Sales soar while consumers 'score a break'

The brief stipulated that Nestlé's long-term brand strategy of "Have a break, have a Kit Kat" positioning, be maintained.

"Leveraging off this concept, JWT conceptualised an innovative through-the-line campaign allowing Kit Kat consumers to win and 'score a break'," explains Davina Wertheimer, Business Unit Director of JWT Johannesburg.

The challenge was to engage consumers, across students and urban women aged 18 to 44 years. "Due to the added value nature of the promotion, it was intended also to "speak" to non Kit Kat consumers, to encourage brand switching which would grow the ... consumer base and encourage brand loyalty thereafter," she adds.

And so launched the 'Score a Break' national promotion, which ran from July to October, where consumers stood to win a share of R1-million in instant airtime packages by purchasing promotionally marked products and entering by sms or online.

"The competition results are phenomenal - tens of thousands of unique cellphone entries were received, giving Nestlé the opportunity to continue building a learning and mutually beneficial relationship with its Kit Kat consumers," says Wertheimer.

"A magnificent redemption rate of 3.5% of unique codes were submitted, and 4-finger Kit Kat was sold out a month before the promotion ended," she adds.

The overall objective of increased sales was achieved by using USSD* mobile technology as the primary entry conduit to the competition. "This meant increased mobile handset usability and ease of entry, at lower cost, versus the typical SMS VAS (Value Added Services) rates. The addition of backend functionality allowed for loyalty-based points accumulation and instant feedback," she adds.

To qualify for the two grand prizes of R75,000 cash each, entrants had to accumulate at least 25 'break points' over the promotional period. One unique code was equivalent to five break points. Consumers therefore had to accumulate their points until they reached 25.

Other elements of the campaign included television, radio, point of sale and online. And the 'Wow' factor? "The results" Wertheimer concludes.

* USSD is the same platform one uses to redeem or purchase pre-paid airtime. The cost to the entrant is 20c/20sec as opposed to SMS, which can be anything from R1 upwards.