Topshop has launched an interactive seasonal snow globe at the brand’s Oxford Circus flagship store.

From 12-20th December, customers making a purchase will have the chance to play inside the larger-than-life snow globe. Customers will be able to attempt to catch gold tokens in a whirlwind of metallic confetti to win prizes.

Topshop are ensuring that everyone is a winner, with each player entered into a lucky dip to win-on-the-spot prizes ranging from gift cards and beauty treats through to a £1000 Personal Shopping spree.

A camera positioned inside the globe will ensure that every participant will be able to share their experience on social media by tagging #TopshopHoliday or #TopmanHoliday.

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Jaguar Land Rover is driving footfall to its stand at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with a specially-commissioned exclusive digital Top Trumps App for Festival visitors, covering both the Jaguar and Land Rover marques.

The Jaguar Land Rover Top Trumps app is available for iOS and Android from July 9th, and players will be able to compete against each other for a ranking on a live leaderboard as well as the chance to win daily prizes including trip for two to the Ice Drive Academy in Sweden, including flights, tuition and luxury accommodation, year’s membership of a David Lloyd Club for two or £200 to spend in the Jaguar Land Rover boutique.

Visitors to the Festival will receive a Super Top Trumps card (a card that can be added to a Top Trumps pack) when they enter. This card will encourage them to go to the Top Trumps area situated within the JLR stand and download the app via Wi-Fi to receive their exclusive JLR pack of Top Trumps. They can also book test drives and order brochures, while JLR will use the opportunity to capture data on interested visitors.

The app has two games, a single player mode called the Goodwood Challenge and, a Multi-player Shootout.

The Goodwood Challenge will feature a live leader board, with the highest ranked players in line to win the daily prizes. Players will also have the opportunity of boosting their leader board scores by viewing JLR’s cars on the stand and in the paddock.

The Multi-player Shootout enables players to challenge other players randomly or by username.

JLR worked with the owner of the Top Trumps brand, games company Winning Moves, which owns IP rights to a number of classic games in the UK, Europe, South Africa, North America and Australasia. As well as owing the hugely popular Top Trumps brand, Winning Moves has a license from Hasbro which allows it to create special versions of games such as Monopoly, Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit, Connect 4 and Guess Who, which are often used in promotional campaigns. Winning Moves has worked with companies including Shell, Sky News, McDonald’s, Kerry Foods, Ferrero, Mirror Group Newspapers, Singapore Airlines, BMW, Peugeot, BT TV, Hovis, British Gas, Merlin Entertainment, Metro Group, Cadbury’s, Nestlé Purina, Coca-Cola and Weetabix.

Located alongside the Jaguar Land Rover stand will be Jaguar’s F-TYPE Drift Experience, allowing fans to see, hear and feel the raw performance of a Jaguar sports car drifting in the hands of a professional driver. The experience will be running throughout the show, accessed from the Jaguar Land Rover stand.

Jeremy Hicks, Jaguar Land Rover UK Managing Director, says: “This year at Goodwood Festival of Speed we’re celebrating everything that the modern Jaguar brand is about; stunning design, innovation, heritage and incredible performance. From F-PACE SVR roaring up the hill and F-TYPE on the drift track to the XJ50 and all-electric I-PACE on the Jaguar Land Rover stand, we’re looking forward to putting on an astonishing show for all Festival of Speed visitors.”

The 5.0-litre supercharged V8 F-PACE SVR will be tackling the Goodwood hillclimb at its UK debut, as will the most powerful Jaguar ever – the 600PS XE SV Project 8 and the Invictus GT4 Racing F-TYPE SVR. Festival of Speed visitors will also have their first opportunity to see the Jaguar XJ50, a special-edition model designed to celebrate 50 years of the iconic XJ saloon. The XJ50 will appear alongside Jaguar’s revolutionary new I-PACE all-electric SUV on the Jaguar Land Rover stand, as part of the brand’s largest ever presence at Festival of Speed. The company is also celebrating the 70th birthday of the Land Rover.

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For the first time ever, Cadbury is inviting UK consumers to ‘Go Madbury for Cadbury’ and create their very own Cadbury Dairy Milk bar, which could become the newest addition to the iconic Cadbury Dairy Milk range to sit alongside well-known variants such as Caramel, Fruit & Nut and Whole Nut.

Cadbury fans aged 16 or over from the UK or Republic of Ireland can submit their dream bar at cadburyinventor.com, where they can pick from a range of ingredients which will be added to Cadbury Dairy Milk, including caramel, brownie, popping candy, chilli, orange, mustard and cashews. There are more than 90,000 different available combinations to choose from.

After choosing up to three ingredients, entrants will be asked to name their bar and explain a bit about what inspired their creation before sending on their entry.

A heavyweight marketing campaign including TV and social media will reach 78% of all UK adults through activity across the Cadbury website, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest.

David Shepherd, Director of Research and Development at Cadbury, says: “At Cadbury we’ve been making delicious chocolate for over 100 years and are always looking for ways to innovate and excite the great British public with our products. So we thought what better way to create the next iconic bar than to ask the people that love it the most.

Shepherd adds: “This is the first time ever we’ve opened the doors to our fans to help us create the next bar and we can’t wait to see how creative they get. With different flavours, from nutty, herby and spicy and a wealth of fruity favourites to choose from, we’re encouraging the nation to go Madbury and be as bold as possible in what to choose. It’ll be great to see the imagination of our fans shine through and now we have the chance to make the first fan-based Cadbury Dairy Milk bar a reality for our lucky finalists.”

The promotion kicked off on July 1^st and closes on July 31st 2018. After the closing date, all entries will be put through a rigorous judging process with the finalists being selected based on taste and creativity. Three finalists will be selected and will be invited to visit Cadbury’s Chocolate Centre of Excellence in Bournville, the home of Cadbury, where they will work with chocolate experts to experiment with their creations and make their bar a reality.

All three bars will go on sale next year and will be sold to the public for the same amount of time and on the same channels. The products are anticipated to be on sale for between eight to 12 weeks from June 2019.

UK consumers will be able to show their support by buying their favourite new creation or voting on social media to determine which of the finalists will be crowned the ultimate winner. The winner will be chosen based 80% on Nielsen sales data for their bar and 20% on votes on social media.

The Cadbury brand is owned by Mondelēz International, the global snacking company with 2016 net revenues of approximately $26 billion. Mondelēz is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages, with power brands including Oreo and belVita biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; and Trident gum.

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Promomarketing.info’s ‘My Life in Promotions’ feature shines a spotlight on the people who make the promotional marketing industry work so well – the heroes of the promotional world.

On a regular basis, we turn the spotlight onto people working in all sectors of our industry and at all levels – whether at brand owners, agencies or service providers. We’ll be finding out what makes them tick, what makes them get up and go to work every day and what their plans are for the future…

This week’s subject is Michael Chambers, Director of prize management company, Cloud Nine

Name: Michael Chambers

Age: 38

Gender: Male            

Company name: Cloud Nine Incentives

What does the company do? Cloud Nine provide exceptional travel incentives, prize fulfilment services and asset management.  We work with marketing and PR agencies, brands directly and media owners.

Position within company: Director

How long have you worked for this company?

Cloud Nine was created in 2011 so we have had an exciting six years where we have been growing year on year.

How long have you worked in promotional marketing?

I started working in the industry in 1996, when I was 17.  Back when the IPM was the ISP, promomarketing.info was Sales Promotion Magazine and was delivered to the office each month, and when every quote for clients and piece of correspondence was either faxed or posted.

How did you get your start in promotional marketing?

At the tender age of 17, I got my big break as a YTS (Youth Training Scheme, a form of apprenticeship) at a local company called Protravel who created holidays for competition prizes. Over the next few years, I progressed through the company to become General Manager.

What’s an average day at Cloud Nine like?

First thing, the team get together to discuss what live briefs need working on and when for.  Once that’s done, a lot of the day is spent ensuring we answer them as creatively as possible.  It’s hugely important to give clients the best chance of winning a pitch, or giving an edge over a competitor on the supermarket shelves.

We also have to be reactive throughout the day with tight deadlines, urgent briefs or some lastminute ideas for a client en route to a meeting.

Finally, updates with the travel and operations team are conducted.

And probably too much coffee!

What has been your greatest achievement at your current company?

Working with the world’s leading brands and agencies provides a sense of achievement on a daily basis.  Especially if you’re in a pitch situation and you win; and, down to hard work and experience, wins are more common than losses.

However, as cheesy as this may sound, my greatest achievement so far is growing Cloud Nine into something I’m proud of, looking after clients we’ve had from our inception, and working alongside a brilliant team of people that truly believe in what we stand for, and that what we do is the best out there.

What has been your greatest challenge?

Launching Cloud Nine at the tail end of the financial crisis was tough, but if we hadn’t done it then, we never would have.

We knew with our experience, passion and knowledge of the industry that we could help agencies and brands provide something special with real added value and excellent service.

However, the real challenge was doing this with three kids under seven; they’ve been there throughout, and I’ve have become very good at “juggling”!

How do you see the promotions industry changing in the next five years?

In terms of what we do, the world’s becoming more accessible in some respects, so depending on the demographic, the prize envelopes can be pushed. However, as it’s an uncertain time for lots of people, there may be a revival of more traditional prizes, ensuring that audiences aren’t missing out on day to day “luxuries” i.e. holidays.

Across the board, with new technology advancing so quickly, brands are going to be able to gain even more insight into their audience and what they like.  Mechanics will become more tailored to the audience and promotions and rewards could become segmented/tailored to specific areas of an audience.

If you had a time machine and you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would be your three key pieces of advice?

1. Regardless of position, make sure you continue to do the elements of your job that made you love it in the first place.
2. Rarely is something as bad as you expect it to be; tackle it head on and get it out of the way.
3. Get out of the office, even if it’s for a ten-minute walk. It changes everything (well your view on it at least).

What do you do outside work?

I spend lots of quality time standing on the side lines of football matches with my seven and four-year-old. We also have a one-year old daughter too, so weekends are pretty busy! To keep fit and to get time to think, I cycle frequently, and do a spot of racing.

The post My Life in Promotions: Michael Chambers, Cloud Nine appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Great marketing campaigns don’t happen without clients willing to risk going out on a limb, says Andrew Rae of The Black Tomato Agency

My cousin and I share a long running joke. Whenever we see an off-the-wall advertising campaign, hear the ludicrous name of a new band or are told the plot line to a forthcoming farfetched film, we look at each other and say: “Imagine the faces in the presentation when this was pitched!”

For example, imagine the convincing and coercing you would have to do to get ‘Snakes on a Plane’ off the ground…

Or, for an example from the advertising world, imagine ad agency VCCP’s pitch to the Compare the Market marketing team for the ‘Compare the Meerkat’ TV campaign. TV ads featuring an aristocratic Russian meerkat called Aleksandr Orlov, annoyed because people were visiting their site – www.comparethemeerkat.com – when they were really looking for car insurance?

Yet Aleksandr and his family and friends have become the backbone of one of the most successful marketing campaigns in the financial services sector ever – and the promotional element has seen more than a million meerkat toys handed out to people as rewards for taking out a range of Compare the Market insurance products.

The Meerkat campaign launched in 2009; within a very short period of time, comparethemarket.com was ranked as the fourth most visited insurance website in the UK, up from 16th in January 2008, while the site’s overall sales doubled. By 2010 the site had increased its market share by 76%, where competitors’ share had fallen by up to 30% over the same period. 700,000 Facebook fans, 22,000 followers on Twitter, Coronation Street sponsorship and rumoured record deals later it is widely regarded as one of the most successful campaigns of the last 10 years.

But can you imagine the faces in the presentation when this was pitched?

VCCP has won huge numbers of industry awards for the Meerkats; but in reality should we be thanking someone else for giving us Orlov? I think we should. Hats off to the client.

To have the absolute vision, the trust in a supplier, the confidence, the ‘arm-chancery’ to throw caution to the wind and completely commit to someone’s else’s wild creativity is where the real credit should lie.

Anybody who, like us, has won their fair share of industry awards will be very, very aware that the real winners are the clients. They are the ones who allowed us the free reign to be creative, to suggest untried techniques, to do what we do best.

We work with some of the biggest names in their industry sectors; it is widely believed that the larger the brand, the more risk adverse they are and the harder it is to guide them out of their comfort zone. But that is exactly what our role as agencies and suppliers should be – to convince our clients that we can help them by doing something unique and different and that they should trust our ideas.

Think back 11 years to 2007. A TV ad starts with a close-up of a gorilla. Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” plays in the background. The camera pulls back to reveal the gorilla is sitting in a music studio. It sniffs. It rolls its neck, loosens its shoulders… And then it starts drumming.

It is hard to forget the impact that the Cadbury’s Gorilla ad had in 2007. But just imagine that client pitch. Created to convey the message that “all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself,” the ad was the centrepiece of a £6.2 million campaign. And in 2016, it was voted the UK’s favourite ad of all time in a poll conducted by Campaign magazine.

This is quite possibly the best example of a brand taking a massive (albeit calculated) leap outside of its comfort zone.

But did it change behaviour, and was it a success?

The commercial was uploaded to video sharing website YouTube shortly after it first aired, and was viewed over 500,000 times in the first week. As of November 2007, it has been viewed over six million times. Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased by 9%. A YouGov poll showed that 20% more people looked favourably on the brand in the period after the advert’s general release than in the previous period. It won a host of awards, including Pica d’Or for Film 2007, the Grand Cristal at Festival de la Publicité de Méribel and Gold at the British Television Advertising Awards 2008.

Wonderbra even created their own version of the film, with the Cadbury slogan, “A glass and half full of joy,” being replaced with “Two cups full of joy.”

To use a phrase that has now become common parlance, the point I am making is ‘simples’. Creative campaigns are nothing without the progressive attitude and confidence of our clients. Confidence in a) being bold and setting themselves apart from their competition and b) confidence in their suppliers to make it happen.

So next time you see the results from a prestigious industry awards scheme – like the IPM Awards – or you see a brillant piece of creative marketing, make sure you credit the clients as well as the people who put the campaigns together. They’re the ones whom deserve the applause, because they’re the ones who put their brands on the line.

Without courageous clients, our greatest ideas will always remain just that – ideas.

Andrew Rae is Head of Promotional Marketing at the prize and rewards specialist The Black Tomato Agency, which in 2017 won Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Prize, Reward and Incentive category of the IPM COGS Awards for the second year running. The Black Tomato Agency creates unique, brand-relevant travel incentives and reward programmes around the world, tailored precisely to the client’s audience and specific needs to obtain maximum ROI.

The Black Tomato Agency is a member of the Institute of Promotional Marketing, and Andrew Rae was elected to the IPM’s Board in December 2017.

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For brands and agencies today, the opportunities offered by prize promotions and incentives are truly greater than ever before, says Chris Pearson of Element London

Prize promotions are as old as the hills. From cereal-box toys to Caribbean holidays, the idea of a brand driving sales and engagement through prizes and rewards has been around for decades. However, while prize promotions and competitions are a regular component of annual marketing budgets for many FMCG brands, they have traditionally been a ‘bridesmaid’, playing a supporting role to above-the-line advertising campaigns and creative concepts. From social media giveaways to retailer overlays, prize-led activations reliably drive sales, engagement and loyalty among key target markets without necessarily being a core focus in themselves.

But that may be changing. Prize activity has been at the very forefront of Coca-Cola’s 2017 positioning across Europe, with their ‘Win a Dream Holiday’ competition taking the place of ‘Share a Coke’ across bottles throughout the summer, supported by considerable above-the-line marketing spend. Recent promotions from brands including Weetabix, Carling and Danone have taken similarly prominent roles in advertising creative.

The profile of such promotions is further multiplied by greater press coverage and, increasingly, by greater levels of attention and engagement on social media. Brands and agencies are rightly fearful of the backlash which can erupt on Facebook and Twitter when competitions are badly managed – either at the entry or fulfilment stage – but this is just one side of the coin. An innovative, original competition with aspirational prizes and an engaging entry mechanic can be great social content: fun, shareable and aesthetically attractive.

Spreading the word

While some of this social media sharing will be organic and spontaneous, there are also ways to maximise the social reach generated by competitions and promotions. Whether competitions are run on social media sites or via a dedicated promotional microsite, you can prompt consumers to share their entries on their social feeds, driving further traffic and engagement from their peers.

The entry mechanic has a vital role to play here. Asking consumers to enter via a ‘like’ for a Facebook post, or by inputting their email address on a microsite, has an appealing simplicity that is likely to drive high entry rates. But asking people to tag an Instagram photograph or upload a video can be much more valuable, in terms of creating interesting personalised content. Entry rates may be lower, but there’s the potential for your brand’s messaging to be shared and spread much more widely.

Crucially, however, the prize needs to be right. Whether it’s an on-trend destination, a hot ticket event, a quirky or unique activity, or even a bundle of designer goods, the prize needs to fit the brand’s target audience. It also needs to have the cultural cachet – by virtue of being fashionable or aspirational – to make people want to associate with it. If a person’s social media profile is the face they want to present to the world, your prize needs to fit with that face. As well as being something your target market wants, it must also be something they are happy being seen to want.

Creating content

One failsafe way to make sure your prize passes this test is by putting the choice in the hands of the consumer. From Nutella and Kleenex to Budweiser and Glenfiddich, we’ve worked on a range of promotions where winners have designed their own prizes. Ask entrants to describe their perfect day/weekend/holiday/birthday/summer – in words, pictures or video – and reward the winner by turning their entry into a reality.

In our experience, the entries make for fascinating reading. From touching stories submitted by people who want to make a dream come true for a family member, to hilariously weird and wonderful ideas about what constitutes the perfect holiday, a gallery of entries can constitute superbly entertaining content. The prizes we’ve organised for promotions of this kind range from month-long American road trips and Icelandic whale watching holidays to school trips, village fetes and even a wedding day!

In the case of winning entries, of course, the potential for social activity is huge. Having selected an interesting and engaging story to bring to life, a brand can use social media to document the whole prize experience. From the reaction on winning through to trip preparations, and finally the experience itself, why not harness the power of Facebook and Instagram to get the biggest possible reach for your prize budget? Written testimonials and photographs are great. If you can include a GoPro as part of the prize, and encourage winners to film a fun video diary, that’s even better.

Indeed, if you’re offering a prize with real novelty or entertainment value, it might even be worth enlisting a professional camera crew. Whether it’s a celebrity meet-and-greet, an adrenaline-fuelled action break or a wacky road trip adventure, a promotional video can often pay for itself. After all, we’re talking about genuine, unscripted footage of a delighted customer interacting with your brand while enjoying the experience of a lifetime. What better brand advertisement could there be?

Power and influence

With Instagram influencers and bloggers enjoying an ever-increasing profile and credibility as brand ambassadors, influencer marketing offers another interesting route to maximising the reach and visibility of your sales promotion. From fashion and food to tech and travel, if you’re offering an amazing experience for competition winners, why not reserve a space on the trip for a prominent blogger? Plenty of advance publicity while the promotion is running, live updates throughout the trip, and lots of interesting post-event content: it’s a win-win situation. Plus, with a well-matched influencer adding to the prestige and buzz around the prize experience you’re offering (particularly for youth focused brands), there’s no better way to drive engagement and excitement.

All of this can be summed up in three words: make it count. Whether it’s a limited edition product or a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a great prize promotion gives lucky customers something amazing, something to cherish and remember. So shout about it.

Chris Pearson is an Account Director at specialist prize and incentive agency Element London, which has over 30 years’ experience in delivering travel prizes, incentives, winner management and fulfilment to a range of global clients.

The post Prize Promotions: The Gift That Keeps On Giving appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Andrew Rae of incentives, rewards and prize management company The Black Tomato Agency argues for the value of rolling out the red carpet to attract and retain key customers.

There are relatively few great mysteries left unsolved in the world today. We know how the pyramids were built, we’re pretty sure that the Loch Ness Monster doesn’t want to be found and we are certain that the retention of clients is paramount to business success.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the FMCG sector, where the sheer volume of available options means that brands have to do their utmost to achieve two crucially important goals: the first is to immediately, at the point of purchase, distinguish themselves from their competitors. The second is to do what you can, at all costs, to foster brand loyalty. Account teams across the land are constantly set the challenge of turning a consumer into a fan.

In the incentive and rewards industry, we are regularly asked the same two questions: “what can we do to retain our customers?” and “how can we stand out from the crowd?”

The second question is relatively simple for us to answer; the former is more of a complex beast. Does brand loyalty still play a part in your customer’s purchasing decision? Are customers too cynical and time-poor to be swayed by incentives?

Reward to Retain

The conventional offers or rewards that are given to new customers are in general fairly similar and, dare we say it, not particularly engaging. The desire to keep on directing the customer back to the product with a voucher or money-off coupon is almost too alluring to move away from.  And in the right space, it is the perfect incentive.

But the question remains, if everyone is employing the same tactic, are you offering your customer the right incentive to choose and stay with you?

If you are confident that your product is the best around (which I’m sure you are, and I agree!), then make sure that confidence comes through in the sales funnel and reward the loyal with unique and remarkable experiences instead.

The sheer fact that your product offers the chance to win a tailored and unique experience is enough to automatically give you shelf appeal and set you apart from the crowd.

We recently handled prize creation and prize management for a client who was launching a product with a ‘Fire and Ice’ theme and wanted to create an experience intrinsically linked to the campaign messaging.

The objectives were, firstly, to set them apart from the crowd and, secondly, to reward their existing, loyal customers.

We created an experience where the winner was flown to Iceland to stay in the ION Adventure Hotel, and rode in a private helicopter over a live volcano before transferring by Super Jeep to another (dormant this time) volcano where a bespoke private dinner was laid out – within the magma chamber…

The effect was immediate and the impact tangible. By engaging with their customers in such a unique and remarkable way, their loyalty was rewarded and their custom retained.

However, sometimes the old methods are just as important – which is why we took the step of leaving a hamper of branded goodies in the guests’ room as a welcome gift. With a personal message included, it reaffirmed the brand message and reminded them of why they were there in a unique, personal and engaging way.

This method of rewarding or engaging customers by offering the chance to win experiences can be seen in a variety of different industries, not just FMCG.

Take Harley Davidson for example; they are currently offering potential customers the chance to win ‘The Tour of a Lifetime’ if they take a test drive. Now, more than ever, brands are seeing the benefit of experiences as incentives for customer acquisition and retention.

Creating a VIP Community

Moving on from the world of rewarding the individual, there is an increasing interest in the value of VIP community events and the opportunity for an elite few to share an experience with others in a similarly prestigious position.

In the same way that a private members club creates a sense of intrigue that sparks interest in those on the outside and pride from those within, a private VIP member’s community in the FMCG market can have an incredible impact on loyalty.

Many luxury brands have already taken this approach to rewarding VIP customers including Bentley, Rolls Royce and Johnnie Walker. They are increasingly using group experiences rather than more traditional gifting initiatives.

An event offers a brand an incredible opportunity to amplify its values and core message through creative and well-curated experiences helping the members identify with the lifestyle association of the brand.  What’s more, a reward that is shared by a community brings into play a unique dynamic that focuses on the human need to share experiences with others and a sense of pride in being recognised as one of an elite group by their peers.

Through effective pre- and post-event, as well as on-site, communications, the value of any event can have far wider reach and offers an incredible opportunity to create a legacy and drive significant longevity for each experience, thereby maximising Return on Investment.

Collateral such as images, videos and sound bites from these events can be repurposed to give those aspiring to be in the VIP club a glimpse into this exclusive world (and thereby encourage them to work towards this).

The combined budget of a group event can allow for otherwise unachievable experiences to be accessed and created.  The buying power of pooled reward budgets can often enable a group to negotiate the very best deals and open doors otherwise closed to the general public.

For a VIP group event, the challenge is always to create a ‘money-can’t-buy’ experience that is quite literally a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity.  In recent years, we have organised everything from a complete buyout of Richard Branson’s Necker Island for a VIP group to camping in Alaska in search of bears and a supercar rally through the UAE.

So whether you are looking for a prize promotion to influence the purchasing decision at the point of sale, or thinking of engaging with a community of loyal brand advocates, always think of how you can Reward to Retain.

Andrew Rae is Head of Promotional Marketing at The Black Tomato Agency, which designs and manages award-winning experiences that engage with customers.

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Award-winning travel incentive and prize fulfilment agency Cloud Nine Incentives has expanded its team with the appointment of Dawn Dean as Senior Account Manager.

Dean joins from Protravel and has over 10 years’ experience in the travel industry, working on numerous high-profile client campaigns in the travel incentive and customer rewards market. She will be responsible for the creation of prize solutions for the marketing, film and PR sectors and will work in the client services team.

Sophie Chambers, Director of Cloud Nine, says: “We are delighted that Dawn has joined the Cloud Nine team during this exciting period of growth.  Her creativity, passion for travel and the wider incentive industry will help with our ongoing plans and will also ensure that all of our clients receive service that is second to none in the industry.”

Founded in 2011 and based in Olney, Bucks, Cloud Nine Incentives specialises in providing bespoke prize fulfilment, travel incentives, winner management and aspirational on-pack promotions for the Marketing, PR, Media and Business-to-Business sectors.

The post Cloud Nine Incentives expands prize and incentive team appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Prize promotion specialist The Black Tomato Agency has added another new hire to bolster its team with the appointment of Ellie Clarke as Fulfilment Manager.

Andrew Rae, Head of Promotional Marketing at The Black Tomato Agency, says: “Winner fulfilment is at the very core of our service offering. The hard work initially invested in a campaign from a plethora of different agencies, all responsible for varying touchpoints of the promotion, can be undone with anything but perfect winner fulfilment.”

Clarke joins the team with years of experience already under her belt, gained from working in Melbourne for corporate events and leisure specialists Encore Journeys and, prior to that, in consumer insight. Rae says that her knowledge of how to deliver intricate, group experiences as well as tangible ROI reflects the kind of brief that Black Tomato are more regularly delivering.

Rae observes: “We are seeing an increase in brands wanting to deliver more complex itineraries, multi-centre experiences and those that reward groups of people, not the standard ‘trip for two’ prizes. Ellie’s experience and contacts, and the in-house expertise The Black Tomato Agency has with its sister agencies, means we have an unparalleled access to the skills required to deliver ‘remarkable experiences that inspire’.”

The Black Tomato Agency is part of The Black Tomato Group, a collection of innovative teams – Promotions, Agency, Leisure and Studio – headquartered in Shoreditch, London. under one creative roof. The Black Tomato Agency creates, manages and fulfils prize experiences and curates and delivers ground breaking group travel experiences all over the world on behalf of some of the world’s top brands, agencies and companies. It won Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Prize and Rewards category of the 2016 COGS Awards, an industry first.

The post Black Tomato Agency New Hire appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Home baking brand Dr. Oetker has teamed up with 2012 Great British Bake Off winner, John Whaite, to support its “Dare to Bake” campaign, and is offering home bakers the chance to win a trip to Belgium, home of artisan chocolate, by submitting pictures of their own chocolate cakes.

Dr Oetker is a major player in the UK baking ingredients market, having bought the SuperCook brand in 2007. The new campaign will drive Home Baking sales over the key Easter period by encouraging home bakers to share their chocolate creations on the brand’s ‘WeBake.com’ community site.

WeBake.com is a social media platform for bakers which Dr. Oetker launched in November 2016 (see story on promomarketing.info). Dr. Oetker says the site currently has 11,000 users.

John Whaite  won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012, and has since become a chef, TV presenter and cookbook author. He works as a chef, television presenter, and author. He is currently a presenter and judge on ITV’s daytime cookery competition show, The Chopping Block.

First stage entry to the competition is by submitting an image of an original chocolate cake creation to the WeBake.co.uk site. Six people will be selected to then participate in a ‘cake-off’ to be held at John Whaite’s Kitchen Cookery School in Wrightington, Lancashire on Sunday May 28th 2017. The winner will get a return trip for two on Eurostar to Bruges in Belgium, including three nights’ accommodation and a chocolate museum and workshop visit.

No purchase is necessary to enter, but people must register as members of the WeBake.co.uk community. Entries are being accepted until April 18th.

The campaign is being supported by print advertising and video content, as well as PR, social media and digital. Visitors at the Birmingham Cake International show on March 17th to 19th can also experience a free live chocolate technique demonstration and learn more about the campaign.

Jan McKee, Executive Head of Marketing at Dr. Oetker UK, says: “Beat The Baker gives consumers a reason to bake; we aim to inspire home bakers to take up the challenge of beating our famous baker. This is the next level of our “Dare To Bake” campaign and an exciting piece of activity which will drive incremental sales in the run up to Easter.”

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