Sales promotion specialist, SPARK, is proud to announce that it has become the UK representative for travel products from Travel + Leisure Co. At unbeatable prices, these products offer access to an extensive range of hotels, resorts, cruises, and tours.

”We’re delighted to be working with the fantastic and experienced team at SPARK to bring our Tailored Travel Services and Solutions to the UK market”, said Jess McCrorie, Director Strategic Partnerships at Travel + Leisure Co.  “With over 75% of UK adults wanting a holiday abroad this year*, we’re excited to be able to offer a unique platform that will help Brands encourage their Customers to see more of the world, for less.”

With over 45 years of experience in the travel industry and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Travel + Leisure Co. has over 4 million members worldwide, 600,000 hotels, and 4,000 resorts. Their access to the biggest closed user group discounts in the market beats leading online booking platforms.

Recent research* indicates that 64% of UK adults are planning to take a holiday this year, so offering savings on hotels, holidays and other travel perks is a great way to associate a brand with some of the happiest memories and experiences felt by consumers.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Travel + Leisure and helping them access the UK market”, said Dave Pearson, CEO at SPARK. “Travel can be such an inspirational motivator and the solutions that Travel + Leisure have established worldwide is an exciting development for the UK.  Travel is still a brilliant promotional tool, particularly during a cost-of-living crisis where working with Travel + Leisure we can help consumers continue to enjoy worldwide travel experiences for less through brand partnerships and promotions.”

To find out more about SPARKs impactful promotions, please visit wearespark

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SPARK has recently completed another great sales promotion campaign, working with Mozillion, mobile’s first marketplace!

Mozillion is the trusted online marketplace for new and certified refurbished phones, allowing customers to buy and sell with confidence. To reward those making a qualifying purchase, Mozillion teamed up with SPARK to offer customers a pair of free ODEON cinema tickets.

Customers receive a claim code which is redeemable on a website built and managed by SPARK. The customer is guided through the process to obtain their free ODEON voucher which can be used to book online or at the box office.

The promotion runs across ODEON cinemas nationwide, encompassing both Luxe and Non-Luxe venues, giving customers plenty of choice for where to use their vouchers.

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Lauren Miles, Senior Account and Marketing Executive at Mando shares how sales promotions have changed over time. 

The Promotions Industry has changed significantly over the last 40 years. In the 1970s and 80s, ways to enter were limited. Now there are a plethora of ways to enter. Some promotions encourage consumers to enter multiple times via different channels to increase their chance of winning.

How it’s changed

The obvious answer is technology. But how has this impacted on our sales promotions? In a number of ways to be exact.

• Ways to Enter
• Spreading the word
• Easier than ever
• Comping groups

We take a look at each of these in turn.

Ways of entering

Before technology really took off (I’m talking before the internet here), there were very few ways to enter a promotion. One was to mail in personal information, or post tokens that had been collected. Another way was to phone a hotline number. These were extremely limiting in the ways that customers could engage with a brand. Fast forward 40 years and you can still post, and phone but you can also text, Snapchat, tweet, enter via Instagram, or Facebook and most commonly, online via a microsite.

Spreading the word

Social media has increased the speed at which people can find out about news, events and competitions at an alarming rate. Take fake news for example. Some people will believe anything they read online and share with their connections at a click of a button. This is the same for promotions. If a brand runs a promotion, there is a very strong chance it could go viral and thousands of people can find out from the comfort of their own home. No need to go to shops anymore and hunt for those pesky on pack promotions. This means our data scientists have to be incredibly accurate when predicting redemption rates as a promotion could go viral and redeem 10 x higher than anticipated.

Easier than ever

Mobile phones and the internet have made it almost effortless to enter promotions. Customers can access a microsite within seconds of the product being purchased. Customers no longer have to wait to get home, and then phone a hotline or spend time writing their personal details, finding a stamp, visiting a post box and posting the letter, only to wait 4 weeks to find out if they have won. If customers are entering online, often these will be an instant win promotion and as the name suggests, customers can find out instantly if they have won. Discover how we helped Coca-Cola with their instant win promotion here.

Comping Groups

The rise of “Compers” or so-called competition experts (we recently wrote an article on this, which you can read here) has increased rapidly. These experts share competitions that they find with each other through social media groups, to access as many competitions as possible. The groups tend to be aware of the legislation surrounding promotions and don’t hesitate to complain to the ASA if they feel that a competition isn’t being run fairly. The ASA received 33,727 complaints in 2018, and 98% of these were from the public according to Karen Fraser at June’s IPM Connect Event.

Hoover Free Flights

The sales promotion that everyone always refers to is “Hoover Free Flights” which we have touched on in our promotional horror stories article. However, imagine if this happened now? With social media, the offer would have gone viral within a matter of hours and Hoover would have to pull the offer or go into administration immediately if they decided to honour it. They wouldn’t be able to afford all of the flights that were claimed. Any risk management company would have advised Hoover that the offer vastly outweighed the price of the product leaving them open to a mountain of risk the size of Everest. In hindsight it’s easy to say that Hoover should have consulted a risk management company. If the promotion ran today it would have been an even bigger disaster than in the 1990s. Seeking advice from a sales promotion professional could have guided them into altering the offer to something more viable and benefiting to Hoover, reducing the risk considerably.

If you would like to know more about how Mando can help you get in touch with their team here 01296 717900 or email at info@mando-europe.co.uk.

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Marc Rigby of MRM looks at the relevance of Promotional Marketing to today’s marketing industry

Part of my misspent youth was dedicated to undertaking a degree in Marketing. How shiny and new it all felt back then in the 1980s, with brand spend all hovering above and below some imaginary line.

I chose below the line. Cash, holidays and cars. Neck labels, fix-a-forms and scratch panels. Free flights, treasure hunts and soft toy Labradors. Activity so impactful in its imagination and creativity that sometimes it didn’t even need a press release to make the national news.

Fast forward 18 years into the new millennium and the chance to assess where the trends of integration, omnichannel and the like have taken the old trouper that is Promotional Marketing. And no better place to do that than at the 2018 IPM awards, particularly as MRM was a sponsor this year.

But first, some context. To paraphrase Lord Black of Brentwood in his excellent introductory speech at the Awards, “I have never known such a time of change and flux.”

An economy showing marginal growth with Brexit concerns and growing inflationary pressures, dictatorial government legislation and public health concerns.

After a decade of dominant price promotion activity there is evidence of the usurping impact that EDLP pricing is having in the shape of the sales strategies of German retailers Aldi and Lidl.

And look at the fact that retailers such as Asda, Ikea, Next et al chose to step away from the bun fight that is Black Friday. It is low prices not short term price offers that is winning the promotional day.

So, can added value promotions still have a role to play in building the all-too-important brand equity?

Promotional Marketing as a marketing multiplier

What this year’s entrants consistently demonstrated is that their campaigns defined promotion as less about a proven collection of techniques to drive sales and more about the role Promotional Marketing can play when it has the chance to contribute to the marketing multiplier effect that boosts a campaign’s impact and how its customers really begin to engage with it.

What do I mean by that last statement? That campaigns truly reach another level when a great idea is founded in a brand truth and delivered to a consumer as a total brand experience.

Take the immense piece of work that is Lucozade Energy and TBK Group’s ‘Unstoppable Bottle’ – a multi award winner at the 2018 IPM Awards (see the picture above). Product packaging uniquely adapted to the activity. Check. Product sampling. Check. Relevance of activity to brand proposition. Check. Amplification of activity with advertising and social media. Check. Tangible motivating reward. Check. Add the fact that the activation was the first of its kind and it was delivered flawlessly achieving outstanding results, and you have a deserved winner. And, in striking a sensory, emotional, relevant and behavioural chord with the audience, it truly delivered a brand experience.

Clearly, promotional success need not be as reliant on retail presence as it once was. Packaging still remains a primary medium to communicate through, even if the power of the retailer’s own brand limits the opportunities to stand out in store. Getting listings and facings is a hard and often expensive challenge for any underperforming brand. Today’s marketer has a number of channels to drive communication of a promotion. Digital activity can undoubtedly help to build your story and promote the activity to a targeted audience. Hell, it even serves as an ideal place to store your terms and conditions. But it can also very quickly undermine your best efforts if your activity doesn’t pass the scrutiny of your consumers.

Not that this was a problem for another award winner. Nestlé KitKat and ZEAL Creative’s personalised KitKat packs proved how the public’s appetite for personalisation can be integrated into an established brand’s packaging.

So I hope I am not alone in concluding from this year’s crop of winners that, within the armoury of marketers, Promotional Marketing remains a trusted and effective weapon. And whilst the idea at the heart of any marketing campaign should be embedded in the brand proposition, creativity can only truly thrive with the support and expertise of practitioners who understand the importance of planning, insight and how best to manipulate the Promotional tools; not to merely drive sales but also deliver brand experiences that challenge and engage the audiences they seek to reach.

At MRM, we like to think we are defined by our services but measured by our results.  That is a statement that should be a maxim for our whole industry.

Marc Rigby is Managing Director of Multi Resource Marketing Ltd (MRM), a marketing services agency celebrating its 25^th anniversary this summer. MRM is a sponsor of the IPM Awards 2018.

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No matter what new technological invention or innovation in promotion you choose, the challenge of standing out in a crowded marketplace remains, says Chris Baldwin of Sodexo. PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

Brands risk devaluing their campaign products by discounting too frequently, and with tight margins to meet it just isn’t economical.

This is where adding value is key. Marketers would be better not lopping pennies off in store for a meagre splash but instead adding value or being creative with ‘discount’ for a big eye catching impact.

Adding value is the easy bit – promotions, prizes, trade-ins and guarantees can help brands stand out for all the right reasons. But with so many different promotional mechanics, how do marketers choose which is best for their campaign?

Looking at what they want to achieve is a pretty good start…

Promoting value

Snipping coupons is old school, right? Wrong! This mechanic’s popularity shows no sign of dwindling. The use of money-off coupons is as popular as ever. Even truly old school methods like cutting out vouchers in newspapers still draws a crowd.

Sodexo, part of the Sodexo family, worked with John Smith’s to create a coupon in the Mirror that saw readers receiving £1 off their next purchase. Creating a robust alignment between The Mirror and the brewery – and putting savings in consumers’ hands. With Sodexo covering all the possible redemptions, remaining financing liable and providing campaign analysis, John Smith’s were able to reach an offline audience and inspire a purchase.

Another ‘discount’ mechanic on the block, cashback, has the potential to increase sell out while enabling marketers to reduce the profit sacrificed by a true, flat discount. By highlighting the ‘discount’ (savings made once cashback is paid) rather than the reduced price, marketers can create a greater sense of urgency and give consumers a reason to ‘buy now’.

Plus, cashback allows marketers to sell a product at full price, increasing basket spend for the retailer, while knowing that, once the offer has finished, they’re not left with the damaging effects of price erosion.

Instant gratification

Before AR, VR, QR and the rest, scratch cards were literally the most interactive way to promotionally market to consumers en masse. Odds on scratch cards tend to be greater than in other mechanics, and the compulsion of finding out if you’re an instant winner is hard to shake.

An instant win promotion requires a relatively large prize pool which can put agencies and manufacturers off. But instant wins need not blow the budget – with the right risk management in place, marketers really can afford to reward everyone and reap all the excitement in their follow up collateral.

Gift with purchase is a great example of instant gratification. From the high tech to the cuddly, a gift with purchase rewards impulse buys as well as repeat customers. We can enlist the help of risk management agencies to help calculate levels of participation, expected reward claims and cover the promotion with a fixed-fee to protect their budget.

Inspiring confidence

Marketers that are looking to develop consumer trust through their offering need to drive forward campaigns that inspire confidence and conviction in their products and services. And there are a number of different mechanics that help build relationships in this way.

Whether inspiring consumers to switch brands or try a product for the first time, Try Me Free promotions are a great idea to help encourage confidence in potential customers and inspire repeat purchase and new-found loyalty. Brands look like they are so sure of their product that they will give it away for free, knowing that consumers won’t be able to resist a repeat purchase. And with the help of some agency expertise, brands can work work out how many product samples are likely to be claimed so they don’t spend a penny over budget.

Another confidence-inspiring mechanic with consumers is the product guarantee. How much more can a brand do to prove it has 100% faith in its product than literally give dissatisfied consumer their money back? The problem is, product guarantees can strike fear into brands who worry that a flood of claims will see them hit financial ruin. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By understanding the risk, and calculating the likely number of claims a balanced budget can be achieved.

Buy and Try de-risks the purchase process for consumers – often related to high value purchases. It removes purchase barriers for nervous or thrifty customers, as they can buy what they really want, safe in the knowledge that they have up to 90 days to return it, no questions asked!

Building anticipation

The Advertising Standards Authority describes prize draws as when ‘Prizes are only awarded to those who return the winning code or symbol to the promoter within the promotional period.’

By running a prize draw campaign, marketers can build anticipation – and brand awareness – by offering amazing prizes (think cars, holidays, one of a kind experiences) but limit the opportunity to win and avoid any substantial risk. The most important thing is offering something spectacular that’s worth entering for – and being clear in the terms and conditions.

Driving loyalty

When customers feel like they get something extra from a brand they will bring their custom back time and time again – why would they look elsewhere for less? Marketers can reap the benefits of loyal consumers by rewarding a purchase with points or offers that they can’t get anywhere else. Points and offers which drive consumers back to spend again, attracted by the idea that they’re getting something for nothing thanks to a previous purchase.

Collector schemes are another great way for brands to drive loyalty. Sales are increased as shoppers collect tokens etc. and the customer is enticed to buy more and more in order to fulfill the gift or prize requirement.  Again, a smart promotional agency can protect brands’ budgets – and ensure all consumers get the rewards they’ve been promised.

Removing barriers to purchase

In a crowded marketplace where prices fluctuate and competition is fierce, consumers hold onto their purchases for longer than ever before. No matter how loyal a consumer is to a brand, once they have a household product (for example), they just don’t need to get another similar version.

So, how do marketers get consumers interested in upgrading to the latest and greatest models when they already have the old one in full working order stacked up in their broom cupboard?  This is where trade ins come in – by offering the customer something tangible for their old product, marketers are removing the barriers to purchase.

In our latest Case Study we explore how popular cleaning brand Kärcher ran a trade in campaign to encourage existing customers to upgrade to their latest model. The July 2016 promotion was focused on current window vac owners and offered them a cash incentive to move on to a better machine – if they bought the new Kärcher WV5, with an RRP of £89.99, and traded in their old machine they could receive up to £30 in cashback.

The campaign involved a number of different parties to ensure a seamless delivery to the consumer, from the receipt validation to the cashback payment Sodexo sourced and handled every element meticulously. Sodexo also built the microsite which looked to consumers as simply an extension of the Kärcher website – the site housed the claim area, all the promotion information including contact details, where and what to buy, how to claim and the FAQs. With hundreds of stores involved and a relatively complex offer to make simple, the campaign had the potential to be challenging but was pulled off expertly and with plenty of lessons learned.

Clearly, campaign mechanics aren’t ‘one size fits all’ and each, however old or new, serves a purpose in today’s busy marketplace. The challenge for marketers is choosing the right one for their needs, measuring its success and being reflective as the embark on the next one.

Chris Baldwin is Director of Consumer Promotions and Loyalty at Sodexo. 

Sodexo has published a new eBook,  How new technology is driving the promotional marketing industry, taking a closer look at the digital revolution and how it can help marketers influence shoppers. For a free copy, click here.

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The entry deadline for the Institute of Promotional Marketing Awards 2017 is in less than three weeks on February 28^th – and agencies and brand owners who want to enter their promotional campaigns from 2016 are being encouraged to get their submissions together now.

The IPM Awards 2017 Call for Entries booklet plus top tips on how to write entries and examples of ‘best-in-class’ award-winning campaigns can be found in the awards section of the IPM website.

Richard Pink, the IPM’s Head of Awards, Judging & Entries, says: “Our judges are looking to reward campaigns that stood out in an incredibly competitive market during 2016, that worked hard for the brand and that delivered exceptional results. Tell us your stories and let us know why you deserve to win!”

The IPM is the industry body for promotional marketing, and its awards, which have been running for 40 years, have been created to showcase and champion the best work created in the previous year.

Any campaign which included a promotional element and which ran in the UK during 2016 is eligible for entry. Campaigns which ran outside the UK are also eligible, if they were created by a UK agency or for a UK-based brand or company.

To qualify, campaigns must have been running at some point during 2016; they can have started in 2015 and carried on into 2016, or they can have started in 2016 and run on into 2017. While the IPM would ideally like to see full results, Pink acknowledges that that may not be possible for campaigns which continued into 2017 (or which are still going).

He says: “Obviously, we’d ideally like to see full results, but we realise that, particularly with campaigns which are still live in January and February, that isn’t always going to be possible. In cases like that, we’re encouraging people to enter and explain clearly why they can’t provide absolute results. The judges will understand.”

Further information and advice on this topic is available on Richard Pink’s LinkedIn page.

The IPM also has its own YouTube channel, which features videos from a number of this year’s judges providing their Top Tips on how to create the best possible award entry.

Brands and agencies do not have to be members of the IPM to enter, although IPM members get discounts on their entry fees.

The trophies will be presented at the IPM Awards 2017 Gala Dinner on June 7^th 2017 at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

The headline sponsor for the IPM Awards 2017 is SODEXO and its subsidiaries Protravel, Filmology, Fotorama and Entice. Other partners include Promotional Handling Ltd, Sykes and i-movo.

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The entry deadline for the Institute of Promotional Marketing Awards 2017 is in just 40 days’ time – and agencies and brand owners who want to enter their promotional campaigns from 2016 are being encouraged to get their submissions together now.

The IPM Awards 2017 Call for Entries booklet plus top tips on how to write entries and examples of ‘best-in-class’ award-winning campaigns can be found in the awards section of the IPM website.

Richard Pink, the IPM’s Head of Awards, Judging & Entries, says: “It’s time for brands and agencies to submit their Awards entries and help us celebrate the amazing talent, the hard work and the promotional successes of 2016! As the industry body for promotional marketing, the IPM is here to proudly showcase and champion your work over the past year, and ensure you and your peers receive the industry-wide recognition you deserve.”

The IPM has just run an online Masterclass on crafting the perfect IPM Awards entry, hosted by Richard Pink, which attracted nearly 100 attendees from agency, service companies and brands.

One issue which the Masterclass highlighted was a concern over results from campaigns which started in 2016 but which continued on into 2017 and either finished close to the February 28^th entry deadline, or which will still be running after that.

Pink says: “Obviously, we’d ideally like to see full results, but we realise that, particularly with campaigns which are still live in January and February, that isn’t always going to be possible. In cases like that, we’re encouraging people to enter and explain clearly why they can’t provide absolute results. The judges will understand.”

Further information and advice on this topic is available on Richard Pink’s LinkedIn page.

The IPM also has its own YouTube channel, which features videos from a number of this year’s judges providing their Top Tips on how to create the best possible award entry.

Marketing campaigns which ran anywhere in the world are eligible for entry to the IPM Awards 2017, so long as they included a promotional element and they were created and run either by an agency based in the UK or on behalf of a brand based in the UK.

Brands and agencies do not have to be members of the IPM to enter, although IPM members get discounts on their entry fees.

The trophies will be presented at the IPM Awards 2017 Gala Dinner on June 7^th 2017 at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

The headline sponsor for the IPM Awards 2017 is SODEXO and its subsidiaries Protravel, Filmology, Fotorama and Entice. Other partners include Promotional Handling Ltd, Sykes and i-movo.

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The United Kingdom has the most shortlisted entries in this year’s IMC European Awards for Integrated Marketing Communications, with 16 campaigns getting through to the finals.

Next in line was Ireland (15) followed by Belgium (12), Italy (10), Spain (3), Czech Republic (3), Germany (1) and the Netherlands (1).

The IMC European Awards are open to any campaign which has first won a Gold or equivalent in its national awards programme. In the UK, the Institute of Promotional Marketing‘s annual IPM Awards are the only route to enter the IMC Awards.

Carey Trevill, managing director of the IPM, says: “The fact that UK agencies have the most entries on this year’s IMC Awards shortlist is testament to the strength of promotional marketing in this country.”

The UK winners will be announced at an event organised by the IPM in the next few weeks.

The UK agencies appearing most on the shortlists are experiential specialists TRO, with four nominations, and integrated agency Leith, also with four. Arc has five shortlisted entries, but two are shared with other Leo Burnett Group agencies.

The agency with the most shortlisted entries across all the countries involved is BBDO (Belgium) with nine nominations – three for “Unpaid Bills”, three for “Stalker” and three for “5 Euro”. Next most shortlisted agency is Ireland’s Guns and Knives with four nominations – three for “Heineken DAMOC Coolers” and one for “’We’re So Local’ Regional Campaign”.

The first round selection was made by a jury panel made up of 60 leading industry professionals across Europe. The second round jury, comprised of IMCC Council member representatives, took place in Prague on 11th September. This year’s winners will be announced in December.

IMCC Chairman Ondrej Gottwald says: “This year’s campaigns in the IMC European Awards were the most interesting I have seen during my chairmanship and presence in the jury. I am delighted that our industry is doing well and the work across Europe is of such high quality. Aside from the commercial campaigns, I always appreciate the increasing amount of very successful social and corporate responsibility campaigns and commercial campaigns with a positive social impact. To see these campaigns being recognised and rewarded by industry professionals is very satisfying.”

The full list of shortlisted campaigns in the IMC European Awards for Integrated Marketing Communications is on the IPM site. 

The IMCC – the Integrated Marketing Communications Council Europe – represents the integrated marketing communications agencies and agency associations in Europe and is part of the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA).

The IMCC acts as a central source of information for the industry and assists in the development of the reputation and professionalism of the industry across Europe by focusing on four key areas: best practice, lobbying, recognition via the IMC European Awards and education through the IMCC International Diploma, which was developed for the body by the UK’s IPM.

EACA is a Brussels-based organisation which represents full-service commercial communications, media agencies and agency associations in Europe. The IPM is a member.

EACA promotes honest, effective advertising, high professional standards and awareness of the contribution of advertising in a free market economy and encourages close co-operation between agencies, advertisers and media in European advertising bodies.

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