Editorial: Why phone-in fiasco has to be our priority

by Bhavna Mistry, Promotions & Incentives 03-May-07

The telephone votes scandal was continuing to make the headlines as P&I went to press this month, with the BBC's Panorama documentary putting ITV1's GMTV breakfast show in the firing line for allegedly defrauding viewers out of thousands of pounds by entering competitions they could not win.

Panorama claimed that a shortlist of winners had been chosen long before competition phone lines closed, costing the public around £10 million a year over a four-year period.

With the public potentially being defrauded of such huge sums, it's not surprising that this is one bone the press isn't going to bury any time soon.

The ISP's Clive Mishon says the issue is being fanned by a sensationalist media and that there will be no fall-out for wider-ranging competitions from the phone-in backlash. But an exclusive online poll for P&I revealed nearly 60 per cent of more than 10,000 respondents were turned off all competitions in the wake of the phone-in fiasco (Live issue, page 16).

So the moot point for marketers continues to be: just how far will this now ubiquitous issue affect bona fide competitions, and what should be done in the way of damage limitation? There are no easy answers, but surely it should be top of the agenda for the industry at large, if only to stop the phone-in rot spreading further.

Another hot potato for which marketers are finding there are no easy answers is the ecological quandary they find themselves facing. It's evident that brands are keen to adopt an environmentally friendly approach, but are being hindered with a conundrum: can you run a profitable business and be kind to the environment? M&S found it difficult last month, when it launched its commendable Plan A initiative ... on non-recycled paper (In-store, page 13).

No doubt this is one question we'll be pondering for quite a while yet.