SMS raffle promo comes of age

The days of raffle promos using the drop box system are over and a new dimension has evolved – the Short Messaging Service (SMS) or text raffle promo.

This has become evident with the emergence of SMS raffle promos, the most popular of which was the recently concluded text promo program of CDO Foodsphere Inc. for its Karne Norte product.

Alleluia Martinez, marketing director of Buy and Text (BNT), said that prior to CDO, her company has done several promos for Procter & Gamble (P&G), bus companies and food manufacturers, but not on a nationwide scale as Karne Nortext.

"So popular was the CDO Karne Nortext program that even retailers are now asking us if we could do their programs," Martinez said.

She considers as their competitors other content providers such as Chika.com and Information Gateway, which also provide similar services but on a limited scale.

Martinez attributed the growing popularity of text raffle promos to its cost-effectiveness, higher visibility, instant feedback mechanism and an available database useful to both clients and content providers now and in the future.

Also, with 22 million Filipino cellphone owners and subscribers, sellers or promoters of products are able to reach out to a wider consumer base and get instant feedback and profiling of their patrons, Martinez said.

The bulk of the cost of the traditional drop box raffle promo, which P&G popularized in the past (ironically, it was P&G which first introduced the SMS raffle promo), is in the handling and supervision of drop boxes (not to mention the physical cost of the boxes), which amounts to P250 per outlet daily.

Assuming that 200 outlets were used in the CDO promo, the cost would be really staggering, said CDO Foodsphere vice president for marketing Ed Reataza. There is also the problem of fake entries in the drop box system.

The cost of the text raffle system is fixed in a contract covering the various aspects of the program, Reateza added.

Another benefit of text promos is that consumers are spared of the tediousness of filling out entry forms and going to places where the drop boxes are located, not to mention the expense for envelopes.

With the SMS raffle, a consumer only pays P2.50 per entry (if he/she registers properly) and gets an immediate response from BNT or other content providers. The registrant then gets updates on the raffle promo period and whether he/she wins in the daily, weekly, monthly or grand draws, Reataza said.

But what CDO president Jerome Ong considers most beneficial about SMS promos is that "my company is able to immediately thank our customers for their patronage of our products, which we cannot do through the drop box or other kinds of promos."

Even BNT’s Martinez said the Karne Nortext experience popularized her company’s services without much advertising. "Now, so many people instantly recall our Karne Nortext project and we don’t have much explaining to do," she said.

And because of the popularity and wide reach of Karne Nortext, both CDO and BNT are now reaping the windfall from the exercise. "It worked both ways for us. CDO, though always a popular brand company, has become more popular with its Karne Norte line, and BNT became very popular for its handling of the CDO Karne Nortext program," Martinez said.

Indeed, the days of SMS raffle promos have come because now even bus firms like EDSAN and Philtranco, cosmetics and food companies and retailers are now joining the long list of BNT customers.

The text promos are not just for raffles but also for product, incentives and discount and brand promos, Martinez said.