Get promoted: Four marketing promotions your brand can’t afford to ignore

Awards season never seems to end these days, but one programme you can always count on for high-quality entries is the IPM Awards.

Representatives from Granby attended this year’s judging session – and we were impressed with the range and success of below-the-line promotions described in the entries.

This got us thinking about the types of promotional marketing campaigns we’ve enjoyed being involved with over nearly 40 years. Each of the promotions outlined below can be a powerful contributor to campaign success that will see revenues swell.

With the Sugar Tax set to soak up some brands’ profits, and the effects of GDPR on customer databases, as yet, undetermined, it’s the ideal time to take a closer look at promotions. They are also a key way to drive customer loyalty at a time when trust in the brand-customer relationship has been eroded, and most of the power to buy or bin brands lies in the hands of consumers.

A below-the-line strategy remains key even in the digital age, and at a time when many brands still opt for an advertising-led approach. Here are some of the top tactics to employ:

On-pack + digital – there were surprisingly few IPM Awards entries based around a traditional on-pack or cashback mechanic, but this is something that can work very well for brands. The advent of digital promotions brings new ways to harness technology and make on-pack promotions more enticing for consumers. Driving consumers to digital media can further engage them with deeper, rich campaign content across lots of channels, like this example from Cadbury. Partnerships can also work well here, such as this one that sees Soreen and Lapierre teaming up.

Social conscience – charitable promotions for the socially conscious shopper, which can really build an emotional connection. A famous example of this is the Budweiser campaign around Super Bowl 2017, which focused on telling the stories of immigrants. As a result, engagement for the beer brand skyrocketed compared to its competitors. Another beer brand that has hit the headlines for its charity work is Stella Artois. Its “Buy A Lady A Drink” initiative highlighted its work with WaterAid – providing six months of clean water for a resident of the developing world in return for every multipack of beer sold, and one month for every bottle sold in pubs. The promotion has featured heavily on social media, not just TV.

Experiential – this is becoming a more valuable part of the marketer’s toolkit. It builds trust and helps build the four critical brand attributes: awareness, interest, desire and action. Check out this brilliant example of an experiential promotion from takeaway delivery brand, Deliver.

Loyalty-based – promotions can adopt much of the same strategy as that which lies behind loyalty programmes. A major study into loyalty by Mando-Connect and YouGov advised promotions need to factor in different desires across demographics. For example, over-55 respondents are more likely to enjoy vouchers, while millennial participants prefer instant rewards. Partner rewards are also big at the moment – consider the success of McDonald’s Monopoly – and should be seen as an option for driving engagement.

Mix it up!

The beauty of all these types of promotions is that different tactics can often be combined to great effect. Take this example from Lush, which fuses experiential with social conscience.

We also recently managed a fusion campaign with our client Wall’s Pastry (and their creative agency Clarion Communications), which perfectly combined social conscience with digital receipt validation technology. The Wall’s Collectors’ Club rewarded pastry lovers with points for every redeemed purchase. Consumers could donate their points to their community group of choice (already pre-registered), awarding each of the top five groups £1,000. Shoppers were further incentivised with the chance to win £500 themselves in a prize draw.

We’re a partner at this year’s IPM Awards in July, so we hope to see you there. And if you’re not successful this year, maybe try out one of the above promotions during the next 12 months.

If you’re looking for help with running your next promotional campaign, get in touch and see why Granby are the experts.