Mars Wrigley Confectionery UK is launching The Sweetstake, a new football-themed on-pack promotion offering consumers the chance to win millions of prizes including free products and cash instantly, plus entry into a final draw for £10,000.

An adaption of the classic football fan tradition of “sweepstakes”, the unique promotion will run across 11 brands in singles, multipack and pouch packs. There will be 100 million promotional packs in the market from the 23rd of April in the lead up to and during the football this summer.

Mars Wrigley is not an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, taking place in Russia this summer, which is why there are no overt references to the tournament, just generic football references; but the confectionery giant is obviously hoping to benefit from increased consumption of its products by fans watching the matches on TV. Mars Wrigley suggests that 80% of UK football fans will watch the games at home.

Every promotional pack purchased gives consumers entry to The Sweetstake and there will be over 700 different The Sweetstake gameplay scenarios available across the promotion. Shoppers will need to enter the unique codes found inside the packs onto a microsite to see if they have won a prize, if their gameplay scenario occurs.

Each pack carries a 1 in 7.7 chance of winning prizes, which include cash prizes of £5, £20, £500 and £10,000, and also free products which are redeemable by coupons, driving shoppers back in store. Every entrant will also be added to a £10,000 super draw to be held at the end of the promotional period (16th July).

Promotional packs will all carry a visible flash, with a WIN beacon consistent across all of them. On top of this, the Mars brand is the official chocolate partner of the Men’s England Football Team, and Point Of Sale displays will be available featuring three famous players to capitalise on the nations support: Dele Ali, Marcus Rashford and Jamie Vardy.

Mars Wrigley Confectionery UK will also drive awareness of the promotion with a £1.2 million media spend, including a TV commercial featuring England players Marcus Rashford, Jamie Vardy and Jordan Henderson.

The promotion will also be supported by digital and live Out Of Home (OOH) media.

Katie Walland, Mars Brand Director – Mars Wrigley Confectionery UK, says: “Rooted in cutting edge shopper and consumer insight, we’re confident The Sweetstake can, with a £1.2m media spend, drive growth across the category, boost sales for retailers, and provide consumers with a way to enjoy football even more with Mars Wrigley Confectionery UK’s blockbuster brands.”

Walland adds: “As a partner of the England Football Assocation, and as supporters of the England football team, the Mars bar has football in its DNA and Mars Wrigley Confectionery produces the perfect products to stock up on ahead of a big tournament.”

Mars is the 10th biggest chocolate brand in the UK, with of £77.5m. Mars Wrigley confectionery brands include M&M’s, Snickers, Dove, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way and Twix, Doublemint, Extra, Orbit and 5 chewing gums, Skittles and Starburst candies, and Altoids and Lifesavers mints.

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Mars brand SNICKERS is launching a money-off promotion with a difference in the US, to support its long-running “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” marketing platform. A special ‘Hungerithm’ has been created to monitor the mood, and the hunger level, of the Internet. As the Internet’s “hanger” increases, the value of coupon discounts off SNICKERS at participating U.S. 7-Eleven stores will increase in real time.

“Sometimes you say stuff online you don’t mean in a moment of hunger,” said Michael Italia, Senior Brand Manager, SNICKERS Brand. “We’ve all witnessed this type of behavior from friends and family in our newsfeeds. Now SNICKERS can help satisfy in real time.”

“Hungerithm” was developed by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne under the “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” umbrella and originally piloted in Australia to critical acclaim and business success. The algorithm checks social media posts in real time against a list of 3,000 commonly used words and phrases to determine sentiment and capture a snapshot of how people are feeling. It even understands slang and sarcasm. As hanger goes up, the coupon value goes up too.

Consumers can view the SNICKERS Hungerithm at www.Hungerithm.com and track the value of the money-off coupons across the day – they can then use their mobile devices to lock in a coupon value and generate a barcode which they can redeem at participating 7-Eleven stores.

“Hungerithm” went live mid November and will be available until December 22nd, 2017.

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Mars Chocolate UK has announced the return of its Sweet Sundays promotion for the sixth year running. Consumers who buy a range of Mars bitesize products will be able to claim free cinema tickets. Mars says it is its biggest bitesize activation in 2017.

In order to claim their free cinema ticket, consumers need to buy two promotional ‘More To Share’ pouches or blocks or five promotional Standard pouches, and visit www.sweetsundays.co.uk to register the codes and select their preferred cinema chain. Promotional codes must be registered between 00:01 on July 13th, 2017 and 23:59 on October 19th, 2017.

Sweet Sundays follows this year’s successful Sweet Nights In promotion which offered consumers money off the latest in-home entertainment through Google Play (see Mars UK partners Google Play for Sweet Nights In).

Brands in the latest Sweet Sundays promotion include Maltesers, M&M’s, Galaxy and Milky Way. For the first time in 2017, the promotion will also include Bars to Bites pouches, M&M’s Crispy and Chocolate More To Share pouches, and Galaxy and Maltesers Large and More To Share blocks.

Bep Dhaliwal, Trade Communications Manager at Mars Chocolate UK, says: “Bitesize is the fastest growing Chocolate segment and Sweet Sundays is a proven category growth opportunity, offering high value to shoppers by overcoming barriers to their favourite out-of-home activity. Going to the cinema remains the UK’s number one activity to do outside of the home, with the highest admissions at the weekend, and our Sweet Sundays promotion provides consumers with even more opportunities to get free cinema tickets.”

Sweet Sundays will benefit hugely from Mars’ media investment across major participating brands including Maltesers and M&M’s ensuring they are front of mind for consumers when they are in-store. Retailers are also being offered new PoS materials to support in-store activation and help boost sales.

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Mars Chocolate UK has updated its annual film-related on pack promotion through a partnership with Google Play which sees the confectionery giant offering consumers money off films as well as discounts off TV shows, books, music and apps.

The new Sweet Nights In campaign will reward consumers with 50% off the latest movie rentals and £3 credit they can use across a wide range of TV, books, music and apps.

Consumers who buy three promotional flashed products across Mars’ standard pouch, multipack bar and large block ranges and then register the codes printed on the packs at www.sweetnightsin.co.uk will receive voucher codes which they can then redeem for 50% off the film rental of their choice from Google Play. They also get a £3 credit to their Google Payments account.

Brands involved in the promotion include Maltesers, Galaxy, M&M’s, Mars, Snickers and Twix.

Bep Dhaliwal, Trade Communications Manager – Mars Chocolate UK, says: “Our Sweet Nights In promotion is our first brand activation involving our biggest blockbuster SKUs across bars, bitesize and block segments. Rooted in cutting edge shopper and consumer insight, we’re confident this promotion can help drive growth across the category, boost sales for retailers, and provide consumers with a great chance to enjoy blockbuster films with Mars’ blockbuster brands.”

Previous Mars UK film-related promotions, such as last August’s Sweet Sundays, have seen the confectionery brand offer cinema tickets as incentives.

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Mars Chocolate UK has launched its Sweet Sundays promotion for the fifth year running, offering consumers the chance to collect codes from packs and trade them in for free cinema tickets for Sunday screenings.

New pack designs feature the promotion across the company’s bitesize range of Maltesers, Galaxy Minstrels, Galaxy Counters, M&M’s Peanut, M&M’s Chocolate, M&M’s Crispy, Revels, and Milky Way Magic Stars.

Bep Dhaliwal, Trade Communications Manager at Mars Chocolate UK, says: “With both in front of the TV occasions and UK cinema takings on the rise, it’s clear that sharing occasions continue to play a key role in driving consumption, and we recognise that there is scope for category leaders like Mars Chocolate to do more in this space. Sweet Sundays has been proven to drive bitesize category growth, increasing incremental value of the bitesize category by 13% last year. Returning bigger and better than ever, we’re confident the promotion will continue to increase in popularity with consumers.”

Consumers collect the codes by setting up an online account at the www.sweetsundays.co.uk website, then inputting codes found on promotional packs. Standard size pouches are worth one point and large pouches two. Individuals can claim two free tickets each over the course of the promotion, with tickets valid until November 6th 2016.

The website also list participating cinemas (the Odeon chain is not taking part) and consumers can find their nearest venue by typing in their postcode of by allowing the site to use their location.

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Mars has launched a new campaign in support of the England, Wales and Northern Ireland national football teams in advance of the Euro 2016 football tournament in France. The ‘#Believe’ activity features a £4.1m marketing spend and limited edition packaging.

A TV ad campaign featuring Premier League and England nation team stars Danny Welbeck, Harry Kane and Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy breaks on May 15th, with cinema, radio and poster ads supporting it.  The TV ad can be viewed on Mars UK’s YouTube channel here.

#Believe branded Mars chocolate bars are being introduced across the range of single bars, duos, four packs and nine packs.

Mars has been an official supporter of The FA since 2009. In 2006 for the World Cup in Germany, it changed the name of the bar on the packaging to ‘Believe’ and it has used the idea on and off ever since.

Mars will be challenging the public to submit ‘singing selfies’, filming themselves as they sing the lyrics to an England song and sharing this online using the campaign hashtag, #Believe.

Greg Kent, Mars brand manager, said: “International football tournaments ignite the passion of England fans like no other sporting event. Up to 20 million people are set to watch each match at Euro 2016 with a potential audience of 15.3 million UK football fans predicted to be on Twitter at any one time during a game. As we all know, the twelfth man can make all the difference in football, and through our multi-channelled campaign we hope we can give the England football team the extra edge they need to go all the way in France.”

Wales and Northern Ireland also qualified to take part in this year’s tournament, and the Mars #Believe campaign will extend to retailers in these home nations, with a range of POS solutions which feature fan imagery and the nations’ colours too.

Although Scotland did not qualify, Mars is still providing an exclusive overlay for Scottish stores and continuing the campaign presence on-pack while also running a competition offering Scottish fans the chance for two people to win a kickabout with a Scottish International footballer.

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The Color Run Presented by Skittles UK event series, which will be taking place in five cities throughout the UK this summer, has announced that Renault, Capri-Sun and Alpen will join its sponsorship roster for 2016, offering the three new partners opportunities to sample their products.

Color Run founder, Travis Snyder, was inspired by the Indian Holi Festival, where participants are covered in coloured dyestuff, and decided to combine the idea with a 5 kilometre running experience. From the first event in the Unites States in January 2012, The Color Run has spread across the globe.

Participants begin the run wearing The Color Run white t-shirt, which is then targeted with dyes at various colour stations located throughout the course. There are no stopwatches involved in the event – which is organised by sports management company IMG – meaning participants can walk, jog, dance and party their way along the colourful course at any pace. With hundreds of events taking place across the globe, the series continues to grow, capturing the imagination of thousands of participants with its happy and colourful philosophy.

Renault UK, Capri-Sun and Alpen join Skittles (the title sponsor), the NSPCC (charity partner), Capital FM (radio partner) and Metro (media partner) for the UK events.

As the Official Automotive Partner of The Color Run Presented by Skittles, Renault will be bringing a fleet of Renault Twingo superminis to the events As the Official Drink Partner, Capri-Sun will be handing out samples at each event throughout the summer as part of its ‘Squeeze the Day’ campaign. Finally, Alpen, as Official Cereal Partner, will help runners start their day feeling healthy and active with samples of its new oat based granolas.

The Color Run Presented by Skittles 2016 UK Tour location line-up is as follows:

• Sunday 12th June 2016                                  London, Wembley
• Saturday 2nd July 2016                                  Manchester
• Sunday 17th July 2016                                    Glasgow
• Saturday 20th August 2016                          Birmingham
• Saturday 17th September 2016                  Brighton

The colour used at the events is made from food grade cornstarch. It is 100% natural and causes no harm to skin or the environment. The powder used in its events has been tested for flammability and successfully passed the required EU standards.

Headline sponsor Skittles is manufactured by Wrigley, a subsidiary of Mars. IMG is a global leader in sports, events, media and fashion representing and managing some of the world’s best-known sports figures and fashion icons. It also stages thousands of live events and branded entertainment experiences annually.

Capri-Sun is a Coca-Cola brand, while Alpen is owned by Weetabix.

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