In the modern marketing landscape, data is a potent currency that fuels strategic decision making. Although brands aim to embrace data driven approaches, sometimes they fail to adequately capture and analyze the data that would be foundational to more personalized, impactful outreach. In fact, the ability to extract zero and first-party data is one of the most powerful by-products of sweepstakes and promotions, yet one that brands traditionally overlook. “Fortunately, there are ways to build your promotions that allow you to acquire and  analyze this critical data,” says Cubba. 

“With the right activation, you’re trading value to get value…the reward for information about their preferences, purchase patterns, household information or other data,” he points out. That’s particularly critical for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, given the path to purchase often involves the end consumer interacting with large retail channels and not directly with the CPG. “The prospect of a reward gives brands the ability to develop a direct relationship with consumers and to surface the data,” says Cubba. “And motivation is high to share accurate contact information so they can access the prize.” Promotions can yield coveted data that extends far beyond contact information. For example, when consumers snap a photo of their receipt, Snipp’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology scans it to find the specific UPC/SKU or product description.

Receipt data can unveil a host of other insights in addition to validating a purchase. By getting and analyzing basket-level data, brands can learn more about the shopper’s motivations and habits. Was the qualifying purchase part of a pantry stock-up or the result of a specific trip? Did the basket include competitors’ products? What other categories were purchased? What else can the aggregate sale tell a brand about the shopper’s household and preferences?

Snipp helps brands leverage this rich data by creating segments of their most avid fans as a way to identify lookalikes who share similar characteristics. Brands can then better engage them in fun ways using what Cubba terms a “bread crumbing” technique, such as sending short surveys or polls that inquire about other products they like or hobbies they have. “With these additional insights, you can build more robust data sets of consumer preferences that allow you to personalize further outreach, or you might discover another interest that aligns with one of your other brands,” he says. “Through data, our clients can unlock a number of options, whether it’s fresh ways to market to new and existing clientele or ideas on how to optimize the next sales promotion.”

The sheer variety of potential activations is vast – and each one will yield different results, depending on your target market, the effort involved, and the payoff. Snipp helps clients choose the activation that best meets their goals, ranging from a simple coupon, instant win, or rebate to social promotions, digital punch card programs, gifts with purchase, sweepstakes, and much more. One strategy to consider is offering a layered promotion, which combines types of programs for a better consumer value proposition. A campaign might pair a small, instant reward for scanning a receipt with an entry into a more substantial sweepstakes. “Rather than just entering once for a big prize and hoping they’re chosen, consumers love the concept of getting smaller rewards along the way,” Cubba explains.

Brands can achieve a similar result through “tiered rewards” or punchcard programs, where consumers buy more or make purchases over a period of time to win bigger prizes, thus driving sales by increasing frequency and basket size. Another hot trend is gamification, which uses gaming features to leverage the sense of challenge and competition as players seek rewards that also might accrue and increase over time.

For the most success, Cubba reminds brands to be mindful of the effort involved in the promotion, ensuring they have matched the value of the reward to the level of complexity or involvement of the task. “The easier it is to do something, the more motivated a consumer will be to participate. So you have to hit that sweet spot of choosing the right activation that doesn’t require more effort than the consumer will deem worthy of obtaining the reward.” And for brands looking to build customer engagement, a simple “register to enter” promotion, with no purchase required, can be a great option.

A key aspect of a successful promotion is choosing the reward that will resonate with your preferred audience segments, thus sufficiently eliciting the desired behavior. Cubba cites four modern reward trends:

In our connected society, consumers expect to contact your brand when and where they want, which means they’ll be accessing your contest, promotion or sweepstakes on diverse channels and devices. Therefore, brands should allow entry via a variety of means – social media, text, app or online, either at the brand website or a micro-site dedicated specifically to the promotion. “Everyone has their go-to method, and because it’s often constantly changing, you want to ensure no one is left behind,” Cubba says.

Omnichannel activations also help brands design an experience that’s more relational rather than merely transactional. Incorporating a social media component through user-generated content, where participants share their status and success, encourages engagement and boosts reach. Another dynamic tactic is introducing aspects of “friendly competition,” such as leaderboards or public badges that indicate levels of achievement.

Cubba acknowledges that it can be daunting to activate across multiple touchpoints, which is where Snipp can step in to streamline the process. “We help ensure the communication vehicles around earned, owned and paid are all coalescing for optimal awareness and participation.”

As busy marketers constantly race to manage their full plate, it’s almost inevitable that some crucial details could fall through the cracks. However, a successful activation depends on addressing minute elements throughout the process.

One critical hurdle that can ensnare marketers is the thicket of legal guidelines that surround any promotion. Tracking the minutiae can be a full-time job in itself, given the nuances of local, state and federal rules and laws. These vary by promotion type; for example, there are different legal ramifications if you run a contest versus a sweepstakes.

Brands also need to take advantage of top shopping windows – typically in the summer months, around back-to-school and during the holidays– yet simultaneously stand out from the noisy competition as other brands vie for attention. That’s where a focus on the entire ecosystem is vital – from choosing the right activation to solving a specific problem to ensuring the messaging is precise. In addition, brands must be transparent with customers around data security, including sharing the purpose of data collection and how it will be stored and used.

“Our clients rely on us to make promotions seamless – and successful,” says Cubba. “We help brands approach their problem holistically, with proven expertise on all facets: recommending the activation model and reward that will resonate with the appropriate demographics, ensuring we collect the valuable data that can help bolster future strategy, confirming that we’ve complied with all the legal constraints and other promotional best practices, and creating a post-promotion engagement strategy to capitalize on what’s been achieved to trigger the ‘virtuous circle’ of consumer engagement.”