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Sales Promotions, Competitions and Lottery Disasters

*LEARNING THE RIGHT RULES OF THE GAME (ARTICLE BY JOHN DONOVAN PUBLISHED BY MARKETING WEEK MAGAZINE IN OCTOBER 1985)

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Screen Shot 2014-05-06 at 15.53.45Promotional games can be a powerful friend to today’s marketer – or a deadly enemy if mishandled. John Donovan picks his way carefully through a potential minefield

Games are one of the most powerful promotional weapons available.

But when they make headlines, it is no always good news – as the Mirror Group Esso, Asda and Cadbury Typhoo found to their cost recently when their games had to be curtailed or withdrawn. The media take a disproportionate interest in such disas­ters, often giving them front-page coverage to the exclusion of more important events.

It is still not clear what went wrong with Esso’s Noughts & Crosses game, but reports indicate that too many prizes, big and small, were claimed in the first days of the launch, and a printer’s error is thought to be responsible.The AsdaCash game seemed to have a flaw on the Cashcards, and syndicates of competitors ”broke” the Typhoo Cashpot game. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.