In an effort to boost sales of the new Secret ‘Flawless’ deodorant, Procter & Gamble came up with a giveaway that no woman could resist. They plan to award 10 $15,000 diamonds, one to each winner. The problem with this promotion is that, eight months after launching the campaign, no one has won yet. In fact, no one seems to even be aware of it.
In this promotion, there is a fake diamond in each of the winning sticks of deodorant, but a person need not risk cutting herself or destroying the product to find the prize. By entering the product code at www.secretdiamondgiveaway.com, a person can find out if there is a diamond in each particular stick. In the iPhone/Blackberry/Treo era, a less honest person could, in fact, check product codes at the website before buying.
With a June 30 deadline for this promotion, the Secret Flawless team posted a YouTube Video to draw more attention to the diamond giveaway. So far, the video has failed to attract the desired attention.
However, contest rules dictate that at least nine diamonds will be given away to mail-in candidates, since no purchase is required. Secret Flawless will gift $15,000 diamonds to lucky winners, but, unfortunately, it has not yet brought the desired attention to the new product. Procter & Gamble remains hopeful that there will be a late surge in purchasing, now that word has gotten out about the lack of response. There is still a chance that this will be a great promotion, but it is still a lesson in branding, certainly.
