The campaign saw consumers engaging with Carling Black Label on a continual basis over 17 weeks of summer, with immediate uptake seen within the first two weeks and impressive continued momentum as awareness and understanding grew.
The clear and simple collection mechanics were communicated through both ATL and TTL: BUY Carling Black Label, collect points and get guaranteed rewards of cash and airtime. This resonated with many of the brand's target market and received over 800,000 'unique' entries. The 'guaranteed' messaging proved to be the 'secret formula' that the team was hoping for, taking a standard 'buy and win' promotion into a much more compelling space for consumers. With global trends pointing towards instant and guaranteed prizes, it seems South African consumers are equally affected, and in this case the brand reaped their own rewards when consumers responded so enthusiastically.
Entries exceeded expectations, with results topping 10,000,000 entries and an overall redemption rate of 2%, which is especially positive over the cluttered summer period and with 500 million packs in trade. 34, who conceptualised and executed the campaign, believe that the success is due to high winning ratios, clever backend database management and specialist risk redemption modelling.
"Management of guaranteed rewards on a brand of this scale, with hundreds of millions of packs in circulation, proves the need for 'science' behind the creativity of any promotional campaign," says MD at 34, Morné Fourie.
The simple mechanics and consistent messaging across all communication platforms, as well as the easy-to-use redemption process via Shoprite (for cash redemption), meant that the promotion was highly accessible across all target segments nationwide.
In a very tough economic climate, when a high number of SA brands nationwide saw sales falling, Carling Black Label successfully managed to keep its consumers drinking the most awarded beer in South Africa. "When shoppers are challenged with their spending choices at the end of the year, it takes incredibly smart thinking and a complicated backend system to make a very simple consumer promotion that encourages loyalty and keeps consumers engaged - preventing any uptrading from Carling into competitive brands," said Carmen Heunis, marketing manager Carling Black Label, when commenting on the high response rate and consumer uptake.
34, the Carling Black Label Brand Team and agency partner Ogilvy Cape Town, look forward to rewarding our Champion Men even more in 2014!
