When planning a promotion the agency and the brand want to make it bigger than a simple sweeps, especially today, when you have a digital element integrated into the campaign and if you’re really good, you tie that to an event or brand experience.
But sometimes things do not go as planned. Take P&G’s biggest-ever sweepstakes in Brazil, called “P&G Faustão’s Airplane,”, for instance. After local promotions company NewStyle, based in Sao Paulo, with the support of a local partner in Rio called Moda Promoções e Eventos left two unmarked crates in in public squares in the upscale Ipanema beach area of Rio de Janeiro, the freightened local citizens called in the bomb squad.
Although the stunt with the crates proved disastrous, P&G is continuing with the Faustao’s Airplane sweepstakes, which will cost the company about $1.1 million including prizes and the sponsorship and drawings on Fausto Silva’s TV show. A new winner is drawn every two weeks from mid-October through late December.
[via Ad Age]