Here's an unexpected entrant in the daily deals fray: BP, which has launched a location-based daily deals service to reinvent the brand and dip a toe in the muddied waters of consumer engagement one year after the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
The offers, available only to consumers in the UK, are being updated on BP’s corporate website .The tagline for Today’s Offers: ‘Keeping BP’s great offers at your fingertips.’ What a difference a year makes as sales and deals strive to trump a company’s performance track record once again.
At launch, deals have been provided in partnership with Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, United Biscuits, Danone, Mars and Walkers as the company tries to cleanse its tarnished image, regain public trust – and garner information about their customers at point-of-sale.
Discounts on CDs, DVDs, games and car washes are on offer with vouchers and discounts redeemable through print-outs, SMS or email fall into four categories: ‘Thirsty’, ‘Hungry’ ‘Entertain me’ and ‘My car.’
One example, in partnership with Moto: "Free food for fuel," which offers a £1 food voucher in return for buying 50 litres of fuel, or a 50p voucher for buying 100 litres of fuel, which can be used at food purveyors EDC Restaurant, Burger King, Costa & Caff Ritazza at Moto service areas.
The goal of Today’s Offers, according to Bristol agency Rockpool Digital who created it (via New Media Age), “is to drive footfall and sales across BP’s retail business and UK petrol stations.”
With 350 BP-owner sites in the UK and 1200 BP-branded additional sites operated by independent retailers, the ground is fertile for the energy giant’s ‘scheme.’
“The key drivers for the implementation was to get some initial learning,” said Rockpool digital chief commercial officer Peter Gandy in NMA. “BP’s trying to understand the way that customers prefer using. This is just a first step, a fact finding process. As we bring in mobile, we’ll bring in much more, expanding the digital solution across different services, not just offers.”
In its third week, SMS has already emerged as the leader in discount-redemption and is a key discovery in the initiative.
“With a mobile-optimised site, rendering to relevant devices, BP can capture data — in-store, mobile and online — and put this into a unified profile. This will form the basis for a two-way conversation with the customer going forward,” added Gandy.
BP has also begun a television campaign showcasing its sponsorship role in the upcoming London 2012 Olympics, and in March, became the first non-traditional UK retailer to sell Nintendo 3DS games console and games in a bid to expand product inventory.
Gandy tells NMA that, in addition to launch partners, BP’s FMCG’s are keen to jump on the bandwagon. “They’re desperate to find out about consumers at the point of purchase. If you think about it, they can be in contact with people before they go out but haven’t been able to be in contact with them as they’re out. This scheme has opened their eyes to what might be achieved.”
“BP claimed it was trying to be ‘humble’ with the campaign and felt consumers would see the brand in a positive way.”
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