Connecting with consumers via competitions

South Africans are becoming increasingly bombarded by new TV advertising – Millward Brown South Africa's Adtrack study shows that the number of new ads consumers are exposed to has almost trebled in the last 20 years (from 500 ads in 1984 to over 2300 ads in 2006), but TV advertising is only one small piece of the pie as media continues to fragment and a myriad marketing avenues emerge year on year.

There is no doubt that it is becoming increasingly difficult for ads to break through the proverbial advertising clutter. This is further supported by the Adtrack findings, where the average noting levels for a brand has also considerably lowered since the '80s (from 20% to around 12% in LSM A and levels of around 23% to 17% in LSM B).

Hence advertisers and marketers are having to fight harder (and smarter) to get consumers to think about and use their products and services. In finding ways to maximise this relationship, more emphasis is based on brand activations rather than pure brand building advertising; one way to do this is to actively engage consumers through competition entries.

How relevant

So the question begs to be asked, how relevant are competitions to the general South African public. Do consumers notice them? Enter them? And if not, why not? As our TV screens are becoming more and more peppered with competition indents – usually sporting a cellphone number for SMS entries – our interest in understanding a little more about this medium grew.

If ones objective is for the brand to resonate with consumers, the positive side is that competitions are a good method to do so. Just over half of LSM A consumers (54%) claim to have seen or heard of competitions lately, with a staggering 61% recall in LSM B.

Furthermore, media used to advertise competitions follow traditional media recall levels: TV remains the dominant medium where consumers recall seeing or hearing about competitions (80% recall in LSM A and 82% recall in LSM B) and radio and magazines have a support role to play, with 22% and 11% recall in LSM A, respectably.

Interestingly, in store as a channel plays a significantly bigger role in LSM B (radio = 35%, Magazines = 20%, in store = 18%) compared to in store in LSM A (2%). It is also interesting to note that competitions via mobile marketing are still in their infancy in both markets (5%).

Lulled

However, while creating awareness around a competition is one thing, creating greater brand affinity with one's brand via a competition is another and this is where many marketers are lulled into a false sense of security.

It would appear that marketers and advertisers are more reliant than ever on SMS as a medium of entry as recall is dominated by SMSing answers/barcodes/names into a number (83% in LSM A and 78% in LSM B).

So if, LSM B consumers notice competitions, why do only around a third claim to have entered them (opposed to claimed entry of 41% in LSM A)? This is due to the high costs associated with SMSing, as well as a lack of airtime.

Thus to actively engage LSM B consumers would mean offering other sources of entry (along with the more common SMS avenue). There is more recall for alternative methods of entry in LSM B including in store (23% vs. 4% in LSM A) and postal (14% vs. 2% in LSM A); however, very few competitions nowadays offer these as alternative avenues.

Another avenue

Alternatively, if paper entry seems completely old fashioned and a tedious admin task, another avenue that marketers could explore would be to set up a toll free or paid line, where consumers can call in without footing the bill.

In trying to connect with LSM A respondents, lack of relevance (20%) and lack of time (13%) appear to be the biggest barriers for entering into competitions.

Perhaps some thought should be given when aiming competitions at more affluent consumers. Marketers should ask themselves if the prizes are enticing enough to involve LSM A consumers and whether the entry methods are as painless and time efficient as possible? Perhaps SMSing a one word answer rather than a whole bar code would be more inviting.

While competitions have their role to play in the grand brand plan, they should be used with caution. In this ever-changing and competitive landscape, marketers can no longer use competitions as a cheap, attractive lure. It would seem that greater thought needs to be given to the relevance of the competition and the entry method to ensure the continued future success of such marketing endeavours.