Spotlight: Package Prize Mechanics

Cash Leaps from Beverage Cans, Boxes Shout, Caps Flash To Thrill Lucky Prize-Winning Consumers

Many unsuspecting consumers have been pleasantly surprised to find that the can in their hand does not have their favorite beverage inside. Instead, it delivers real cash!

In the past decade, more and more manufacturers are adding an extra entertaining and value-added element to their promotional campaigns where cash is still king.

Through low-cost, inventive devices, sweepstakes winners are notified with cash, talking and singing packages, or flashing and singing cap closures. And many of these devices do not interfere with the dry, moist, or even liquid products inside the package.

Since 1992, the market-proven and patented Talking Sweepstakes packages have been capturing customers' attention and creating double-digit promotional sales increases. Like many of these "prize mechanics," Talking Sweepstakes devices are light activated by using an electronic photo sensor that, in this case, starts a digitally recorded 32-second audio and musical message.

Jim Howes, president of Riverside Technologies International (RTI), retains patents for prize mechanic devices, which helps secure his business position. Howes finds it amusing how many companies in the U.S. are unwilling to try these new ideas, even after many documented double-digit sales increases.

The European manufacturers and marketers tend to go for these novelty promotions more readily than U.S. manufacturers. "European companies have the foresight to take something that's got some sizzle to it, and move forward with it without hesitation," says Howes.

These promotions have often been successful in vending machine promotions, where they started with ideas such as "T-Shirt in a Can." Now that more devices can be "seeded" inside cans that are indistinguishable from non-winners, there's more opportunity for single can sale and multi-pack level as well. A recent Riverside Care-Free "Talking Gum Pack" promotion had Talking Packs randomly seeded into the mix for single serve distribution on retailers shelves.

The Cash-in-a-Can device is no technological marvel, but it efficiently achieves its goal. Through a spring-loaded device, cash springs out of a can that is totally indistinguishable from non-winning cans. In a case like this, where real product must be replaced precise filling guarantees the same exact overall product weight and the same exact can "properties," such as sloshing sounds and can carbonation pressure.

Howes developed Cash-N-Can specifically for The Coca-Cola Company in 1990 and now it is executed by Coke successfully in other areas of the world. Riverside maintains a long-standing relationship with Coca-Cola, which owns licensing rights to several of Riverside's patented products. Talking products of all kinds soon followed, then flashing cans and bottle caps, and today Howes is pushing the envelope again. He is currently working on a patent pending Phone-in-a-Can, which would dial a number to a pre-recorded message, then offer the option of connecting to a real person for a two-way conversation with the winning consumer.

Howes has to stay one step ahead of the competition, which is continuing to innovate. This summer, Coca-Cola used Howes' licensed ideas in Europe and the U.S. to produce cans equipped with a GPS chip, antenna, and a cell-phone-like device on the outside. The winner used the can to call a Coke operator, and Coke located the winners by GPS. Learn more about prize mechanics from the leader in the field online at www.riverside-technologies.com.