Devil's Advocate

Ian Moore

I could have instantly won one of 10,000 balls, but no - I hit the crossbar (their words, not mine) and apparently need to keep practising (eating more?).

Actually, it wasn't the losing that irked, but more the fact that I knew all along I was going to miss (or pay?) the penalty. Despite some limited insider info (that we chomp our way through millions of Mars bars every day), it still seemed plain to me that 10,000 balls, into half the UK population, doesn't equate to very much.  Actually, on the website it says they make 3 million a day... which, if the promotion lasts a month, means you'd need to eat 9000 Mars bars to get that ball... so I reckon my intuition was right... and I don't think most consumers would be too far behind me.

I'm all for promotions, and especially soccer ones like this (I'm involved in a club, myself, and the idea on the website that you can nominate your club to win balls is good - our supplies get booted all over Edinburgh at a rate that's hard to believe), but it's a great shame when offers are not properly funded, because they undermine the general credibility of promotions in the mind of the consumer.  This Mars campaign seems to me to be a game of 'instant lose' if ever I saw one... yet not from the company or brand I would expect.  Sure, plenty of firms try to run promos on a shoestring, and then wonder why they don't work, but I'd have guessed Mars were more clued-up than that.

Maybe a bit of an own-goal in the promotional stakes (so please don't let me be judging it in next year's awards!).