Finding gold in supplier marketing

Brett Griffiths, Emily Pryor and Clive Cookson from Bic South Africa

The Find-A-Fortune Campaign was an interactive competition partnered by Yo-TV on SABC 3, encouraging consumers to guess where treasure was hidden. This was supported by an extensive advertising and retail campaign. Results of the campaign showed that:

• 110 000 SMS entries and 15 000 postal entries were received - a record for Bic and Yo-TV.
  
• Sales exceeded the 12% growth forecast for this period by 5.7%, reaching 17.7% by the end of the campaign.
  
• Research conducted by AC Nielson showed that Bic's market share had increased by 2% to 42% over this period.

Emily Pryor, product manager for Bic Stationery believes that the success of the Find-A-Fortune campaign is a result of "a deep understanding of who our target audience is; what they enjoy and keeping track of trends within their age grouping.

"We made winning easy and fun which ensured brand loyalty."

Adding to this, Rupesh Mallgee, MD of Zonke Ignition Advertising which developed the concept, says, "This proves that a well executed, integrated campaign can achieve brand loyalty."

"We had to ensure that all elements of this campaign complimented each other ie merchandising, trade marketing, ATL campaigns and finding the right media partner - nothing was left to chance."

Judges of the award included marketing experts Victor Dlamini, Dr Ivan May and Zandile Nzalo, Seton Vermaak and Noma Simamane.

Bic also won awards for Made in Africa and Sales Representative of the Year.