Collector Schemes

Consumers or trade customers collect points when making purchases and can redeem the points for rewards.

When Anchor Butter launched its Great Rewards Round Up campaign, VCG's Fixed Fee solution covered 100% of the financial risk of purchasing the promotional rewards, managing stock and over-redemption.

Designed to combat increased price promotion in the Butter, Spreads and Margarines sector, the campaign recruited new users and rewarded loyal Anchor customers by offering added value in the form of free gifts.

Consumers could 'round up' escaped cows by collecting 'cow codes' inside specially marked promotional packs of Anchor butter and Anchor Spreadable. The codes were entered online in exchange for 'cows' (points) that were redeemable against a choice of free products, ranging from cool cotton shopping bags to cow print breakfast trays.
The bigger the 'herd' of cows collected, the bigger the reward.

Factorial Promotions

Consumers can win a prize by ranking a number of product statements in order of importance

Chrysler set out to increase the number of test drives of its latest models by mailing a targeted promotional offer to a database of 100,000 potential purchasers.

Recipients were given a chance to win a Chrysler 300C by ranking 10 quality statements in the same order as an independent judging panel. They then had to take their entries to their local distributor who arranged for them to test drive any new Chrysler.

Although the number of test drives exceeded
Chrysler's target, the total cost of the promotion was protected by a VCG Fixed Fee. VCG was also
responsible for organising an independent panel
to judge the entries received.

Gamecard Promotions

Consumers receive a promotional gamecard and peel a panel to reveal symbols underneath. If the symbols match, they can claim a free gift or cash.

Every time shoppers spent more than £10 at Tesco during the run-up to the FIFA World Cup, they received a 'peel and reveal' Love Football/Hate Football gamecard.

They peeled either the 'Love Football' or 'Hate Football' panel to find out if they had won one of many football or non-football prizes, ranging from money-off coupons to prizes provided by major World Cup sponsors.

Tesco distributed millions of gamecards to its customers. The financial risk was fully protected by a VCG fixed fee which also covered the cost of a Freephone customer service number printed on every gamecard.

Scratchcard Promotions

Consumers receive a promotional scratchcard and scratch off panels to reveal symbols. If the symbols match, they can claim a free gift or cash.

Reckitt Benckiser chose VCG's Fixed Fee protection to cover the cost of a major scratchcard campaign which ran on special promotional packs of Finish dishwasher tablets.

The scratchcards featured a three-panel reveal. One of the promotional packs contained three matching symbols which entitled the recipient to claim a £100,000 prize, while 50 packs contained a £1000 prize. All gamecards also carried a selection of self-adhesive movie character stickers.

Text and Win Promotions

Consumers enter by sending a text message to a shortcode number, sometimes with a special code found on promotional packs.

Carling picked the VCG team to play in defence when it kicked off a 'Love Football' text-to-win promotion aimed at the on-trade and off-trade.

The promotion ran during the six weeks of the FIFA World Cup. Purchasers of cans and pints of Carling texted a special code and received a World Cup match forecast result. If their forecast result matched the actual game result, they were able to claim a reward of up to £50.

With millions of winning codes distributed via ring pulls, bottle caps and gamecards, the defensive strengths of VCG's Fixed Fee squad helped to protect a Carling own goal – and protecting the total financial liability.

Instant Win Promotions

Consumers are given a chance to win a prize, and are notified immediately whether they have or haven't won.

SCA ran a major on-pack promotion on Bounty household towels brand Bounty and took advantage of the VCG Fixed Fee to protect its entire budget for the campaign – including a £5 million prize fund.

Every 'Clean Up with Bounty' pack contained a unique 8–digit code which generated an electronic 'scratchcard' when purchasers logged on to a dedicated website. They could 'clean up' by 'scrubbing' three of six 'dirty' squares on the card. If the three values matched, players instantly won the cash amount shown in each square.

Every card gave players a guaranteed chance of winning at least £10, with a one in twenty chance of claiming a £100,000 jackpot. Every player automatically received a downloadable '50p off next purchase' coupon.

Amnesty Promotions

Consumers receive a free sample of the product being promoted when they send in a wrapper from a rival brand.

Pepsico launched a cereal bar 'Amnesty' to promote its Quaker Oat Bar brand and took advantage of VCG's handling and fulfilment service as well as a VCG Fixed Fee to cover 100% of its financial liability.

In an increasingly crowded market for cereal bars, Quaker wanted to make a bold statement that its bar was the most natural because it contained "more oats, less sugar". Through full–page press ads in national newspapers and magazines, Quaker gave consumers an opportunity to taste the difference by offering a complimentary sample when they mailed in the wrapper from any other cereal bar brand.

VCG was responsible for mailing out the Quaker Oat Bar samples to consumers who took up the offer.

Guarantee Mechanic

Consumers are offered a full refund if they don't agree with a product quality statement made by the brand being promoted.

Premier Foods ran an on–pack Taste Guarantee promotion on Hovis bread when its Soft White loaf came under threat from new soft white bread variants from rival bakers.

Under the banner "Irresistibly soft or your dough back", the promotion was designed to support the claim that Hovis's Soft White loaf was the softest of them all. Consumers who didn't agree could claim a refund by mailing in a token

from a Hovis Soft White bag, along with a till receipt and a statement explaining in at least 15 words why they disagreed. The refund was paid in the form of a branded letter cheque for the full RRP, plus postage.

Hovis used a VCG Fixed Fee solution to guarantee that the total cost of the promotion would not exceed the agreed amount.

'Win £1 million' promotions

Vimto Soft Drinks gave consumers a chance to win a £1m prize in an on–pack text and win promotion and protected its total financial liability with a tailor–made Fixed Fee package from VCG.

Purchasers of promotional bottles of Vimto texted a unique code printed on the back of each label. Each label could be worth £10 and all entrants were automatically entered into a free draw to win one of ten places at a special 'Vimto Millionaire' event.

At the event, the ten contestants competed in an eliminator game for the chance to win the £1m prize. The eventual winner was asked to select one of 100 envelopes – with only one envelope containing the £1m prize. Unknown to the contestants, the other 99 envelopes each contained a cheque for £5000, so that they wouldn't be too disappointed if they didn't win the £1m, all covered by the VCG Fixed Fee.

Coupon Promotions

Consumers receive a promotional coupon that they can use as part or full payment, or to secure a discount, at the point of purchase.

To promote its Coke Zero brand, Coca–Cola delivered "40p off" coupons to consumers via a major door–drop campaign. The coupons could be redeemed against purchases of 2 litre bottles, 6 x 330ml multipacks and 10 X 330ml multipacks of Coke Zero.

Coca–Cola protected itself against over-redemption and malredemption by having its total financial liability including all retailer clearance costs underwritten by a VCG Fixed Fee.

With consumer participation in coupon promotions increasing dramatically, more than 30% of VCG's workload is now devoted to managing the growing risks associated with the redemption of promotional coupons.

'Free For Every Reader' Promotions

Consumers are invited to redeem a Free Product Coupon printed in their daily newspaper.

Cadbury teamed up with The Sun to offer its estimated 7.7 million readers a free bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and chose a Fixed Fee package from VCG to guarantee that the promotional costs (coupon face value plus retailer clearance costs) would not exceed the agreed fee ... no matter how many responses were generated.

The tie–in involved a flash on the front cover of The Sun, a full-page feature inside the newspaper, and a cut-out coupon which readers could redeem at any Cadbury's Dairy Milk stockist.

'Try Me Free' Promotions

Consumers are given the opportunity to try a product for free by obtaining their money back on a purchase.

To encourage trial of its lower fat Walkers Baked Crisps, the UK's leading crisp manufacturer ran an on–pack offer which gave consumers an opportunity to try the product for free by claiming back the 45p purchase price, plus their postage costs. Consumers simply had to mail to a PO Box provided by VCG with their empty pack as proof of purchase.

Faced with a tight budget, and a heavy weight campaign with significant financial liability for every 1% of redemptions, Walkers saw VCG's Fixed Fee solution as the only way of covering 100% of the substantial financial risk.