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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
