Eidos Uses Digital Promotions and the
Internet To Drive Sales Post-Promotion

Like many packaged foods companies, Carl Buddig and Company, a leading producer of deli meats and sausages, was looking for a compelling in-pack promotion that would add value and boost sales. The company also wanted to drive traffic to its corporate website.

Buddig chose a solution with a digital music promotion delivered in millions of Buddig and Old Wisconsin packages. The promotion drove a double-digit increase in sales, significantly increased web traffic, and enabled the deli meat producer to more personally connect with consumers.

When it comes to launching an effective in-package promotion, the trends are becoming clear: 1) Online promotions have taken center stage; and 2) Digital entertainment has emerged as one of the most compelling new incentive tools available.

Multi-pronged promotional power

Barry Schaffer, president of Promotional Currency, the digital promotions company that facilitated the Buddig promotion, says there are numerous reasons online promotions have taken hold. For starters, online promotions allow companies to interact with consumers and get direct feedback through online surveys. They also enable companies to capture valuable customer information for ongoing marketing efforts and drive web traffic to reinforce their brand and cross-sell other products. Online promotions give companies a way to connect with consumers through the medium they prefer.

"The Internet has moved into the forefront in terms of reaching consumers," says Schaffer. "And digital entertainment comes into play as the incentive that drives product sales and pushes consumers online so that packaged goods companies can reap the benefits of interactive online marketing long after the initial promotion ends. "

Schaffer says what makes digital entertainment like music, mobile content, and games such a powerful promotional tool is that it can be instantly accessed by consumers, that it transcends demographics, and that it can be personalized to meet the individual preferences of the recipient.

Fixed-cost scalable solution

Schaffer adds that digital entertainment promotions can also be customized to target a specific audience. Targeting a specific audience was important to Eidos Interactive, one of the world 's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software. Eidos recently teamed with Promotional Currency to incorporate a mobile content promotion into packages of its much anticipated Kane & Lynch: Dead Men action game.

The promotion, which launched in November exclusively at Wal-Mart, enabled Eidos to give game buyers 10 free Kane & Lynch ring tones or wallpaper images. "This is one of the first times a video game provider has offered this kind of value add for consumers, " notes Robert Lindsey, executive v.p. of sales and marketing for Eidos.

In addition to the multi-pronged marketing power of digital promotions, Schaffer says a key benefit of digital promotions is that they are delivered through a promotional code and URL, virtually eliminating the costs of associated with delivering a promotion in-package. And because consumers must first go to the Internet to obtain the digital content, Schaffer says he is able to underwrite the promotional risk, enabling his company to deliver high-value products such as songs and mobile content for pennies per package.