In times of crisis, brands tend to rely more heavily on national promotional campaigns, and it’s only natural: NCPs generate an immediate financial impact for the company, which mitigates the economic impact generated by the context. And yet, in the long run, they can act to the detriment of the business if the choice is a safe one: a conventional mechanic with conventional prizes does not build the brand, nor does it take it out of communication clutter.

So, what to do? Integrate your brand as authentically as possible into all components of an NCP: mechanics, awards, in-store and digital materials. We know it’s difficult to move away from the things you know work, but we still think it’s important to find creative ways to use the classic “Register Receipt” mechanic, because that’s the only way to access the potential to generate growth in campaign performance.

If you missed our CEO Ioana Mucenic‘s editorial series in Progressive on How we increase campaign performance with “Register Receipt”, we invite you to read on for a series of suggested ways you can differentiate yourself in the clutter of 2023’s NCPs, examples of how you can creatively use classic components of national promotional campaigns.

The receipt as a means of social engagement

One of our clients, Hill’s Romania, is proposing for the third year in a row in 2023 an interesting mechanism for the market: a percentage of the food purchased will be donated to animal shelters in the country. In addition, the range of selected products also has a discount for consumers.

Because the result is not conditional on proof of purchase, we have introduced a digital mechanic to make it easier for consumers to get closer to the brand: each selfie with the pet, posted with the tag on the Social Media page (Instagram and Facebook) translates at the end of the campaign into an extra bowl of donated food.

Receipt as access to experiences

The fuel retail industry takes a pragmatic approach when it comes to PCNs: they offer cars and fuel cards. For our client, SOCAR, we took it a step further in 2022 to build a closer relationship with the consumer public: we turned the classic NCP car into a compact van only good for a 7-day tour of the country.

Likewise, the Jacobs Douwe Egberts group’s L’OR café offered consumers a trip to the seaside with a minimum purchase receipt. The experience is adapted to the target, with the brand aiming at a super-premium audience, who seek splendour and quality.

Multiplied Receipt

Consumers always assess the value of prizes, whether you want them or not, especially in relation to the price of your products. To make the 2022 promotions more attractive, we created a series of campaigns that made this process much easier, a decision that was also emphasised by the public’s growing desire for personalisation. That’s why we offered them value vouchers for both large, medium and small prizes at retailers they already had an affinity with.

Conclusions

A national promotional campaign can be more than just a quick revenue-generating opportunity for the business: it can also be a brand-building communication effort through various components. For the rest of 2023, we highly recommend being bold and experimenting with ASCs as a way to break through the clutter of promotional campaigns that will overwhelm consumers.