A global prize promotion is a prize promotion that runs not just in a single country, but simultaneously in a number of countries. Despite the name, it doesn’t have to run in every country of the world, but the term tends to be used to describe a promotion that runs at the same time, with the same basic structure, in several countries and spans more than one continent, although there is no official legal definition.
What are the benefits of a global prize promotion?
The benefits of a global prize promotion are essentially the same as those of any prize promotion. It can support your brand and build awareness of it; enable you to engage with customers and create new relationships with them; or allow you to develop existing relationships and reward customer loyalty.
I say the benefits are the same as those of any prize promotion, but of course with a well-planned and effective global prize promotion the benefits are multiplied many times, because a global prize promotion delivers a global reach. For example, if your aim is to produce user-generated content, the pool of potential contributors is much larger.
You may also find that by amalgamating marketing budgets from different territories you’re able to offer a far greater total number of prizes than each region is able to offer on its own. The prize structure in a global prize promotion is often tiered, with winners from each country going forward to compete for an overall global prize or combined budgets may mean you’re in a position to offer one extraordinary global prize.
There are also economies of scale when compared to running separate promotions in a range of markets. You only need one concept and one set of collateral, and even if you have separate judging panels in each country, administration for the judging process and the verification of entries can be centralised and consolidated.
What are the pitfalls of running a global prize promotion?
It’s not that there are pitfalls as such, but there are issues which you need to be aware of. The first, in terms of costs, is likely to be translation. Even if English is the language your company uses for business, you must run the promotion in each country’s local language. If you have specialist staff in the relevant locations, you may be able to take advantage of internal translation facilities, but if not you will need to allocate budget to this area.
Another cost will be best practice advice. In a single-country prize promotion it is advisable to employ a specialist to ensure your promotion adheres to all the relevant regulations – and I’ve written about compliance generally before – but for a global prize promotion it is absolutely essential. That’s because different countries have different regulations governing how prize promotions must be run.
If you think about it, even though the Republic of Ireland has the English language in common with the UK, it has its own version of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the body which regulates prize promotions in the UK, called the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, and it has different rules on prize promotions. For example, generally speaking you need a license to run a prize draw or lottery in Ireland, but there are exemptions, one of which is that if the promotion is related to a circus, it can be run on certain days.
Although part of the UK, even Northern Ireland has slightly different rules for prize promotions. Whereas in England, Scotland and Wales, promoters are not required to offer a ‘no purchase necessary’ entry route, but in Northern Ireland they do. For example, this means that if you’re running an on-pack promotion and customers need to purchase your product to enter the promotion, you need to set up a way for customers in Northern Ireland to enter without buying the product. Alternatively, you could exclude customers in Northern Ireland, but this may introduce additional problems, depending how your supply chain operates.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
Different regulations in different countries
Whenever I’m talking about global prize promotions, I always use the example of Italy, because it can be particularly challenging, although by no means impossible, to adhere to its prize promotions regulations, but as a case study it neatly illustrates some of the issues.
If you want to run a prize promotion in Italy, you have to register it with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and it is illegal to include Italy in a multi-territory promotion, so you must run a standalone promotion with its own prize pool. Your Italian promotion can be very similar to the promotion you’re running in France or Germany, but the Italian authorities are keen to ensure that any winner comes from Italy.
Terms and conditions must also be in Italian. To make your prize promotion accessible and maximise entries you would almost certainly want to translate terms and conditions into the local language, but in Italy you’re legally obliged to. You’re also legally obliged to keep entrants’ data in Italy and it can’t be transferred to another country, even within the European Union. However, although initially that might seem an insurmountable problem, there are in fact legitimate ways to achieve this.
Should you want to give away a cash prize in Italy, you can’t, because it’s illegal, although there is one notable exception in that it is permissible to give away gold in any form. This certainly seems like a bizarre rule – presumably there are historical reasons for it – but there’s no question that a global prize promotion must adhere to it.
Global prize promotions success
A global prize promotion is a very effective way to signal the status of your business; to make the point that you are a confident, truly international brand. A good example of this is Absolut Vodka. In 2018 it launched its Absolut Creative Competition in 19 countries, from India and China to South Africa via the United Arab Emirates.
Entrants had to create a piece of art featuring the famous Absolut bottle silhouette. There were individual national winners and one overall winner, announced in May 2019, won a €20,000 prize (the terms and conditions allowed for an equivalent value in gold to be won in jurisdictions where cash prizes were not permitted). The overall winner also had their work displayed on an iconic global outdoor site.
Obviously, this was great for the winning entrants, but Absolut’s global prize promotion also generated positive PR around the world and produced authentic, high-quality content for Absolut. Not all brands are as bold as Absolut, but its Creative Competition shows that global prize promotions really can pay off.
By Sarah Burns, Managing Director, Prizeology
