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Identifying the value of any one activity when it is enmeshed in a

broader marketing strategy is the Achilles heel of the promotions

industry.

There was a time when hunch, intuition and flashes of inspiration were

the hallmark of a successful promotion. But now marketers demand greater

accountability.

Although the Sales Promotion Consultants Association (SPCA) - working in

conjunction with the London Business School, The Marketing Society and

the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising - hopes to come up with a

template by which promotional marketing can be measured by next year,

there will always be a subjective element to evaluation.

Similarly, it is impossible to distil a successful campaign into a

series of digestible sound bites. However, there are some basic

guidelines which apply across the marketing mix and act as pointers for

a successful promotion.

Don’t underestimate customers

Last month confectionery giant Mars acted swiftly to avoid a PR disaster

when it failed to take into consideration the sensitivity of the people

of Burnley. An on-pack football promotion, linked to the World Cup,

included a series of losing Snickers wrappers featuring football

anecdotes aimed at consoling the recipient.

One involved Burnley Football Club supporters who, in 1986, turned their

backs on a game for five minutes as a protest at the standard of

play.

Burnley FC failed to get the joke and, along with a local newsagent,

delisted the product. The Mars PR machine rolled into action and an

apology was issued to the people of Burnley.

’We stepped in quickly and issued an apology as well as sending product

to the mayor, who passed it on to a children’s organisation. The story

was picked up by The Sun but it was covered in an amusing way,’ says a

Mars spokesperson. ’We never intended to cause upset, but still think

it’s a very funny story,’ she adds.

The consumer has a remarkable capacity for causing trouble, warns ISP

chairman Simon Mahoney. ’Don’t assume consumers are naive. If they want

something you’ve promised, they will go the whole nine yards to get it,’

he says pointing to the 1992 Hoover fiasco.

More recently, one individual has been making life difficult for UK

promoters running distance-estimating competitions. William Freitag, an

ex-Royal Air Force pilot, has made a habit of challenging any

competition which centres on the consumer guessing the distance between

destinations. When he doesn’t win he challenges the company, claiming

his method of calculating distances is the most accurate. Duracell

reached an out-of-court settlement with Freitag, coffee giant Douwe

Egbert - which ran a distance-estimating competition in 1992 - had to

pay him damages after a three-day trial in June and Freitag is currently

taking on one of the UK’s largest soft-drinks manufacturers.

’There are often ambiguities and weaknesses in the copy. He is pointing

out the inadequacy of quality control in much sales promotion copy,’

says Philip Circus, head of legal affairs at the ISP. ’Go through the

details with a fine toothcomb. If you do run a competition along these

lines, be ready for him to come visiting with a court order.’

Unfortunately the national press loves a story which pitches one canny

individual against a large corporation. Just as Mars found itself in the

press and on the radio when it slighted Burnley FC, Tesco courted the

tabloids last year when a loophole in a Clubcard promotion enabled one

shopper to load up four trolleys with bananas.

Do integrate seamlessly

Integration has long been the buzz word in sales promotion as agencies

diversify. This trend - reflected in the SPCA’s recent decision to

rename - has thrown up the challenge of achieving consistency across

different marketing communications.

’Integration will never work if the different elements of a campaign are

separated into boxes,’ says Paul Snudden, head of integration at

Ammirati Puris Lintas.

When Van den Bergh approached APL with a promotional brief for Peperami

to run alongside its ad campaign, the agency came back with a

communications package working around the core idea of the Fanimal, a

sound-reactive football hooligan linked to the World Cup.

’There are few agencies with no territorial boundaries in terms of where

money goes and few clients with the budget and vision to see their

communication activity in this way,’ comments Snudden. ’Advertising

agencies can do it but often have to involve a sister agency with its

own profit-revenue agenda.’

Mark Beasley, managing director of Perspectives, agrees that the core

idea needs to develop across all elements of the ’idea-to-market’

chain.

’This applies not just to trade channels but also to all applicable

media. Plans should be in place to address all these opportunities,’

says Beasley.

Although Tetley’s Kick for a Million campaign used specialists across

different channels, Beasley believes that the brand achieved a coherent

message.

Tango was one of the first brands to fully integrate its above-the-line

campaign with a promotional brief in 1995. Its DRTV-driven Tango Doll

campaign, through HHCL & Partners, is hailed as the industry’s first

self-liquidating telephone promotion, stimulating sales by 34% over the

year.

’We wanted to involve the Tango drinker in a more intimate way than had

ever been done before,’ says Dominic Field, partner at HHCL and account

director on the campaign at the time.

Since then, Field believes there was a flurry of DRTV promotions which

failed to really add value and admits that its own follow-up Tango Horn

promotion two years later did not innovate as much as it could have

done.

’It’s easy to end up with a promotion where the line between the

promotion and the rest of the communication is clearly visible.’

Do go to a specialist

In the rush to offer integrated solutions, some feel that agencies have

spread their net too wide. Carlson, the UK’s largest below-the-line

agency, conducted its own research in March.

’Our study showed that clients like the idea of integration but question

if any single agency can truly deliver. What they want is the best, be

it in sales promotion, direct marketing or loyalty,’ says Jeremy Shaw,

general manager of Carlson.

Carlson revised its previous ad campaign and concentrated on a DM push

to prospective clients under the banner ’52 Leading Brands, Three

Disciplines, One Agency’.

While few sales promotion agencies would pretend to have the capability

for a large-scale above-the-line campaign, some ad agencies make forays

into promotions.

Miles Hanson, managing director of The Marketing Store Worldwide

(Europe), believes that JWT is one agency which failed to deliver the

product for Kellogg. ’The Kellogg’s 100th Birthday promotion is a great

idea but is badly communicated. This offer could have been better

exploited.’

Don’t overcomplicate

Regardless of what is happening behind the scenes, any promotion, be it

consumer driven or business to business, must be communicated clearly

and simply. ’Agencies tend to overcomplicate. It is always worth taking

stock, pulling back and refocusing,’ says Steven Penny, joint managing

director of Stretch the Horizon.

Nick Cunningham, director at Dynamo, agrees that balancing creativity

with realism is one of the first hurdles an agency faces. ’So many great

ideas never make it because they are impractical.’ Its campaign for

Coca-Cola Schweppes vending machines offered consumers a Thirst For It

T-shirt in a can of Cola-Cola and picked up an ISP Gold at this year’s

awards.

’The idea was creative but at the same time took a year’s technical

development,’ says Cunningham.

Pan-European work demands an even higher level of simplicity because of

legal obstacles. In the last month alone, the European Commission has

voted against German legislation that bans the promotional use of

discounts and gifts.

While this marks the first step in achieving a consistent regulatory

framework across Europe, Brussels moves very slowly and it is likely to

be some time before true harmonisation is achieved.

’Think big, think simple,’ is Miles Hanson’s answer when it comes to

multi-territory promotions. The Marketing Store is currently working

with Shell on a consumer promotion which will roll out across its 170

operating companies around the world. ’You have to think in terms of

universal truths. Using kids to access a country works whether you are

in China or the UK.’

Shell is using die-cast Classic Ferrari model cars as the cornerstone of

its promotion. A guide detailing a raft of different ways the car can be

used in promotional activity enables countries to tailor the campaign to

their local market. ’You don’t dictate but have to be very aware of the

local nuances,’ explains Hanson.

Do understand the consumer

For many agencies, understanding the consumer involves conducting their

own research. Specialist children’s agency Logistix Kids conducts weekly

focus groups with children to keep abreast of trends and has just

launched a new Forever Friends Munchy Bears snack for Golden Wonder

following 12 months of research.

’Age bands are much narrower than for the adult sector and the

differences in lifestyle, attitudes or influences between one group and

the next are much more marked,’ says Mike Avery, marketing director at

Logistix.

Andrew Marsden, marketing director at Britvic Soft Drinks, believes that

too many companies show a healthy disrespect for the consumer. ’On a

very simplistic level, you have to think what’s in it for the consumer.

If they could get it elsewhere, why should they participate?’

On this basis, Pepsi campaigns always offer the consumer an exclusive

product. These range from a Spice Girls CD, featuring previously

unreleased tracks, to it’s most recent offer, a Pepsi-branded radio

available through a collector mechanic.

Don’t neglect PR opportunities

If you’ve got something to shout about then shout loud and rope in some

celebrities if at all possible. This was Walkers message when it

celebrated its 50th Birthday with a weekend bash at Alton Towers in

June.

Most of the party goers had won tickets through on-pack promotion but a

handful of guests including Emma Noble and Gary Lineker were there to

pull in PR coverage.

If a brand has adopted a more anarchic positioning, PR stunts have to

fit with its core values. The Tango football shrine, offering consumers

everything they needed to get the most out of watching the World Cup in

their home, was at the heart of an on-pack promotion and also found its

way on to The Big Breakfast.

And when Van den Bergh dispatched an eight-foot Peperami Fanimal to the

England training ground prior to the World Cup. The Fanimal was snapped

trying to join in the training session.

Coping with negative PR is also part of the job. According to Philip

Circus, companies tend to adopt one of two strategies. ’You have the

rabbit response; caught in car headlights and frozen into inactivity or

the headless chicken; rushing around panicking. Companies should think

multi-dimensionally and think quickly.’

Do take time over sourcing

Nightmare sourcing stories abound in the world of sales promotion.

Beauty Promotions is just one company which had its fingers burnt when

it sourced 180,000 bags on behalf of a high street retailer for a major

in-store promotion.

An independent quality testing company had failed to pick up on a

problem with the bags and each protruding metal frame had to be removed

at a cost of pounds 25,000. ’This was an expensive lesson,’ says

managing director Geraldine Buckland. ’We pursued the company but there

was no redress.’

Simon Ford, chairman of the BPMA warns companies to leave a long lead

time when sourcing from the Far East and to develop close relationships

with suppliers.

’There is an obvious communication and distance problem so actually

dispatching someone to the factory or having an agent based out there

makes a real difference.’ Sue Knight, business development director at

LGM advises agencies to keep a calendar of public holidays and festivals

close at hand as countries can suddenly and unexpectedly grind to a halt

days before an order to due to come through.

’Try to stagger the deliveries so you are not dependent on one bulk

order coming though on a certain critical day.’

Don’t forget to evaluate

Evaluation has been at the top of the SPCA’s agenda for some year’s but

it’s most recent undertaking, the Marketing Matrix Project, marks the

association’s biggest push to date. Jointly funded by the IPA, SPCA and

The Marketing Society, the project embraces all marketing disciplines

and aims to establish evaluation guidelines.

’If you are going to evaluate it is absolutely fundamental that you

establish your objectives and how they can be assessed very early on,’

says David Blackler, director of Brewer Blackler and SPCA board

member.

While large FMCG brands which invest continually in promotional activity

tend to have a good track record in evaluation, this data is rarely

shared with the agency concerned. ’Often companies are simply on to the

next project and there’s no time to look back or share information,’

says Blackler.

Mark Beasley from Perspectives believes that it is the role of a good

agency to ensure that all concerned are clear as to what success looks

like. ’You have to be ruthless in separating what is, or could be,

measurable from what is subjective.’

Dynamo recently pitched against market research agencies on an

evaluation project for a major brewer. It is now evaluating the

promotional activity generated by each of the brewer’s roster of

agencies over a six-month period.

Dynamo’s Cunningham says: ’They spend millions each year and want to

know which type of promotion works best for them. We won the pitch

because we had developed a model by which each promotion could be

evaluated.’