The sweepstakes I have entered since last December when I was browsing The Guardian's website has not taken me to anywhere at all. In fact, I still have to go through a lot of "place this sticker here or there to claim your reward and all that" steps.
It started with a small ad I saw on the top right corner of The Guardian website's main page. This ad says: "Enter this sweepstakes and take this luxury car" and it showed a flash of nice car, I think it was BMW. When I saw this ad, I thought, "Wow, enter a sweepstakes and get a car! I want it!!"
I clicked the ad then, and it brought me to a form, which I had to fill in to enter the sweepstakes and, in the same time, subscribe to an internationally recognised monthly magazine. This magazine is, let's called it "RD", the Australian version magazine. I checked the price for 1 year subscription, apparently it costs less than $60/year. So I thought I would give it ago, $60 for a year, I got the magazine sent to me every month, starting January to December 2006, and got a chance to win a car. Hey, who knows if I am lucky!
Fast forward to mid January, I started to receive my magazine, and not only that, but also some other "offers" including computer softwares and books. At first, it was only "normal" offer (in the sense I was sent a catalogue). A couple weeks later, I started to receive some "certificates" asking me to affix stickers to some boxes in order to enter the sweepstakes and I got only 7 days to reply. So I must act quickly. Now, this is the interesting part, some other stickers were actually related to another offer to buy something which accompanied the sweepstakes sticker. If I affix this sticker into its place, it means I say "Yes, I want to accept this offer to buy this book, or CD or cassette or whatever". I found out this trick, so I didn't accept their offer but I did send the certificate with incomplete stickers to enter the sweepstakes.
I got another envelope this month, asking me to put other stickers onto the "certificates of guaranteed payment by the sweepstakes organiser if I am selected as the winner". Apart from this instruction, they also offer a book (it costs less than $60). At first I didn't want to accept this book offer, but if I reply with "NO" envelope, it means I am not eligible to enter the sweepstakes to get the luxury car (I can still enter the sweepstakes to get some cash). So, if I still want to get that car (which is worth $90,000), I will have to reply with a "YES" envelope, which means I have to spend another $60 only for being eligible to enter the sweepstakes (and I get a book as well). I can imagine this book offer is not the last one, which means it will cost more and more in a few months time. The trick of modern direct marketing got me this time.
It started with a small ad I saw on the top right corner of The Guardian website's main page. This ad says: "Enter this sweepstakes and take this luxury car" and it showed a flash of nice car, I think it was BMW. When I saw this ad, I thought, "Wow, enter a sweepstakes and get a car! I want it!!"
I clicked the ad then, and it brought me to a form, which I had to fill in to enter the sweepstakes and, in the same time, subscribe to an internationally recognised monthly magazine. This magazine is, let's called it "RD", the Australian version magazine. I checked the price for 1 year subscription, apparently it costs less than $60/year. So I thought I would give it ago, $60 for a year, I got the magazine sent to me every month, starting January to December 2006, and got a chance to win a car. Hey, who knows if I am lucky!
Fast forward to mid January, I started to receive my magazine, and not only that, but also some other "offers" including computer softwares and books. At first, it was only "normal" offer (in the sense I was sent a catalogue). A couple weeks later, I started to receive some "certificates" asking me to affix stickers to some boxes in order to enter the sweepstakes and I got only 7 days to reply. So I must act quickly. Now, this is the interesting part, some other stickers were actually related to another offer to buy something which accompanied the sweepstakes sticker. If I affix this sticker into its place, it means I say "Yes, I want to accept this offer to buy this book, or CD or cassette or whatever". I found out this trick, so I didn't accept their offer but I did send the certificate with incomplete stickers to enter the sweepstakes.
I got another envelope this month, asking me to put other stickers onto the "certificates of guaranteed payment by the sweepstakes organiser if I am selected as the winner". Apart from this instruction, they also offer a book (it costs less than $60). At first I didn't want to accept this book offer, but if I reply with "NO" envelope, it means I am not eligible to enter the sweepstakes to get the luxury car (I can still enter the sweepstakes to get some cash). So, if I still want to get that car (which is worth $90,000), I will have to reply with a "YES" envelope, which means I have to spend another $60 only for being eligible to enter the sweepstakes (and I get a book as well). I can imagine this book offer is not the last one, which means it will cost more and more in a few months time. The trick of modern direct marketing got me this time.
2 comments:
aku juga punya beberapa pengalaman dan uneg-uneg dengan marketing di singapore. pingin kutulis sih, tapi belum kelar. pokoknya kesimpulannya cara jualan jaman sekarang tuh makin pinter aja, tapi asli makin nyebelin.....
Ember, betul banget, makin pinter emang. Itu di amplop terakhir mereka pake kata-kata yang enggak "umum" lagi. Contohnya: "if you send for Tom Jones CD..etc", itu maksudnya "if you buy Tom Jones CD...".
Aku sampe mesti mikir dan baca berkali-kali ini maksudnya apa gitu :))
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