I probably shouldn't be sharing this—but I've become extremely wealthy. Or at least, I will be in the very near future.
Apparently, my email address was entered, without my knowledge, in the (you pick one) U.K. Lottery Sweepstakes, the Netherlands Lottery and the Sierra Leone Grand Lottery.
Amazing and against all odds—I've won all of them.
Of course, there are still some technical details that have to be arranged, and it may require a small investment on my part. But that's the problem with sweepstakes these days-even the legitimate ones feel like scams.
Yet they remain an extremely powerful marketing tool—if they are used correctly. Let me give you some examples:
What Would You Do With $10,000?
Edgars is one of the largest department store chains in South Africa, with more than 3 million store card holders that it mails to every month.
Back when I worked with Edgars for Ogilvy & Mather, my challenge was to come up with a fresh sweepstakes (or sometimes two) each time the store mailed.
But there were a few challenges:
1. The prize had to be very modest (about $10,000 in those days). We just couldn't afford to give away too much every single month.
Sweepstakes are especially challenging these days. When you see lottery prizes of $100, $200 or even $300 million, it's much harder to get anyone excited about the dollar value of your prize.
2. The prize had to be flexible. It's no good giving away an all-expense paid, three-week vacation if the winner simply can't be away from work or her family that long.
Plus, we didn't want to have to actually book you on a trip—which would have required a lot more work than we were prepared to do. Also, we might incur liability.
If we sent you to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and you were stung by a sea wasp (the deadliest jellyfish in the world), we may be legally responsible.
3. The prize had to combine both fantasy and reality. This was an important point. If you won $10,000 in a sweepstakes, what would you do with it?
You would probably love to take a fabulous vacation, or redo your entire wardrobe, or buy a state-of-the-art 72-inch TV with DVR and a home-theater sound system.
But you'd probably end up doing the responsible, boring and grown-up thing—and pay off your credit cards, your mortgage or replace an old appliance.
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