Sunoco Finds Success in Decal “Spotter” Promotion

Sunoco is in its sixth year running a loyalty promotion during the summer that gives one grand-prize winner 5,000 gallons of gas, that’s enough to last the average driver eight years.

To participate, people stop into local stations to pick up a Sunoco/NASCAR decal that they display on their cars in the hope that a “spotter” will see the decal, stop the driver and give them a $10 gift card and a chance at the 5,000 gallons of gas. The incentive gets customers to return to Sunoco stations again and again. And each time they are spotted they can win again.

Since its inception in 2005, more than 20 million decals have been given out to customers who stop into local stations promoting the offer with outdoor signage. How many decals actually make it to bumpers or rear windows has been hard to tell.

But one benefit of the success of the program is the number of e-mail addresses and other personal information that Sunoco has started to collect through a survey distributed by the spotters, who last year rewarded 6,900 instant winners (on par with the last few years), Dawn Zimmermann, marketing program specialist for Sunoco Inc., said.

And over the past few years, people spotted are now being asked to opt in to receive more information from Sunoco. That has helped build Sunoco’s e-mail address file to 70,000 addresses, which also filter in and Facebook. Selective messages are sent throughout the year with special offers and information.

“We want [the communications] to be valuable because we don’t want to loose people,” Zimmermann said.

This year, 4,000 stations are participating throughout Sunoco’s entire market area through Aug. 31, which runs south from Maine to Florida and as far west as Indiana. New this year, there will be a spotter for at least 30 minutes at every participating station. An unlimited number of instant-win $10 gift cards are expected to be given out. The BARS Program, an independent third-party agency, hires spotters locally.

“We do see it as very successful for us,” said Zimmermann said. “It is hard for an oil company to determine ROI because the summer has higher volume then anyway. A big goal is how many decals we see out there. It’s customers endorsing our brand day after day. The intangibles are what we look for with this promotion.”

In addition to the outdoor signage at stations, there is a full array of media promoting “Free Fuel 5000” tied to NASCAR, including print, TV, radio, online, social media. Local Sunoco media buys also support. ePrize administers the program. Sunoco has been the “Official Fuel of NASCAR” since 2004.

In a play using Facebook for the first time, people who make the decal their Facebook profile picture and are spotted are instantly entered to win a $50 Sunoco gift card.

At www.GoSunoco.com, the promotion plays prominently and offers a station locator for visitors to find station participating in the promotion.

“These customers put their decals on their cars and are mobile endorsements for our brand,” Zimmermann said “Some have had them on their cars for six years.”