Wellington’s 40-year birthday campaign

Wellington’s was turning 40, and the promotion had one job: get people to buy two Wellington’s products and prove it. They scanned a QR code or WhatsApp’d a photo of the till slip, and that put them in the draw for a share of R40,000 in vouchers. Brazen Labs built and ran it on Smartslip.ai. We kept the ask to three steps. Buy. Send the slip. Get an answer.

What people had to do

Buy two of the Wellington’s products named in the promotion. Then either scan the QR code or message the WhatsApp number, and send a photo of the till slip. If those two products were on the slip, and the slip was from the right dates, they were in. If the products were missing, or the slip had already been used, they were told. Nobody had to download an app.

What happened

• 36,283people took part.
• 45,636slips were sent. Some people entered more than once, which is why there are more slips than people.
• 41,106slips were valid. About 9 in 10.
• 32,221people said the brand can contact them again. They had actually bought.
• 128,000+WhatsApp messages went through the line.
• 16times, on average, someone opened the menu. They didn’t just send one photo and leave.
• 12,204valid slips came from Checkers, more than any other store.
• 23,366entries arrived in December, just over half of everything we received.

It started quietly. Then December arrived, the shops filled up, and the entries followed. The birthday push landed in the month people were already out buying.

Why most of the slips counted

A slip only became an entry after Smartslip.ai had read it. A second photo of a slip we’d already seen did not count. A slip without the two Wellington’s products did not count either. That’s how 41,106 out of 45,636 made it into the draw. The vouchers were tied to real purchases, not to whoever could photograph a receipt the most times. More on that check is in how duplicate till slips are stopped.

What Wellington’s walked away with

People entered on a phone they already had in their pocket. That’s why WhatsApp worked. December showed that the prize is only half the job. You also have to talk about it when people are in the shops.

The other thing worth keeping is the list. 32,221 people said the brand could contact them again, and they had bought. You also know which stores the slips came from, and which packs were on them. That’s a much better start for the next campaign than a list of people who only clicked an advert.

If you want to run one like this

• Let people enter where they already are. Here that was WhatsApp and a QR code.
• Ask for the till slip, check it, and tell them straight away if they’re in.
• Put your weight behind a store that already has the footfall. Checkers did that here.
• Spend the media when the shops are busy. For this campaign, that was December.

To plan one, email andrew@brazenlabs.co.za. If you want the simple version of how these campaigns work, read till slip campaigns explained. The short version of these numbers is in what the Wellington’s campaign achieved.