I’m often asked this question from friends and family when talking about Mando and the exciting promotions we help our clients to run. This conversation usually conjures up images of Chandler Bing trying to describe his profession in Friends, and in some ways, the driving force behind it is not too dissimilar – data.
We use data at Mando to predict the future, by researching the past. This data comes in the form of our in-house promotional Insights Engine, which we have been building for over 3 decades, collecting data points from thousands of Sales Promotions. It is with this data that we work to create our product, the “Fixed Fee”.
In simple terms, a Fixed Fee is the process of putting a cost forecast to your Sales Promotion idea.
It could be an on-pack money back offer, a chance to win a prize from a tiered pyramid of rewards, or a coupon in consumers’ hands to be exchanged against a product. Elements that make or break whether these ideas ever see the light of day, is being confident in how they will perform (and cost), at the concept stage.
Whilst a well-performing promotion is great for consumer engagement and sales, if the cost of that engagement is spiralling beyond expected levels, this adds a layer of complexity managing budgets. In extreme cases where a brand is unable to fulfil all claims, this can severely impact brand reputation.
Using Mandos data, we can forecast the response rate of the idea and ultimately calculate the cost of consumer redemption upfront. The risk of the idea can then be transferred to us, meaning you pay a set amount upfront to transfer the financial risk of the promotion to Mando.
Adopting a Fixed Fee solution in this way has various benefits:
- The full cost of the campaign is known upfront, with no nasty surprises
The Fixed Fee is payable upfront and is used to pay for all consumer redemptions, by Mando, on your behalf throughout the promotion. - The risk of over redemption is completely removed from your books
If consumer redemption costs have exceeded expectations/the Fixed Fee, Mando will continue to pay for redemptions, beyond the amount of the Fixed Fee, from our own bank account. Your costs are capped to the Fixed Fee so no further money is transferred to Mando once a promotion has gone live. - Mando is part of WPP PLC, one of the largest international advertising & marketing services groups in the world
Being such a longstanding member of the WPP family (Mando was the 3rd business acquired by WPP, in 1986) means that we have built a stable and reliable reputation to help manage sales promotions, of any financial size, with a very deep financial backing should we ever need it. - Advice and suggestions to increase or reduce the engagement to meet budget levels
Often, a promotion idea may be out of sync with the budget. In these instances, Mando can work backwards from the available budget, to mould a promotion based on the available funds.
So, we know WHAT a Fixed Fee is and its benefits, but how do calculate it in the first place?
Being one of the earliest companies WPP acquired, our Insights Engine is full of campaigns from the UK, Europe and across the globe. Below is a top-level snapshot of the promotion mechanic mix, which most ideas fall into. You can clearly see a fairly even split of each campaign type, showing a good mix of data and promotional ideas for us to compare against.
The Insight Engine enables us to compare your campaign idea to similarly structured campaigns within the database, to help build a picture of how it may perform and cost. These are a snapshot of 6 of the key variables we use:
- Mechanic
What type of promotion is it? Is the consumer receiving their Money Back, is it a Win offer, a claimable Gift or a coupon? Each of these mechanics will behave differently. - Reward
What exactly is being offered and how desirable is it? - Entry route
It’s all well and good offering an attractive prize, but the ease of entry can make or break the idea. If it’s too complicated, consumers won’t bother. - Communication location
Clear communication is paramount and the promotion performance will change depending on how it’s communicated (in-store POS, on-pack sticker, packaging redesign etc). - Media spend
Spend thresholds and where the spend is allocated within the promotion support communication. - Entry limits
What’s the consumer limitation, can they claim more than once? How open-ended is the entry process?
As you can see, there can be a lot to think about as each of these elements (and more!) can have an effect on how well your campaign goes down with your consumers, and ultimately cost.
Mando can help at any stage of your conceptual process, but for maximum results, involving Mando at an early stage enables us to assist in building a powerful, attention-grabbing promotion idea which also meets budget expectations.
We will always provide an initial cost steer for our first quotation and work with you to tweak and refine the details until everyone is happy, including your consumers.
To have a chat with one of the team about your next promotion, give us a call or email a brief outline of what you’re looking to do to [email protected]
