___________ Sales promotion 2 i@

Promotional games can be a powerful friend to today's marketer - or a deadly enemy ifmishandled. John Donovan picks his way carefully through a potential minefield

LEARNING THE RIGHTRULES OF THE GAME

MARKETINGWEEKOCTOBER11 1985

Games are one of the most powerfulpromo­tional weapons available.But when they make headlines, it is not

always goodnews - as the Mirror Group,Esso, Asda and Cadbury Typhoo found totheir cost recently when their games had tobe curtailed or withdrawn. The media takea disproportionate interest in such disas­ters, often giving them front-page coverageto the exclusion ofmore important events.It is still not clear what went wrong with

Esso'sNoughts & Crossesgame,but reportsindicate that too many prizes, big andsmall, were claimed in the first days of thelaunch, and a printer's error is thought toberesponsible.TheAsdaCash game seemedtohave a flaw on the Cashcards, and syndi­cates of competitors "broke" the TyphooCashpot game.The immediate cost of getting a game

wrong can run into millions, but thedamage donecanbe evengreater in the longterm. A disaster game can cause enormousharm to a brand by tarnishing an imagethat may have been carefully and expensi­velybuilt upovermany years. In somecasesfurther damage can be done if, for example,claims have to be deferred because oflitigation with the game's suppliers.The mistakes made in the past ten years

in somedisaster games are astonishing to agames specialist. For example, there wasthe quiz game with no game variations, socompetitorsonlyhad to remove the scratch­offmaterial fromone game piece to be ableto answer all the questions on the next.The Mirror was acutely embarrassed

when it published an incorrect combinationof"callednumbers" for its bingo-typegame,resulting in a long queue outside its officesone Saturday morning, with thousandsthinking they had won a big prize.Don Marketing's file is full of such

stories, and nearly always the chiefcause isa lack of expertise in a complex matter.After decades of experience, marketers inthe USwouldnot dream ofrelying solelyonadvertising or promotional agencies to runa promotional game, as happens in the UK.Instead they or their agencies brief one ofthe several specialist games companies.Most disaster games are the result of

inexperience and a failure to recognise theimportant distinction between the special­ist printing needed for game pieces and theprinting needed for ordinary promotionalmaterial. Indeed producing game piecesoften needs tighter security than printingcurrency, because higher denominationsare involved.The security of printing game pieces

includes the need to avoid printing toomany winners, misregistration and vari­ations in colour and size. See-through andother flaws can result in "winner pick-out" ....

Headlines: The media are not slow to pounce

.... - that is, the identification of winners atany stage beforedistribution to consumers.See-through can also enable people to getskill and probability games right everytime.Many other pitfalls must be avoided.

Security has to be a priority at all stages,

from the moment the game is created towhen the prizes are paid. Taking all theserequirements into account, it is often unfairofa promoting companyto put the burden ofresponsibility solelyonthe print buyer, whois rarely experienced in this specialisedwork.

It is crucial for the companyto be aware ofall the potential hazards right from thestart. For instance, it is important to knowhow many outlets there will be and themaximum number of game pieces to bestocked at anyone outlet. These figuresdetermine the number of game variations ....

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52 MARKETINGWEEKOCTOBER 111985

•

.... necessary to avoid a breach in the game'ssecurity.Another vital matter is whether the game

will be legal. For example, a game that isdeemed to be illegal can result in criminalcharges under the Lotteries Act beingbrought against the directors of the gamepromoter.Another requirement is that consumers

must be able to understand easily how toplay the game. So the game mechanic andplay instructions must be unambiguous.The game mechanic must also be checked tomake sure that it does not breach a patentapplication or a patent that has beengranted. Several game techniques are pro­tected in this way in several countries, suchas Don Marketing's Match the Experts.Even the proposed name for the gameshould be checked to ensure that it does notinfringe a trademark or copyright. Shell'sMastermind game was approved by theowners of that name, whereas a nationalnewspaper that tried to use Mastermind inits promotion was prevented from doing soat a late and embarrassing stage,There is a new phenomenon that also has

to be considered, particularly in skillgames. This is the emergence of professio­nal competitors, syndicates and bureaux inthe past two years or so. Many of theirnames are on Don Marketing's computerfiles and they operate in most parts of thecountry.

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Losers: Esso and Typhoogot in trouble

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MARKETINGWEEKOCTOBER 111985

Some even advertise in specialist compe­titors' magazines, saying that they will buyused game pieces.This enables them to build up a "library"

of the variations of a game so that they canbreak it. They then advertise that, for £5and an unused game piece with the person'sname and address written in the appro­priate place, they will turn it into a winnerand post it to the claims address. There havealso been attempts to use computers tobreak games.With such people watching for their

chance, great care must be taken with skillgames to ensure that game breakers arerestrained and their influence minimised.This can be done by using hi-tech printingto produce millions of variations, withbuilt-in security.A specialist games company can often

save a lot of money on printing by structu­ring the game mechanic and rules so that itis possible to use conventional printing.For one big game recently, in which every

game piece was a potential winner - themost tempting challenge to a would-begame breaker - it was possible to save theclient nearly £500,000 on the print costs,which was used to boost prizes and thepromotion's appeal.The main objective must nevertheless be

to ensure that the effort is not worth thereward for any game breaker and thisshould always be remembered when a game ....

53

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~.is being developed. For this reason the useof sophisticated printers may be unavoid­able. The more advanced offer ink-jet,computer-controlled, hidden imaging,which can generate millions of differentgame combinations printed on foil-coatedstock which cannot be penetrated.Promotional games are popular because

they let consumers know immediatelywhether they have won and so have anadvantage over traditional competitionswhich most people consider boring and notworth the trouble of entering. Many gameshave had spectacular results - for instancethe Shell Make Money game in 1984, whichis claimed to have lifted sales by more than25 per cent, and the Great Guinness Chal­lenge, said to have boosted sales of draughtGuinness by 30 per cent at a time when thebrand was not even advertised on TV.However, the division between success

and disaster can be fine. British marketerswho want the advantages of promotionalgames but not the risks to their brand orperhaps even their own jobs should there­fore insist on using a specialist gamescompany with a good track record. Simi­larly the wise executive in either a salespromotion consultancy or an ad agencyshould think twice before risking his andhis client's reputation - and profits. 0

John Donovan is chairman ofDon Market­ing Management

See overfordetailsthen ruboff thissectionto revealNames

Winners: Shell and Guinness boosted sales by 25 per cent and 30 per cent respectively

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56

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MARKETINGWEEKOCTOBER111985