the day that will play on your consumers, and hence your potential customer’s, fears, hopes or desires? These will form the basis of campaign themes that will capture the public imagination, e.g. obesity, world cup, credit crunch, stay-cations, olympics.

Once you’ve worked out the campaign theme that will achieve your objectives and push the buttons of your target audience, you need to work out what partners will complement the theme. Do you already have the contacts? Is it a less common promotional offer for which you’ll need to establish feasibility and perhaps source data. Do they have the same infrastructure for this activity in all territories you are running the promotion, e.g. EIRE, mainland Europe?

Having established feasibility, what will your target coverage be in terms of numbers? This is partially determined by the universe of the leisure activity you are considering and how far people are likely to travel for that activity. You would be prepared to travel a lot further for a family day out (an hour or more) than for a hair cut (10-15 minutes). As a rough guide we would suggest that at least 300 venues in most cases, evenly spread across the UK would give good national coverage.  

Now your partner base is primed, you need to prepare your plan of attack. You need to factor in enough time to not only meet your own production lead times, you need to ensure that you are approaching potential partners far enough in advance that they too have have time to plan this activity into their schedule. You will lose credibility immediately if you give people little or no time to respond to your proposal. 

Your recruitment materials need to be designed to do several things:

• achieve cut through so the recipient actually reads it - this is a competitive marketplace
• explain the Features, Advantages and Benefits of signing up to the promotion
• spell out in simple contractual terms on how the partnership will work
• provide terms and conditions for the offer they are agreeing to accept (esp. with independent businesses)
• are there any free incentives you can offer the partners - samples, window stickers, equipment, money?

You will also need to consider how you will communicate all the venues participating in the promotion to the consumer. Chances are you won’t have room to list them on your existing product. Therefore, we recommend using a customisable online sales promotion search engine, with an approved postcode database available on license for c. £4,000 p.a. Ideally the system will be flexible enough to allow you to incorporate customer registration, security checks, a  quantitative questionnaire, secure voucher generation, demographic analysis and reporting, all hosted on a robust, regularly backed up and impregnable server. Allow £10-15,000 to develop this. 

Mailings in themselves will probably not achieve the numbers you need, so you’re going to have to undertake telesales. The scale of this operation depends on your target numbers, number of disciplines and deadlines. Also consider when your partners are likely to be there. If you’re ringing restaurateurs you’ll pretty much need to work restaurant hours; which invariably means evenings. Expensive!

Once you have all your partners safely contracted into the promotion, the fun bit of sourcing logos, artwork, copy, terms and conditions, proofing artwork and getting it approved begins. Remember that you are totally dependent on third parties to sign off material featuring their own intellectual property. Also, they aren’t always available when you want them, and your immediate priorities may not be the same as theirs, i.e. signing off this bit of creative is not their most pressing concern right now. So, again, factor in a realistic time frame for this because mistakes cost money.

Before the campaign goes live all partners, customer services and sales staff need to be fully briefed on when the campaign is going to run, how it’s going to look and what terms and conditions all parties are supposed to adhere to. You also need to have processes in place for offer redemption issues. If a consumer has a problem participating in your promotion (and they’ve followed the terms and conditions themselves) you need to do everything you can to ensure the matter is resolved courteously, professionally and quickly. Should the offer provider be at fault, you need to secure some form of gesture to compensate for the inconvenience caused. Very few customers thank you when things go smoothly, but, if they have a bad experience, they will tell the world including BBC Watchdog, Which? and Money Saving Expert to name but a few. The customer is always right, until proven otherwise.

Your role in delivering a third party offer is not over until the last voucher has expired. If you want to know how many people have redeemed the offers, your last job will be to ask all the partners how many they received and obtain feedback on how the campaign went for them with a view to future relations. This can be very time consuming and expensive.

So, in short, that’s how to deliver unparalleled third party promotional relationships. If you don’t have a few years to develop partner marketing relationships, an experienced team of recruitment specialists and a ready made white label promotions engine, contact the experts - Mosaic Marketing. They will look after all these elements for you and deliver the finished article for a fraction of the hassle and costs you would incur. That leaves you free to manage the bigger picture, which is what you do best, right?

This post is a homage to “How to make your own SUMMIT shirt”, kindly provided by our friend Robert Clay at DSP.

Can sales promotion capitalise on Beijing success for London 2012 Olympics?

As the Beijing dust settles on what has been undoubtedly a very successful Olympic games for Team GB, we at the Sales Promotion Blog find ourselves asking as many questions as our athletes appeared to answer:

• Why did we only get gold in the sit down sports (apart from Rebecca Adlington and Christine Ohuruogu)?
• Can Team GB improve on 4th?
• Will namedropping your sponsor become a new Olympic sport?

Interesting though these issues are; this is a sales promotion blog after all; of more concern to marketeers right now is “how does my brand capitalise on Team GB’s Beijing gold rush for 2012?”

Distant finish line...

An important consideration is whether you commit to a campaign now to run for the next four years? Even a matter of weeks after Beijing, the games are out of the news and are soon consigned to fond memories. So, will the British public really be that bothered for 3 non-Olympic years? Despite a slight swing in support of the 2012 games in the UK, there are many that criticise the already London-centric bias in all walks of British life. One obvious way to get around this is to focus on the many examples of successful Olympians on a local level which bring a great sense of pride to these communities.

Take the plunge...

If you do decide to join the race, the first hurdle you’ll face is the considerable brand protection surrounding London 2012. The next games looks set to be the most brand-precious event ever; special laws have even been passed to enforce it. Obviously, unless you are an official sponsor, you cannot use any of the associated logos for the Olympics, or indeed any of the following keywords: London 2012, 2012, LOCOG, Javelin, Team GB, Games for a Connected World, Olympic, Olympian, Olympiad, Paralympic, Paralympian or Paralympiad plus their plurals, translations and anything similar to them.

So, assuming you can’t afford sponsorship (about £80 million for tier 1 sponsorship) and the LOCOG don’t give you permission for your planned campaign, you will have to opt for a more generic approach. But even here, you will face an uphill struggle. 

Don’t mention the....

From the rings below, you cannot use any two blue words together, or any blue word with one or more green words without permission.

If you’re in any doubt, it would be worth checking out the regulations for yourself.

First out of the blocks...

Already this year a number of companies have thrown their hats into the Olympic ring. McCain has announced £5 million support for British Athletics over the next 5 years. As well as financial provision, this summer saw a series of 4 roadshows providing free opportunities to try out your athletics skills, fronted by former golden girl Sally Gunnell.

Asda have also joined the fray, with their Asda Sporting Chance. This scheme is totally free to participate in - just pick up a voucher in store. This gives customers a chance to participate in local activities across the UK including martial arts, swimming, football and dance. Not a mention of the Olympics in sight.

Government initiatives

With the seemingly regular announcements of new government initiatives to provide free swimming and free sports activities the equity in providing a free activity-based promotion on an Olympic ticket or otherwise, would appear to be greatly de-valued.

What’s left?

Without supporting one of the British sports governing bodies outright or stumping up for games sponsorship, marketeers will need to box clever to make any capital out of London 2012. If you want to explore any ways of delivering an Olympic or generic Free Activity promotion, contact us at our sister site, Mosaic Marketing & Promotions.