Leonie Walker, General Manager at Mando gives advice on how to master a Pan-European promotion.

The first thing I learnt, is that time flies by! From starting as an account executive at Mando, I’ve seen my fair share of promotions across various European territories. From promotions where we have covered weather risk, the chance to win bars of gold, and money back guarantees on all things from face cream to trainers – we have worked with hundreds of brands on a plethora of campaigns and have some words of advice for anyone planning a promotion, be that in one territory or across multiple.

1. Know your audience. Like a good comedian, it’s important to know who you are marketing to, and their typical behaviours.  You don’t want to spend time and effort planning a campaign that doesn’t work (or isn’t legal!).  Through knowing audience details, you are able to sculpt rewards and route to entry in order to maximise your impact.
2. Dot your I’s and cross your T’s. The devil is in the detail, from planning to delivery to implementation.  All scenarios should be thought through, departments consulted and suppliers updated.  For example, if a reward supplier needs to be paid before the promotion starts, but finance is not made aware, your promotion will fail before it’s even started.  Most importantly, make sure you adhere to regulations in each territory your promotion is running.  Keep everyone involved and made aware of any changes, stick to a time plan, and have weekly status calls.
3. One size doesn’t fit all. What works in one market, won’t necessarily work in another. The way consumers redeem against collector promotions varies in each territory.  In the UK we regularly see a spike towards the middle of the promotion where the bulk of redemptions are received. In the Netherlands and Germany, the spike comes right at the end of the promotion, leaving us risk managers on tenterhooks right up to the eleventh hour.  Knowing this behaviour helps you manage stock, turnaround times and the financial risk.
4. Expect the unexpected. We can’t second guess everything, and there will be something in each campaign that will surprise us. Who knew one person would redeem a personalised chocolate wrapper 164 times, or that a purple towel featuring a cat would go down so well in Germany?! OK…maybe we should have had an inkling for that second one. This highlights the benefits of knowing a risk manager, and being able to call upon a Fixed Fee in times of uncertainty. A Fixed Fee will secure your marketing budget for sales promotions, so you can sit back, relax and enjoy the success of your campaign.
5. Customers are King, and everything should be designed with the customer in mind. We advise using a data-fuelled approach, and working from the customer back to the brand. Look deeply into the data sets you have available, and gauge who your audience is and what their likes and dislikes are.
6. Keep it simple. Often the best campaigns are the simplest. No one enjoys a joke if it has to be explained, the same goes for promotions.  If it’s not clear, your consumers simply won’t engage or take part. Defeating the object of running the campaign in the first place.
7. Make it believable. There’s been a lot of noise in the press recently about running a fair promotion, and rightly so. Who likes to feel cheated?  There are many ways to ensure a promotion is run fairly and the chance of winning, if odds based, is designed correctly. If running a click to win, why not offer a mop-up free prize draw, or offer every entrant a discount code or coupon – something to sweeten the deal.  Not enough prizes on offer or real winners means people won’t engage with your brand in the future. A sales promotion needs to spark and build a relationship with your customers. We know how to make relationships happen, and bring sparkle to your campaigns.

Promotions are an extremely successful method to both retain and acquire customers but contain potential pitfalls if you fail to do your due diligence on both your market and your campaign. Following these pointers will help you maximise engagement and ensure customer satisfaction all whilst keeping a healthy bank balance.

Mando (part of WPP) develop promotional rewards and incentives, which are born from science. Mando utilise data, grounded with reasoning, combined with insight to help you deliver exactly what your consumers want, with a solution that is right for your brand. Using unique data and expertise they provide complete solutions including promotional risk management, prepaid incentives and brand partnerships, which continuously help create some of the world’s most memorable marketing campaigns.

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Andrew Rae, Head of Promotions at The Black Tomato Agency and an expert in all things relating to prizes and promotions, answers the latest topical questions from industry insiders.

How can I create a Valentine’s promotion while avoiding clichéd prizes?

Valentine’s Day can be a minefield of trips to Paris and couples’ massages at your local hotel. It can also offer a real opportunity for you and your brand to create some genuinely eye-catching promotions which help your campaign stand out as truly unique amongst its heart-shaped cushion and chocolate equivalents.

Why not try adding a twist to the established tropes of romance?

“Show your partner how much you care – submerge them in a cage in the South Atlantic Sea and invite a Great White Shark to join your Valentine’s Day” or “Test your love for each other as you spend Valentines Night in the Skylodge Adventure Suite, a glass hotel secured to the side of a cliff in the Sacred Valley of Cuzco”.

Alternatively, if you are going romantic, be a bit more creative and give Paris a break from the lovers. How about a chef’s table at one of San Sebastian’s many Michelin starred restaurants, or a night under the stars in a Glass Igloo in Finland?

Let’s reclaim Valentine’s Day as an opportunity for unique campaigns and put the personalised singing teddy bear back in the drawer.

We want to go ultra-romantic for our Valentine’s Day promotion. What could you suggest for a true Money Can’t Buy Experience?

On a professional level, I do take umbrage with the term “money can’t buy” – but I understand it sums up best what promotions need to represent in this day and age.

Valentine’s Day does give us the opportunity to be super-creative, however. You could embed a diamond ring into the walls of a retreating glacier in Iceland, meaning you will literally be the last people ever to experience that spot. Our sister company, specialist travel agency Black Tomato, did just this for someone recently (and the Sunday Times wrote it up…).

Head West and you could have your partners name spelled out by cheerleaders at the half time show at an NFL match. For the more conservative budget, but no less unique, why not take a private stroll through the backstreets of London on a Graffiti Tour with a local artist, and finish with tagging your partner’s name, or a suitably romantic message on a special wall for all to see?

Are there any golden rules to maximising the effect of a prize trip?

Agencies and brands are under pressure to demonstrate ROI on their competitions, more than ever before. A good way to show how effective your campaign was is through UGC (User Generated Content).

Every prize winner is a budding photographer/travel writer/film maker so harness their desire to be creative. Something as simple as a GoPro, selfie stick or a lightweight laptop gives winners the tools to document their trip, giving the brand free and rich content that it can use after the prize has been awarded, either to drum up chatter for the next promotion or simply to show how much fun the winner had.

How can I pack a big punch with a small budget?

The best ideas don’t always have to be brought to life with the biggest budget. It is the unique and thoughtful elements that leave a lasting impression. Look for ways you can add a little bit of magic to an existing package.

A trip to London for two nights can be transformed from something perfectly nice into something that lives on long in the memory of a winner. Why not speak to the hotel they are staying at and ask the bar, just for the night the winners are there, to name a cocktail on their drinks board after the winners? Mr. and Mrs. Smith pop down for evening drinks to see a really special ‘special’ on the board.

A tiny touch, but one that will massively increase the “punch” of your prize.

Andrew Rae is Head of Promotions at prize management specialist The Black Tomato Agency, which designs and manages boundary-pushing prize experiences at home and abroad. With an in-house team of prize management experts and award winning travel operators and working together with top marketing agencies, FMCG brands, media owners, film studios and radio stations, promotions are brought to life and perfectly delivered in an on-brand and innovative way.

The Black Tomato Agency is a sponsor of the IPM Awards 2016 and will be supplying prize experiences for the event.

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