Most of us will have seen big-name brands offering amazing prizes via draws that come with the product or ‘Willy Wonka’-style golden tickets. If so, you have probably wondered ‘how does this actually work, do I really have a chance to win and are they run fairly?” If so, you need to talk to Jeremy Stern.
Stern is CEO and founder of PromoVeritas, an independent promotional verification service, and his business ensures that prize draws, instant wins and competitions are run “fairly, legal, securely and effectively”.
PromoVeritas – a business member of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade – was set up 20 years ago to bridge the gap between creative marketing types and their more cautious legal colleagues.
In that time it has run over 18,000 campaigns for hundreds of clients in over 90 countries worldwide, from China to Chile, Austria to Australia.
Origin story
Stern started his career in marketing, working his way up into senior level positions at companies such as Tesco, Coca-Cola and Sega.
After Sega shut down its console business following the failure of the Dreamcast, Stern was out of a job and considering his next move.
Having sat on the code-setting committee of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), he’d seen that many were following bad practice:
“People were not following the few rules that we have in this country and I was worried that if the government realised the level of non-compliance, it would step in and turn industry regulation into government law, and nobody would want that.”
The lightbulb moment that reignited his career meant “protecting the whole of the industry from the worst of regulation, by providing a simple and easy way for companies running marketing campaigns to be compliant with the rules that were in place then”.
The ASA Code has rules on competitions and prize draws, such as a requirement that promoters running draws get an independent person to pick winners and for those holding competitions, or games of skill or judgement, to employ an independent judge.
In essence, all require independent proof that stated prizes are awarded fairly.
And these are the services that PromoVeritas now provides for 200+ clients that include Kellogg’s, Cadbury, Amazon and Heineken, with an extensive geographic reach, as evidenced by the King’s Award for International Trade.
They have run campaigns in over 90 countries.
‘The real Willy Wonka’
“In one way, I am the real Willie Wonka”, Stern says, referring to the company’s Instant Win campaigns. One famous example is the annual “Hunt the Cadbury Creme Egg” promotion that PromoVeritas has run for the past 13 years.
Typically, it involves the creation of 500+ special eggs (last year it was a white and dark chocolate variety) that are then secretly placed into shops nationwide, with shoppers who find one eligible to win up to £1,000.
Stern gave another example of a European-wide giveaway, this time for Cornetto, which was giving away 800 Vespa scooters. PromoVeritas created fake cones, that weighed and felt like the real thing, but actually concealed a key.
These were then ‘seeded’ into real packs of ice cream at a factory in Naples and distributed across five countries.
Those finding one of the special cones and keys would win a real Vespa scooter – as well as a coupon for a replacement ice-cream, because the company is aware that some people might complain. Even though they had won a £3000 prize, they missed out on a real ice cream.
Often even the most obvious of prize packs remain unclaimed. Stern tells the story of a campaign for Dairylea cheese where he hid a light-activated sound chip inside special packs – finders would win a £10,000 prize. However, four of these amazing prize packs remained unclaimed.
So, somewhere in a supermarket aisle or warehouse, remains a Dairylea box with an expired £10,000 prize, just waiting to be found.
Exporting
The recent growth of PromoVeritas has been fuelled by exports as the company increasingly works with major brands that operate in multiple territories.
Nearly 50% of the company’s income now comes from work conducted abroad. It might be a legal review for a major battery brand in 62 countries or it could be helping Amazon run their Deep Racer campaign. Designed to showcase the talents of new generations of coders, Deep Racer involves overseeing a racing car challenge and brings winners from all over the world to Las Vegas for a live final.
Stern sees this area increasing in the future – the company already works with 54 of the top 100 UK brands and most of those have international subsidiaries or significant exports.
Despite the global nature of the business, the team works out of modest offices in North West London, with no overseas offices, other than a small outpost in New York.
Stern says: “While we do ‘export’ to a huge number of countries, because the core of our service is knowledge, knowledge of the local laws and best practice, we don't actually need to be on the ground in each country.
“Instead, we have developed a hand-picked network of specialist marketing lawyers across the globe and professional distribution companies to handle the prize fulfilment. We have worked with Amazon for four years but only been to Seattle once.”
Prize challenge
Sending the prizes to overseas winners is often the company’s biggest challenge.
Whereas in the UK it’s very easy to run a prize promotion - no registration is required and there are no taxes to be paid by either the promoter or the winner - in some countries there can be a long list of requirements.
In Italy, you need to submit the full terms and condition to the authorities at least two weeks in advance, pay a fee and buy an insurance bond in case you go bust before giving away the prize. Then you have to appoint a public official to select the winners – the latter costing hundreds of euros – and give any unclaimed prizes to charity.
Individual countries also have their own rules on the taxation of prizes. In Greece the winner has to pay 10%, while in Italy the promoter usually pays 45% tax. PromoVeritas handles this all for their clients.
Stern added that, post-Brexit, “even shipping stuff to Northern Ireland, like a pair of socks, causes problems and added complexity,” and his worst nightmare is that a winner in a foreign country is forced to pay additional taxes or fees on prizes that they have won.
“We want every winner to be an ambassador, an advocate, for the brand, and local taxes can affect this” says Stern.
Award winners
PromoVeritas received the prestigious 2024 King’s Award for International Trade and Stern himself won Global Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2024:
“It was a terrific achievement for all of us, because in order to win the King’s Award, we had to show significant growth over four years and that included the year of COVID.
“There weren’t that many companies that were growing significantly in 2020 but we did, as brands switched money from advertising to in-store activations designed to produce immediate sales.”
Advice
In terms of expansion, Stern singles out trade fairs as one of the more useful business development tools out there.
“Even in today’s world, buyers like to get out and about and not to be stuck in offices. Going around a decent trade fair can give inspiration and insight from a buyer’s point of view and it gives me a chance to feel the market, talk to fellow suppliers and get face to face with customers and then l see the local market as well.
“So, I think the trade fairs, exhibitions, seminars and the new type of business speed-dating events are a good thing.”
Other, more modern forms of communication are also useful.
“LinkedIn is a fantastic tool. You can reach people all over the world and at all levels, but you have to have your proposition straight.”
The final piece of advice from one of our King’s Award winners?
“You have to have something that is unique, priced attractively, is consistent and high quality – then they will come.”