After my last post…15 Minutes of Fame…! perhaps it was the benevolence of lady luck, I got twice lucky on 94.3 Radio One and won a neat 94.3 Radio One wrist watch and couple passes to Super Six party at The Zuri, Bangalore.
However once all the three goodies were timely received from 94.3 Radio One and consumed, I deemed it appropriate to share this experience with the readers of this post and comment upon my perceived value/satisfaction gained, from these prizes. So here we go:
1st Rank – Couple Passes to Movie of our choice
Date: 30th March 2012
Time: 3:50 PM
Radio Jockey: MJ Anjaan
A chance to have an on-air chat with the station jockey and be heard across the airwaves tipped the balances in its favor. Since passes to the multiplex were valid up to 2013, it gave flexibility to choose the date/time/movie. Third, since the prices of movie tickets vary based on the time of the day and day of the week, it entirely depends upon the winner to squeeze the maximum out of the multiplex passes.
2nd Rank – 94.3 Radio One Wrist Watch
Date: 13th April 2012
Time: 9:55 PM
Radio Jockey: MJ Pratik
The primary reason is the perceived value of the gratification relative to the movie tickets. Second, unlike the first instance, it did not present an opportunity for on-air interaction with the station jockey. But what earned it a place ahead of the Super Six Party passes is its tangibility (unlike the perishable nature of movie tickets). Whenever I will look at the watch, I’ll be reminded of my participation in this contest and the name of the station, which is printed on the watch, as a reminder 🙂
3rd Rank – Couple Passes to Super Six Party at The Zuri on 21st April 2012
Date: 19th April 2012
Time: 9:45 PM
Radio Jockey: MJ Pavithra
Well, what earned it a third rank was the distance of this place from our home. It was a drive of 27 Kms one way! The silver lining was seeing MJ Pijosh (94.3 Radio One Jockey) in person dishing out some great beats 🙂 and sampling a new place which otherwise wouldn’t have got a trial from us 😉
It is pertinent to understand that these ranks are in relation to one another. If I win a kilogram of gold in a contest on 94.3 Radio One, it will top all the three gratifications listed over here. Also, a person from a different demographic/psychographic profile (say a college goer) may rank the gratification differently. The factors I bore in mind for these rankings are VALUE, UTILITY and EXPERIENCE. Experience will have interplay with regards to the TANGIBLE/INTANGIBLE nature of the gratification. For example, in the case of couple entry passes for two events, where the value of the passes are the same, and they deliver the same utility that is a nice evening with your lady love or your knight in shining armor…the deciding variable will be the experience derived from each of the two events (say an Opera v/s Soccer Match). Bottom-line…gratification filters the TG. Number of youth participating in a contest for winning passes to a disco will be more compared to older people.
I am sure there are many of us in this forum, who would have used (as owners of business or being in the marketing function of their organizations), or would look forward to use some sort of gratification to achieve the underlying business objective of increasing footfalls or visits to the brand website, increased trials, consideration or awareness of their brands etc. I hope you find some value/insights in this post.
I was once associated with contests2win.com (C2W) as an employee. Being an employee of a contests portal, the terms and conditions did not allowed the employees of C2W or participating brands to enter the contest. Though nothing stops an employee from entering the contest and participate in it, rest assured, as an employee you won’t be considered in the draw for winners 🙂
After being a winner thrice on radio, it is now possible for me to figure out the joy we gave to all those winners on C2W and interesting gratifications they could brag about…from a brick of the Berlin wall to a Mercedes ride for a day (it is still a big deal for many…I won’t mind one!) to owning a share of a company…they were all classics! I still remember writing a mail to Alok on 5th Feb 2004 (Sub: trade2win.com + Loyalty) on my amazement of coming across someone’s Resume from IIM Ahmedabad with a proud mention (under the heading Extra Curricular Activities) of being a winner of trade2win.com contest!
C2W believed that everyone is a winner…and even if one did not win a contest, they received participation/loyalty credits which they could redeem upon reaching a certain quantum and during specified periods of the year. Unfortunately the same concept does not apply to today’s contests on TV/Radio except some scam examples of accumulating runs/points by sending an infinite stream of SMSes to a shortcode (priced at INR 3.00!)
Food for thought: Do you think that contests on say, radio will have increased participation from listeners if they get redeemable credits each time they participate?
Disclosure: Some portions of this post were initially published on my blog, himanshuagarwal[dot]com
Kamal Kalra
Truly amazing… I guess, all of us should share these lessons with our children.