I ONCE SPOTTED some covetable bottles of Italian wine on a Web site and didn’t hesitate to place an order. When they hadn’t arrived two weeks later, I began to worry.
Fortunately, there’d simply been a shipping delay. But had the order not been filled, it would’ve highlighted a growing issue in Europe
NEW ZEALAND Kids’s Movie a Big Hit Dow Under Krispa Potato Chips is targeting kids five to 12 with a program exploiting global Rugrats mania through a licensing deal with Nickelodeon. The chip-selling program coincides with the recent release of The Rugrats Movie here.
“Kids snack packs have increased by 100 percent and retailers have gotten behind the promotion with huge aisle-end displays and store prizes,” says a Krispa spokesperson. The promotion is wrapped around Rugrats potato chip packaging with eye-catching colors and bold typography. Each package contains collectable stickers and an on-pack sweeps offering a chance to win 10 tickets to the movie.
To create awareness for the program, retailers are distributing free sticker posters to kids so they’ll be encouraged to start a sticker collection, and supporting with P-O-P materials and store-specific prizes. Krispa and distributor United International Pictures mailed free sticker posters to every elementary school in New Zealand.
“Rugrats has been a great opportunity for Krispa and has added another dimension to our snack food range. The promotion has generated pleasing results for our overall sales efforts,” says Hansells Snack Food division market manager Grant Freeman. Promotion agency Stag Concepts and TVNZ, the New Zealand licensing agent, developed the program.
CANADA Gotta Be In It to Win It Marketing & Promotions Group, a division of Mosaic Group, has launched a new charitable lottery division offering such services as strategy development, market research and positioning, and material production. The division is headed up by lottery director Karen Baker.
“Lotteries have proven to be quite effective and lucrative for various public institutions,” says M&PG president David Smith. “Many organizations need support in developing new and innovative fundraising techniques. Lotteries are a fresh approach that involves the community.”
The lottery division has full access to current M&PG marketing resources. The agency’s client list includes Canada Post, Corby Distilleries, First Brands, Hallmark, Hershey, Labatt, and others.
“The Ontario marketplace is booming and the demand for lotteries here is steadily increasing,” says Baker.
Prior to joining M&PG, Baker headed up the lottery division for the Heart & Stroke Foundation, which has used lotteries to raise more than $18 million in the last three years. Baker spearheaded the organization’s Hoops for Heart, Fit for Heart, and Jump Rope for Heart programs.
GREAT BRITAIN Pepsi Sounds Good to Consumers Pepsi is lending its name to the music industry with a CD-ROM program that gets consumers asking for more from the brand.
Pepsi drinkers in London who send in 25 pull-tabs from their cans receive a free interactive CD-ROM featuring songs and interviews with trendy recording artists including Janet Jackson, Five, and The Corrs. Listeners can download and print personalized photos and a themed screensaver with an Ask for More tagline. Promotion agency Claydon Heeley International launched the program last month, and is getting ready to expand to other European cities, Asia, and Africa. The CD-ROM was designed by Music Innovations and supplied by BMG.
The program “moves our music platform forward, both in terms of the artists we are using and the exclusive rewards we are developing,” said Pepsi European marketing director Simon Lowdon. TV spots featuring the bands, radio ads, and billboard and bus advertising support.
CANADA Partners in Pie Shirriff and Tenderflake are springing into action with a themed partnership that gets retailers and consumers into the Easter holiday spirit. This one’s a natural.
Shirriff lemon pie filling and Tenderflake pie crusts, both market leaders commanding 60-plus percent of their respective categories, will cross-promote in stores this month and next, and are being touted as a perfect fit for pie-makers. Retailer incentives, in-store displays, and co-op ads support.
Consumers receive $1 coupons that feature tips on baking a lemon meringue pie. The brands hope to expand the category by bringing in new consumers who may be attracted to both products via the featured recipe.
“It’s tough to take a brand with a 60-percent share and drive the business with that,” says Duncan McLaren of Duncan McLaren Marketing, the agency that developed the program. “The concept [of doing co-op promotions] isn’t brilliant, it’s basic. But we’ve taken a basic concept and added tremendous creative to build a strategic alliance that’ll work for both partners.”
Shirriff and Tenderflake have teamed up several times in the past on similar promotions.
ARGENTINA 800 Retailers Unite! Alto Palermo Centros Comerciales, owner of some of the most popular Argentine malls, has launched a first-of-its-kind program in this country that brings together 800 retailers, 100 field marketers, four shopping malls, and thousands of consumers.
Developed by Lautrec Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, the Bonus Caravan campaign is a summer program (It’s summer there now.) that targets consumers at their vacation spots, encouraging them to visit malls in return for chances to win free trips and merchandise.
Here’s how the program works: Consumers make a purchase at a store, then show their receipts to reps located at several booths throughout participating malls. Consumers instantly receive special fidelity cards and acquire one point for each dollar spent. Points can then be redeemed for hundreds of prizes, including key chains, T-shirts, and trips. Company representatives input consumer information on-site, including their names and addresses, as well as what they’ve purchased and what their hobbies and personal interests are. The data will be saved for retailers so they can run their own individual promotions during the year.
According to Alejandra Marquez of Lautrec’s On Promotions division, “We’re offering retailers a very targeted way to reach existing and prospective customers all year.” The best part is that “we know exactly how much money consumers spend and what they spend it on,” she says. More than 25,000 cards were distributed during the first month of the program.
To make sure beach-goers knew about the promo, lifeguards donned Baywatch-style Bonus uniforms and taught health and safety programs.
ENGLAND Cellnet Rings Up Sales U.K. cellular service provider Cellnet identified 16-to-24-year-olds who pay cash for everything – and tend to steer clear of service contracts – and targeted them with catchy graphics and no-nonsense language to get them to buy into cellular phones.
Cellnet’s goal was to expand market share by making cellular phones accessible to young people who didn’t want to take on long-term commitments with service providers. For about $100, users received cell phones, connection through Cellnet, and vouchers for their first $16 worth of calls. Phone indicators let users know how much unspent airtime they had left.
With catchy language like: “Use it, don’t use it. It’s your call,” the brand succeeded in appealing to the younger market and positioned the pre-pay phone as something they could have on their own terms with no contract. After buyers have used up their free vouchers, they purchase additional ones in various British pound increments. The “U” campaign title, catchy logo, packaging, and promotion materials captured the brand’s no-strings-attached message.
Cellnet introduced the campaign to the trade via special movie events and film launches throughout the United Kingdom at the end of 1998.
“Results were spectacular. Cellnet’s share of the pre-pay sector went from zero to 19 percent in just a few weeks,” says Barry Clarke of Clarke Hooper, the agency that created the program. “The company rapidly sold out of stock, moving 390,000 phones before the year-end against a target of 150,000. Most importantly, we established our client’s position in the youth market.”
Extra, extra Recognizing the purchasing power of the younger set, Clarke Hooper will launch a program promoting London Metro, a new weekday morning newspaper that targets affluent young Londoners who commute to work by tube (subway).
Publisher Associated Newspapers, which also owns the Daily Mail, The Mail, and The Evening Standard, is distributing 350,000 free copies of London Metro daily at 1,000 self-serve racks in all 261 London Underground stations. The colorful publication offers national and international news, as well as sports, business, arts, shopping, and cultural information.
Some $2.25 million worth of advertising and P-O-P materials support the launch. “We’ve been working with Associated Newspaper’s new products division to develop this project, which was so secret that the client worked out of a rented accommodation for many months far from the company’s main office,” says Clarke.
VENEZUELA Penny Saved Is a Prize Earned The Caja Familia bank in Venezuela developed an end-of-the-year promotion that got thousands of customers to open interest-bearing checking and savings accounts in return for chances to win valuable prizes the whole family could enjoy.
Caja Familia is positioned as a family bank whose products and services cater specifically to young married couples, families with children, and older couples who have reached a period of financial security.
The three-month promotion’s objective was to get current customers to increase their deposits, encourage current customers to make fewer withdrawals, sign up new accounts, and create customer loyalty to the bank and its value-added services. Customers earned points based on their account balances, and received additional points each time they made a deposit, used the Caja Familia credit or debit card, took out a bank loan, etc. At the end of each month, customers could redeem their points for chances to win prizes.
The bank got the message out using friendly images of blue balloons, cartoon characters, and a catchy Spanish promotion title – Animese, which means “get yourself moving” and conjures up images of animated characters to most Spanish-speakers. Current and prospective customers were encouraged to maintain a minimum account balance of Bs. 100,000 in October and November. Those who did received chances to win one of 250 General Electric refrigerators and 1,000 Christmas gift baskets. Customers who maintained a Bs. 250,000 balance in December were eligible for a Bs. 100 million sweepstakes prize awarded live on national TV at the end of the month.
TV and radio spots, public relations, and in-bank P-O-P materials supported the program, which was developed by Proa, a Caracas-based sales promotion agency.
AUSTRALIA Weeties and Wiggles Uncle Toby’s created excitement for its Weeties cereal by getting Australian moms to tout the nostalgic brand to the next generation – their kids.
Weeties competes against Kellogg’s Cornflakes and Special K brands, and holds 2 percent of the Australian cereal market, which is crowded by a large number of competitors with low market shares.
The brand tied in with The Wiggles, a popular Aussie musical group that appeals to the youngest (8 and under) Weeties audience, and used demand for Wiggles merchandise like concert tickets and videos as a platform for the promotion. Fusion Marketing Group developed the program.
Coded on-pack tokens were affixed to Weeties’ products, each with their own point value based on the size of the package. Consumers collected 30 points to enter the Wiggles Live Performance Concert At Your School sweepstakes and six points for a free ticket to a Wiggles movie screening. Every box contained instant-win Wiggles stickers. The brand supported the program with ads, kindergarten kits, and on-pack communications designed for “kid appeal” as moms shopped.
Sales increased 17 percent over the promotion period. Three percent of all kindergartens and schools entered the live concert component.
ISRAEL Nike and Sprite Go to School Sprite and Nike have teamed up on an Israeli program that puts the two brands in front of 72,000 high school kids. The promotion was developed by Israeli agency Goldmedia.
The brands have worked out an arrangement with dozens of schools in Israel that will get kids out of the classroom for an hour of fun and games on basketball courts. The kids are invited to participate in tournaments, and just in case they forget who invited them, Nike and Sprite have plastered their logos all over the playgrounds and are distributing free T-shirts, hats, and Sprite cans. Tournament winners receive special prizes and will be visited by players of the Israeli National basketball league (which didn’t have a lockout).
The goal of the campaign is to mesh Sprite’s Trust Yourself theme with Nike’s Just Do It. Surveys show that nearly 77 percent of consumers have gotten the message and think the Sprite and Nike brands “are the coolest,” says an agency spokesperson.
The program will be supported by TV ads, spots on the National Sports Channel, and local and national newspaper announcements. A final game is planned at which all student participants will be invited to partake in events associated with the completion of the promotion.
ARGENTINA British Airways Puts It in Writing British Airways is betting that coupons placed in Gente magazine will raise awareness for its newly launched sixth weekly flight to London and beat out the European trip competition in the process.
Gente is an Argentinean weekly that features news and information about fashion, celebrities, and local hot-spots.
The partnership is a perfect fit: the magazine needs to increase its circulation, and the airline needs to sell tickets, said a representative of Stopromotion, the Buenos Aires-based agency that created the program.
Consumers are asked to collect coupons found in three consecutive issues of Gente. The coupons, plus $795, entitle readers to a flight to London, with the option of a connecting flight to Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, or Frankfurt for the same price.
BA’s offer, which significantly undercuts the competition’s for the 12-hour plus flight, is being extended to the first 1,000 Gente readers who send in their coupons. TV and radio spots and billboard ads support.
AUSTRALIA Coffee Promo Leaves Bad Taste A promotion developed for Moccona Coffee came grinding to a halt recently after a federal commission found that the company didn’t provide enough detailed information about the terms of the offer, which involved a cellular phone contract.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission determined that the promotion breached the Trade Practices Act because details about the conditions and price of entering into the contract were not provided, leaving would-be entrants unable to determine the costs at the point-of-sale.
Moccona has agreed to offer the 1,000 winners a $100 credit to offset the cost of a service contract with the partnering cellular phone company.
UNITED KINGDOM Safeway Does Its Homework The Safeway grocery chain has tapped Retail Field Marketing to help vendors test-market new products, assess the effects of future promotions, and keep up-to-date on changes to product categories.
RFM’s supplier in-store merchandising service builds on the company’s expertise in promotion monitoring, organizing space audits, building displays, and distributing P-O-P materials. Brands are charged a fee for testing in Safeway stores.
The abundance of Safeway stores in the U.K. make it possible for the chain to “try out category initiatives, although they’re subject to the agreement of our buying and retail team,” according to Giles Shapley, Safeway’s marketing controller for category research. “If brands do this in Safeway first, then we stand a better chance of bringing them to market first.”
ITALY Borrini to Head Industry Group Promotion Italia’s Alessandro Borrini has been named general manager of Italy’s Association for Sales Promotion (ASP). He took the helm February 1.
The 20-year-old association is comprised of the top 30 Italian promotion agencies, who in turn represent about 25 percent of the total promotion investments in Italy. “Our goal is to broaden the professional skills of members, stimulate growth in creativity and research, and exalt the culture of the promotion marketing industry in the Italian market,” says Borrini.
Borrini began his career in advertising in the ’60s, then became a promotion manager for La Rinascente, a leading retail chain. From there he moved to the agency side, serving in senior-level capacities at several Italian firms. He was a member of the ASP board from 1990 to 1996, including a stint as chairman.
Borrini currently consults for Promotions Italia, a leading promotion agency in Italy that won World PRO Award recognition in ’97 and ’98 for its work with Campari and Siemens, respectively.
Cartoon Network and Wimpy Leverage Toon Characters to Sell Burgers LONDON – The Cartoon Network has gotten behind Wimpy restaurants with a program that ties in with the network’s popular Dexter’s Laboratory series. Some 250,000 Lucky Bags are distributed to British kids when they order a Megabite Meal at Wimpy locations.
Ignition Marketing developed the program, which is supported by an animated TV spot on the Cartoon Network and a Cartoon Network 14-hour marathon featuring every Dexter’s Laboratory cartoon ever produced.
Murphy’s Changes Gears LONDON – Whitbread Beer is using promotion – and a little bit of girl power – to promote its Murphy’s Stout brand to a wider audience base.
The Sisters of Murphy’s integrated campaign replaces the company’s I’m Not Bitter campaign and aims to broaden the brand’s appeal beyond stout purists. The market is currently dominated by Guinness with an 82 percent share, compared with Murphy’s 12 percent.
The program was developed by The Works Consultancy and is supported with TV spots and a trade campaign involving 1,660 retail outlets. Consumers are invited to visit one of 110 participating pubs and restaurants nationwide to party with the three-sister “hit squads,” who challenge pub-goers to participate in skills-based games in return for branded merchandise as prizes. Competition finals at the end of each night offer participants a year’s supply of Murphy’s. The program runs through April.
“The market has changed and we have to move with the times and compete within the wider beer market rather than just stout,” said Murphy’s marketing manager Jo Franks, adding “great advertising is one thing, but it’s not enough by itself.”
In Israel, Love Is All They Need TEL-AVIV – Co-partners MusicaPlus and promotion agency GoldMedia got 80,000 people to turn out for a parade that created awareness for the event’s 13 corporate sponsors and excitement for music-loving consumers ready to have a good time.
Event sponsors including Volkswagen, El-Al airlines, Strraus (Israel’s Danone rep), o.b., Bezek (Israel’s phone company), Doritos, Martini and Kellogg’s worked with 12 leading clubs and discos to create the Love Parade, an event that has taken place in several European cities in the last few years. The parade included one truck for each disco, each broadcasting a different genre of music and all carrying sponsors’ ad messages. The trucks drove down the city’s main streets for three hours with thousands of youngsters in tow, heading towards Tel-Aviv’s main square.
The event, which lasted a full day, was pre-promoted with ads in the country’s largest newspaper and national radio spots. Dancers got consumers into the spirit two weeks before the event by distributing parade information, and promo reps plastered billboards and street posters around town to ensure that no one missed out on the excitement.
Label Lovers MADRID – Danone added more culture to its yogurt product lineup with a program targeting housewives with offers they couldn’t refuse.
Developed by Wunderman Cato Johnson, the Big Brand Game asked women ages 25-45 to purchase Danone products and then cut out product labels and affix them to the pages of special albums that they had received earlier. Women who had participated in earlier Danone promotions received the albums, and they were offered various levels of prizes based on the number of labels they accumulated.
The brand supported the program with TV spots, P-O-P materials in grocery stores, special product packaging on many Danone products, and a special consumer hotline that consumers called for additional albums.
The response rate ranged between 9.4 percent and 35 percent, and women redeemed more than 250,000 prizes. Danone succeeded in adding 66 percent more names to its database, and of the 200,000 phone calls received, 65 percent of them were from women requesting additional albums.
Morning Becomes ATHENS – Katselis is helping consumers start the day off right with a healthy dose of electronics prizes they can win over breakfast. The program runs through the end of the month.
Scratch-off gamecards have been distributed in thousands of packages of Katselis, a Melba toast-like food traditionally eaten for breakfast here. Every card has the potential to be a winner when consumers select the six boxes that display wheat shaft icons.
Prizes include 50,000 cars, more than a million video cameras, and two million Sony Playstations. TV and radio spots support the program, which was developed by New York-based The Properties Group, a division of True North Communications.
The First of Many . . . Maybe LONDON – NatWest and Business Solutions Partnership (BSP) have linked up to launch the industry’s first pan-European motivation reward card designed for blue-chip companies. The program is wrapped around an Elite card that can be used for staff motivation and loyalty programs.
Employees earn points based on performance, and then redeem them for pounds at any of the 12,000 MasterCard outlets in Europe. Money is credited to the card, which then acts like a debit card, and more money can be added to the account. The companies will roll out the card worldwide following the European introduction.
Companies will be able to customize the cards so that if employees exceed their target sales for a certain month, their cards will automatically be credited with points. According to BSP managing director Bob Lee, most clients have used coupons and travel incentives, so there was a need for “something innovative that employees could ‘spend’ on whatever they wanted.”
Chained to the Telly LONDON – Canon and Blockbuster Video have partnered to offer consumers free video rentals for a year when they purchase certain Canon bubble jet printers. The offer is worth up to $300.
The promotion runs through the end of next year and follows on the heels of Canon’s promotion with Thomas Cook last year that offered consumers holiday coupons equal to the value of selected printers. In-store P-O-P, public relations, and radio spots support the program.
Heinz , Barbie, Action! LONDON – Heinz pasta meals got back into shape in the U.K. with an on-pack promotion in supermarkets that got kids reaping booty from the toy store aisles. The program was developed by The Marketing Store Worldwide.
The brand licensed Barbie and Action Man, transforming them into pasta shapes, and gave them their own canned pasta marquees. Girls ages two to nine were asked to collect heart tokens from their pasta labels in return for a free Barbie watch (complete with a silver heart mirror), and boys ages four to 10 collected combat stripe tokens for free Action Man figures.
More than 12,000 girls requested Barbie watches and 3,000 boys requested Action Men. Barbie pasta shapes accounted for 18 percent of the shapes market within the first three months of the promotion and reached a 25.5 percent high by its end.
Action Man shapes are currently the third-ranking shape, holding 11 percent of the market share.
NetworkPura Milk Wiggles: Its Way to the Breakfast Table SYDNEY – National Foods has found a way to get kids to drink their milk with a program that harnesses the overwhelming popularity of the popular Australian Wiggles TV characters.
The Wiggle Your Bones and Win promotion is designed to encourage greater consumption of Pura whole milk with kids ages 2 to 12. Kids can send in their names and addresses for chances to win Wiggles posters and videos. The brand, which has received more than 40,000 entries so far, is supporting the program with on-pack graphics, in-store displays, and sampling. The program encourages “pester power of a positive kind. Using the Wiggles is really just a mechanism to get kids to drink more milk,” said Steven Chaur, National Foods business unit manager. “A modest sales increase plus relationship building is our target,” Chaur said, adding “milk is one of those funny categories where you don’t get a huge spike in sales. We’re targeting for a 3-to-5 percent increase during the promotion period.”
New Bass Brew Makes the Rounds LONDON – Bass Brewers launched a new fruity alcoholic beverage with a program that gets 21- to 30-year-olds to tune in to the brand by giving them chances to win mini-CDs produced by PolyGram when they sample the new beer.
Consumers who try Hooper’s Reef at 4,600 pubs, clubs, and student unions around Britain receive gamecards good for a Hooper’s Reef Cafe Del Mar CD featuring three hit songs from the popular classic Cafe Del Mar dance album. London-based KLP and PolyGram Incentive and Creative Marketing developed the program.
Beta Brands Gets ‘N Sync TORONTO – Beta Brands Limited is sweetening its candy sales with a multi-layered promotion that uses music to reinforce the company’s position as the brand for 10- to 24-year-olds.
The company markets LifeSavers, Breath Savers, Beech-Nut candy brands, McCormicks confectionery products, and also non-candy related brands like BiteLife, Champagne and Country Harvest cracker brands.
In the Go Live & Get Loud program this summer, consumers throughout Canada submitted two proofs of purchase from their candy wrappers for chances to bring five friends to a private LifeSavers concert featuring the popular band ‘N Sync at the trendy Toronto Guvernment night club. In-store materials featured mail-in forms “that disappeared in less than a week because the prize was so appealing,” said Maja Vujovic of Big Bang! Marketing Group, the agency that developed the program. Beta Brands repeated the promotion on a local level via several local grocery chains and gas stations, and supported the program with trade incentives and radio contests.
The Win & Spin promotion launches this month and invites consumers to send in three LifeSavers candy wrappers for chances to win a customized Wurlitzer jukebox, five LiveSavers Roll stereos, and 1,000 compilation CDs.
“We sensed how in sync the company is with its consumers and succeeded in expressing the brand’s fun characteristics using music. It all just clicked in place,” said Big Bang’s vp Scott Stevenson.
German Agency Says ‘Ja’ to Draft MUNICH – DraftWorldwide has acquired direct marketing powerhouse M&V Gmbh, based here. With reported billings of $78 million, M&V’s addition to the DraftWorldwide lineup makes the company the third largest promotion agency in Germany.
With two offices in Munich and one in Hamburg, 14-year-old M&V specializes in trade marketing and boasts clients including Peugeot, Volvo, and Marriott Vacation Club.
“M&V strengthens our presence in Germany, which is the biggest European market for direct marketing, and adds a strong capability in trade marketing. Adding to the mail-order strengths of Peter Reincke/Draft and the consumer marketing capabilities of Wolff & Partner, DraftWorldwide is a formidable competitor in the German marketplace,” said Jean-Paul Dupuy, president of DraftWorldwide Europe.
Principals Herbert Schneider and Bernhard Voightlander will remain managing directors. Both will report to Jean-Paul Dupuy, president of DraftWorldwide, Europe.
The agency has made Europe the focus of its expansion activities this year with recent agency acquisitions in Brussels, Athens, Lisbon, and Paris.
Inter-Act Broadens Scope BRUSSELS – Inter-Act Systems entered into a letter of intent with Delhaize Le Lion to pilot the Inter-Act Loyalty Network here. The companies are planning an early 1999 commercial test of the company’s smart kiosk now being commercially tested in 13 Sainsbury’s stores in the United Kingdom. If successful, the trial will be followed by a nationwide rollout in 150 Delhaize stores in Belgium.
Inter-Act’s proprietary ILN, which is tied to retailers’ loyalty card databases, employ interactive multi-media terminals to deliver targeted electronic promotions, advertising, and customer communications to shoppers.
Delhaize, a leading loyalty card retailer, owns the Food Lion chain of more than 1,000 supermarkets in the U.S. The company recently completed the rollout of the loyalty program in its 120 Food Lion stores in the Charlotte, NC, market and has completed the rollout of American Stores’ Jewel-Osco and Lucky South stores.
“Based on early results in the UK we’re confident that Delhaize will experience ILN consumer usage levels that will support a full-scale rollout in Belgium,” said Inter-Act chairman and ceo Stephen Leeolou.
Zeller’s Drives:Business to Store Aisles TORONTO – Zeller’s Inc., the division of Hudson’s Bay Company that recently acquired K-Mart Canada, has changed gears to focus more on merchandising and marketing. The giant retail chain generated store traffic this summer with a major promotion called A Van Would Be Good.
Touted as the largest giveaway of its kind in Canadian retail history, Zeller’s teamed up with Chrysler Canada to offer consumers 125 minivans over a five-week period.
Shoppers who used their Club Z credit cards were automatically entered into the sweepstakes, and five winners were chosen for five weeks. Consumers who didn’t make a purchase could still participate by having their cards swiped once a day.
The program was designed to encourage club membership and to get Zeller’s nine million members to keep their names, address, and phone number current so they could be notified if they won. Club membership is free, and shoppers earn 100 points per $1 spent.
“Sales have been really strong in recent months, which we attribute to the A Van Would Be Good promotion, recent store renovations, and our latest merchandising efforts. Everything is really coming together for us,” said Diane Gordon, Zeller’s promotion manager.
Zeller’s recently introduced the Martha Stewart Everyday line for bed, bath, and kitchen, as well as Cherokee, a new signature brand of affordable family apparel and accessories.
Calling it a Game LONDON – The Walsh Simmons promotion agency has launched Sports Tickets, a new loyalty program that offers consumers free seats at some of Britain’s top sporting events.
More than 150 clubs, events, and venues , including Wembley Stadium and Saracens Rugby Union, will participate.
Interested consumers receive 40-page directories featuring upcoming events and venues from Sports Tickets, each of which contains 16 complimentary tickets worth about $500 in savings. The tickets (kids go free or two for the price of one) can be matched to the offers in the directory and exchanged for match day tickets at the various sporting venues.
“Sports venues want to maximize traffic at the turnstile,” said partner Steve Walsh. “Our clients, who include retailers, brand owners, and financial institutions, want a low cost, high value reward for their customers.”
Sleeping Well MADRID – Flex beds made sure its distributors didn’t lose sleep with a program that got them dreaming of mysterious foreign lands and eternal youth instead of stiff competition and stagnating sales that affect their bottom line.
The Myth of Eternal Youth program targeted the brand’s core 75 to 80 distributors throughout Spain via a teaser campaign aimed at maintaining their level of interest throughout the promo. Distributors were not told where the grand prize destination was, but they did receive promotion materials printed on old-fashioned parchment paper, boxes containing Holy Grail replicas, and suitcases and toiletry kits to get them into the spirit of traveling. Each prize corresponded with the specific sales levels they achieved.
Distributors were personally thanked for their participation when they reached 75 percent of their targets, and then they received “inverse” clocks symbolizing the idea of eternal youth (via an hour sand glass that counts time backwards with sand that falls up). The final communication mailed was a letter to the winner with details of the destination, which had to be switched from Jordan to Thailand at the last minute because of political problems. “We had to come up with new promotion materials that stayed close to the mysterious theme,” said Jan Soderberg of Grupo K Comunicacion, the agency that developed the program.
All Tied Up LONDON – Three customers of Hoover Europe’s infamous 1992 Free Flights promo who bought appliances so they could fly for free won lawsuits in London recently against the company.
But in a turnabout that same day, Hoover won a lawsuit against a consumer that followed four victories for the company racked up the day before, leaving the litigation tally even at five each.
The dispute results from a promise made in late 1992 and early 1993 of two free international airline flights to anybody in Britain and Ireland who bought an appliance for as little as $165.
The vacuum cleaners were cheaper than airline tickets, so thousands of consumers bought appliances just to fly free. When Hoover turned to technicalities to dam the flow of buyers, many consumers turned to the law. It was one of the biggest marketing blunders in history and made the company a world-wide laughingstock.
Hoover Europe’s former corporate parent, Maytag Corp., Newton, IA, finally spent $72 million to fly some 220,000 consumers.
A London judge ruled that Hoover was not in breach of contract against four would-be travelers. An anti-Hoover consumer group, the Hoover Holiday Pressure Group, said the four had been victimized by fine print. Harry Cichy, the group’s leader, said that the four had been offered tickets departing London but lived in Manchester.
Cichy said that there are 350,000 people in Britain and Ireland that might have grounds to sue. The group had hoped to file a class-action suit on behalf of those consumers against the Hoover European Appliance Group. Cichy noted that the Holiday Pressure Group had won two previous cases.
The next day, Hoover lost three lawsuits to customers who bought appliances to fly for free. But that same day the company won another suit.
Hoover said it plans to appeal the suits it lost while calling the cases it won “similar to other Free Flights litigation.” “We are confident of successful outcomes in the future,” Hoover European Appliance Group said in a statement.
But Cichy said that his group may go after Maytag. “When you do a deal with somebody, you should stick to it,” he said. Maytag had no comment.
Maytag sold Hoover Europe to Italian appliance-maker Candy SpA, but has set up a fund to handle litigation in the free flights fiasco.
The plaintiffs who won against Hoover Wednesday received about $140 after convincing the court Hoover was in breach of contract.
Betting on Audi’s Power SYDNEY – The Star City Casino bet the house that a membership-driven program wrapped around Audi cars would generate awareness for the casino while driving consumers to the gambling floors.
The casino offered 21 Audi cars in 21 days (worth $840,000) to Star City’s 200,000 members using direct mail to entice them to gamble more money than usual on their gambling trips.
Membership to the casino was free and entry to the sweepstakes was automatic each time members used their membership cards in casino gambling activities. Star City used TV ads and public relations to support the program, and chose the Audi A3 because it met the style objectives of its members.
The goal was to boost membership at the end of the casino’s initial three-month “honeymoon visitation period,” according to Star City casino marketing director Jeff Strang.
Petite Sophisticate BUENOS AIRES – Gancia aperitif identified with the right crowd using a program that increased consumption of the brand at bars and restaurants by 30 percent during its promotion.
The brand, mostly targeted to men and women of middle and high incomes, was relying on TV spots that featured beautiful, sexy people partying in mansions to sell its alcohol. The company realized, however, that although Gancia was perceived as “for the sophisticated,” it was also simultaneously alienating a chunk of consumers who considered the brand too upscale.
Gancia set out to bring the brand closer to its target consumers’ reality, showing that the drink could be enjoyed by the average person. The brand joined forces with top pubs and nightclubs in Buenos Aires to create brand excitement among twenty-somethings, and created customized P-O-S materials to add some “magic” to each locale’s atmosphere. Gancia reps visited two spots each weekend, one per night, with the aim of encouraging trial of the aperitif with the help of special icons and gypsies.
Gancia leveraged the familiar heart, apple, and lip symbols that comprise its logo (they’re everywhere in Argentina: in Gancia TV spots, print ads, promotion materials, and on bumper stickers displayed on hundreds of cars around the country), by offering consumers who purchased Gancia drinks surprise ice cubes in their glasses. Each cube included in it one of the three Gancia icons, printed on high-impact, non-toxic plastic folded and hidden inside the ice. When the ice melted, the icon floated to the drink’s surface to reveal the prize. Every Gancia drinker won something, including T-Shirts, shakers, and puzzle-coaster-mixer kits.
Gancia gypsies visited pub tables of Gancia drinkers, offering to read their palms and predict their futures. Gancia reps listening-in via gypsies’ wireless microphones made sure most predictions came true.
The program was a big hit at the pubs, with hundreds of thousands of drinkers participating in activities during the promotion period and significantly upping the number of Gancia drinks they consumed. The program was developed by The Smith Group, based here.
American Express Adds Excitement to Summer Travel LONDON – American Express is banking that a summer promotion will increase sales and generate excitement for its travelers checks while winning customers from competitor Thomas Cook.
The company launched WorldWide Winners, an instant-win scratch card promotion that offers consumers chances to win 80 holiday-themed prizes. Prizes include trips to the West Indies to pick up cricket balls, a Pound3,000 diamond to be picked up in South Africa, and others. Long weekends in popular European cities are also offered. Some 20,000 smaller holiday-themed prizes will also be awarded, including beach balls, wallets, and beach bags. American Express is supporting the program with public relations, ads, and P-O-S materials displayed in travel agencies and banks. Cramm Francis Woolf created the program.
The company plans to use its winners’ database for future mailings to investigate consumers’ foreign travel money buying habits.
Cartwright Williams Joins Leo Burnett Repertoire SYDNEY – Giant ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide broadened its scope by acquiring Cartwright Williams, a leading direct marketing agency based here, as part of a major drive to expand the marketing communications business of its Asia-Pacific network.
The agencies join forces in a new Asian venture called Leo Burnett Cartwright Williams Direct, headquartered in Singapore and headed up by managing director Lisa Watson. She was managing director of Wunderman Cato Johnson, Hong Kong, and before that managing director of Dentsu Young & Rubicam, Hong Kong. The Singapore office provides strategic support to Burnett’s direct marketing operations in southeast Asia.
“This acquisition marks a dramatic acceleration in the development of our direct and database marketing capabilities in Asia-Pacific,” says Steve Gatfield, regional managing director for Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific.
CW, a privately held company, was founded in 1985 and employs 40 people. Clients include Microsoft, Ciba-Geigy, Cigna Insurance, and Sheraton Hotels. Burnett, with 24 offices throughout Asia-Pacific, reported 1997 billings of $1 billion for the region with clients Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, and Philip Morris. Worldwide billings were $5.9 billion last year.
Barbie Gets a Job BUENOS AIRES – Mattel enlisted internationally-famous Barbie to lend her support for a cause-related program that helped endangered whales at the same time it helped Barbie improve her image.
The brand has shown its social commitment in the past by launching new models that “humanize” Barbie, including disabled Barbies, dark-skinned Barbies, Asian Barbies, and others. Some 98 percent of Argentinean girls ages five to 10 know who she is, and 92 percent own one.
Barbie had gotten into trouble some time ago when the media published articles saying she was made of toxic materials. To combat the onslaught of bad PR and potential sales losses from the announcement, the brand set out to position itself as being environmentally-conscience. New Barbies, like Veterinarian Barbie and others were created to show the company’s cooperation and interest in preserving the planet’s flora and fauna. But Mattel saw anopportunity to take its interest further.
The company joined forces with the Fundacion Patagonia Natura (a Save the Whales organization) to develop Join Barbie Now for the Whales, a program that raised money for endangered Ballena Franca whales in Argentina. Girls were asked to write letters to the foundation – a donation was made for each letter received – and to include a bar code from their Barbie boxes for chances to win a trip to popular whale sites in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, or Argentina. TV spots, public relations, and P-O-S materials were used to support the program, which was developed by Meyer Action Marketing, based here.
The foundation received more than 450,000 letters from girls across the country, and more than 100 positive articles about the promotion were written. Mattel’s $40,000 contribution was the most significant in the organization’s history. The money generated is being used to research the whales’ breeding areas.
Birthday Treats BUENOS AIRES – The Cartoon Network celebrated its fifth anniversary here with a program that got kids to show off their artistic abilities while raising awareness for the cable channel in the process.
The network invited Argentine kids to draw a version of the network’s birthday cake and mail the results in for its April birthday bash. Five drawings were randomly selected, and each winner received trips for 20 to a popular amusement park for a special anniversary party, complete with free rides and video games. To create excitement for the program, families were invited to visit the Cartoon Network booth in one of the largest malls in Argentina. While there, kids could make and bake their favorite cartoon characters from dough, get their pictures taken with Dexter, the popular cartoon character from Dexter’s Laboratory, watch cartoons on special displays, and play with “live” characters at the booth. Children could also make toy donations to a children’s hospital via drop-off boxes at the booth. The network supported the program with Cartoon Network goody bags of cartoon-themed merchandise.
Developed by Del Rio & Font, the five-day program generated enough awareness to boost the network to the No. 1 position among four- to 11-year-olds.
The Sky’s the Limit CHINA – Four American airlines have taken off with a program that partners with Air China to offer consumers from both countries frequent flier miles and other services. The partnership is the first alliance between U.S. carriers and China’s largest international airline.
Details pertaining to the Northwest, Continental, America West, and Alaska airlines’ partnership with the Chinese will be “ready as soon as the carriers are granted government approval,” said Northwest executive VP, marketing and international, Michael Levine. Passengers can transfer between planes and will be able to take advantage of the coordination of schedules and connections, linked computer reservations systems, reciprocal frequent-flier programs, joint marketing, and sales and promotion programs. Northwest first started talks with Air China two years ago.
“This is the real genius of the alliance concept,” Levine told the Associated Press. “Working together can provide non-stop service to more than 60 percent of the U.S. and Chinese market.”
Northwest recently announced that it hopes to buy a $519 million stake in Continental in a deal that would link the No. 4 and No. 5 airlines’ route systems.
Watching the Cookies Crumble BUENOS AIRES – Bagley S.A., a Danone brand, recently developed a program to launch its new healthy snacks with an offer Argentine nutritionists couldn’t say no to: free cookies.
Developed by Wunderman Cato Johnson, the program was wrapped around a healthy dose of cookie sampling, direct marketing, and public relations support. Some 500 nutritionists – the very people whose endorsements can get health-conscious consumers racing to the snack food aisles – received Tentalight cookie samples and folders containing information about the new cookie brand. The company included questionnaires which recipients were asked to fill out, along with an indication of their favorite cookie flavor. Nutritionists who sent in the questionnaires received a cookie “thank you” based on the flavor they had chosen.
To support the program, the company sampled the product in 75 of the country’s largest supermarkets in and around Buenos Aires during a 10-week period. Brochures and cookie coupons were also distributed. Consumers who submitted three proofs-of-purchase received cookie samples in the mail.
Bagley generated a 16.4 percent response with nutritionists (82 of them returned the questionnaires). On the consumer side, more than 310,000 personal contacts were made, and the company distributed more than 250,000 product brochures.
Trebor Program Smells Like Roses LONDON – Trebor Bassett is offering consumers a breath of fresh air with a program that rewards them with chances to win more than 10,000 cash prizes when they purchase the brand’s three types of Extra Strong breath mints.
The Test Your Strength instant-win, on-pack program is wrapped around specially developed “strength-o-meters” which look like five mints compressed together. The value of the cash prize is revealed when consumers squeeze the mint roll packs.
The program offers retailers the chance to maximize profits by increasing sales 16 percent, said Trebor Bassett marketing controller Louise Cooke. The brand is supporting the program with advertising and product sampling at major soccer matches across the UK. (Story courtesy of Incentive Today Magazine)
Harley Revs Up Sales SAO PAULO – Harley Davidson raced into the fast lane with an image-enhancing program designed to maintain the sales goals the brand had recently achieved.
The First National Hog Rally attracted Harley-riders to special HOG rallies in Paraty, just outside the popular Brazilian hot spots of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte. Participants got to test drive new Harleys on road trips from each major city – complete with police protection all the way to Paraty. Special barbecues, accessory exhibitions, and rock concerts rounded out the event.
The Hog Rally program lured 300 Harley-drivers to the rally, “an outstanding number considering the brand hasn’t been here for long,” said Geraldo da Rocha Azevedo of the Rocha Azevedo promotion agency that created the program. Harley has secured a spot for the Hog Rally in its calendar of events for next year.
It’s Time for Happy Hour LONDON – Smirnoff is making waves in the U.K. with an instant-win program that asks consumers to peel off their shrink-sleeved bottle labels for chances to win valuable trips and prizes.
Developed by The Creative Minds Consultancy, the program invites consumers to try their luck at peeling back their labels for 100 Thomson CityBreaks trips across Europe and North America, plus a discount offer on six Smirnoff “Happy Hour Cocktails” ingredients. The chance to save 100 Pounds off a Thomson CityBreak is also available and is linked to a second-bottle purchase.
The brand has also responded to interest in the promotion theme outside of London, adapting the promotion exclusively in Northern Ireland (Gilbey’s of Ireland). In order to give convenience and appeal to the consumers of Northern Ireland, the promotion has five major prizes of Travelscene Cities short breaks to New York with Belfast-departure options, plus 1 Pound off their next Smirnoff purchase with an accompanying 75 Pounds discount against Travelscene Cities short breaks. (Story courtesy of Incentive Today Magazine).
