So where are the promo Winners?

So where are the promo Winners?

By Felix Olu Adewumi

Introduction

Every year I watch as several corporate organisations compete among themselves with the sole aim of gaining more customers to their sides.

To achieve this purpose, it is common to see the corporation organisations engage in promotions and award just to lure customers to their products.

This practice, though initially adopted in the western world has gained widespread adoption in Africa with Nigeria taking the lead.

This eye-opener in promo is getting more rapid that it is not uncommon now to see an organisation having more

than two promotions in a year.

Promotions of yesteryears

In those years, the market was not so competitive hence there was not much need for promo as being done in recent time. However, companies like Lever Brothers (now Unilevers), UAC and some beverages company still felt the need to woo more customers to their fold, though not with much dexterity as being done today.

Common promos in the early 80’s were the beverages and lager beer promo. Then, some the company engage in “Look inside the crown” promo where consumers are expected to look under the cork of some drinks and find a set of things ranging from animals, musical instruments and alphabet.

I could remember the famous look under the crown promo done by seven-up (7up) in the late 80s where we are expected to find a complete set of animals in other to claim our prize (one thousand naira). After a long search, we met with brick-wall when we can not find the last of the animal (eagle).

Determined and not giving up, my mum bought four (4) crates of 7up and we declared an impromptu party where people came in and drank awoof drink. However, after checking all ninety-eight (98) bottle crown, we still could not find the missing animal. We were later made to realised that there was only three (3) eagle printed in 3 bottle covers throughout the whole Nigeria. What a promo!

A promo also came to my mind during that same period when the Lever brothers started the Omo buy and win promo, in the promo, consumers are expected to buy a packet of Omo (Omo was still being sold in a thick paper) and look inside the packet for a coupon which stated the prize.

I stayed in a staff quarters where all the lecturers’ wives (over 20 of them including my mother) used Omo to wash their cloths, yet during the 3-month period of the promo (which led to intense and frequent buying of the Omo products) none of the wives saw any winning prize in the packet. The closest one came to winning anything was a Bic Biro in one of the packet.

Bank promos

Before the Soludo’s consolidation exercise and the Sanusi’s restructuring exercise, various Nigeria banks see it necessary to woo more customers and thus started the save and win promos. The purpose of this promo is to encourage customers to save more and withdraw less.

A common feature in the promo is the catch Increase your savings deposit by N10,000 monthly from June 20… to March 20… to win N50,0000, three consecutive incremental deposit of N10,000 qualifies you for a quarterly draw where you can win a brand new Kia Picanto car, while a N50,000 increment qualify you for a draw where N10 million.

This is very common in most banks, and prominent with Intercontinental bank, First Bank, UBA, Wema bank and Oceanic bank.

Only in 2009, Intercontinental bank did the promo twice (one for their anniversary and the other called happy savers promo, first Bank also ran the promo almost through the year and over 200 people were said to receive gifts ranging from N200,000 to Kia Picanto cars.

Telecommunication Promos

Perhaps this is one of the areas where the promo has been bastardised. With the triumvirate of MTN, GLO mobile and ZAIN (or can we call it Bharti Airtel already) the competition become thick daily as each battle to outdo the other and as such create promos at will.

There is no doubt that the three telecommunication network shared a customer base of more than 100 million subscribers but the need to keep those subscribers urge the telecommunication companies on.

With the threat now being posed by the new born babe among them (Etisalat), trying to break their dominance in the market, the telecommunication network are desperate to keep their hold on their customers.

Now and then, they all experimented with different plans and platform where their subscribers can enjoy their services the more.

Glo started the free night call experiment in 2004 with MTN and Zain following suit and this had brought in more youths to the network as they chat away all through the night.

With the need to outdo others, Glo also tried to experiment the free daily call where all they will need to deduct daily is N50 from the subscriber and the subscriber call freely all through the day.

This experiment only lasted for one week as Glo could not continue with it and have to revert back to its original plan.

Presently, Zain has experimented with the Joli plan and now the valueMax where subscribers have the avenue to call freely. All this are one of the strategy to woo more subscribers and keep existing ones.

MTN started with MTN Classic before trying out the Xtra plans where they have the Xtra Cool, Connect, Pro, and others and only recently switch to the Link Plan with the happy link, Funlink, Prolink and others.

Etisalat, not wanting to be outdone also from time to time bring in some promos with their plans, starting with the “Call for one minute and get one free minute” promo to the “Call all through the week and get 50 % of your credit back for use during the weekend”

Only recently, Etisalat tried out another version of the “family and friend” with the “U and Me” where subscribers get 300 naira credit weekly to call their “U and Me” numbers.

However, not satisfied with those platforms, these telecommunication networks have at one time or the other gone the extra mile to woo customers with some mouth watering promos.

2009 was the thick of all promos in the telecommunication companies as each tried out exaggerated and high profile promos.

For example, Glo started with the “Text and win” promo where subscribers are said to win N1 million daily for a period of 4 months and a grand winner winning N30 million (Waoh……. Can you imagine Glo dashing out N153 million just like that to 121 subscribers?)

After trying out the “Treasure Hunt ” Promo, MTN also adopted the “text and Win Promo” to mark the World Cup and allegedly gave out various Millions to subscribers (Mmmmmm….. Rolling up my eye)

The biggest Joker came from Etisalat where over 10 people were said to win N1 million daily in their Etisalat game show (being viewed in various Television stations all over Nigeria) and a 17 year old boy (oh no! not again) said to have won 30 million dollar.

Car Winners

Apart from the N1 million being said to be won daily in Nigeria by you and I, one enticing promo is that of the car promo. By my last count, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank, First Bank, Diamond Bank and even the relatively unknown Spring Bank and Union Bank have between them given out over 300 promo cars within just one year, while the telecommunication companies also give out about 100 cars each every year.

For instance, Glo started a promo called “Bid as low as 11 naira” last year where they reportedly gave out over 60 cars (the promo ran for 2 months and a winner is expected to be chosen every day throughout the duration), right now, Glo is also involve in the “Recharge and win” promo where one person is expected to win a car daily for the duration of three months (90 cars again).

MTN is also not left out as they at one time or the other include the Car promo into their promos and gave out cars to people while Zain and Etisalat also join in the car promo.

Just last year, Nigeria Sport Lottery (Now SET Nigeria) invited me to witness the presentation of cars to 10 lucky winners as well as DSTV decoders and I was also present at the presentation of Car to UBA savings winner last year.

So where are the Promo Winners

A question quickly comes to mind, with all this cars being given out to people daily (mostly in Lagos), how come we still have thousand of people struggling for Molue, Danfos or queuing up at BRT terminals in Lagos?, How come we don’t have the street of Lagos adorned with vehicles said to be won by all these people? (I understand most of the vehicle won carries the logos of the company and ought to remain like that for a year).

How come that out of the over 500 car winners we have highlighted and over 500 supposed millionaires we hear of, ME, MY FRIENDS, MY FAMILY, MY RELATIVE, MY NEIGHBOURS and MY COLLEAGUES never know any of them?.

I can say this confidently that I live in Ikorodu and work in Ikoyi and in the course of my movements to and fro those places, I have never set my eye on any of the over 100 won promo cars saved for the Sisi Oge, Project Fame winner, and one Insurance car promo winner that I usually come across

This and many questions keep begging for answer any time another car or millionaire promo is being announced. I hope one day we will all know where the cars and millions are going and we will all get to know the truth, for now, lets keep the promo going.