Choosing how you plan your promotional budget is a bit like planning your vacation. Traditional hotel or all-inclusive?

Summer is here and people are thinking about their upcoming vacations. And when planning a vacation travelers must make a choice -- all-inclusive or traditional hotel?

At a traditional hotel, you pay only the room rate and taxes in advance and buy everything else as you go. Since the upfront cost only covers lodging, how much will your vacation cost?  The final cost can vary immensely depending on choices made on food, beverages and activities. – not to mention those surprise extra charges that always seem to pop up. You could easily exceed your vacation budget with so many uncertainties!
 

At an all-inclusive resort, accommodations, meals, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages and most activities are wrapped into a single rate that is paid upfront. Bundling everything together for one price means you can budget for your trip ahead of time because you know exactly what the cost will be, regardless of how many meals you eat, how many cocktails by the pool and how many resort-sponsored activities you choose to participate in.

When planning a consumer promotion, agencies and brand owners must make a similar decision.

The traditional hotel approach to promotion planning

Will you develop a promotion that offers consumers a chance to win a prize or get a free gift, but with a final budget that is anything but certain?  Consumers are unpredictable and there are many factors that can affect final redemption rates. How many will enter, participate, or play?  Could the Comping community decide your promotion is a great target for their attention?  And how difficult would it be to secure additional budget, often months after the original budget was signed off?

Or choose the all-inclusive approach to promotion planning - the Fixed Fee!

Brand managers work with their agencies to develop big, creative and unique promotions that are designed to drive consumer excitement, retailer participation and most of all – sales!

Using a Fixed Fee, a brand or campaign manager can sleep easy knowing that all promotional costs, up to 100% redemption, are included in one pre-agreed cost.

Just like an all-inclusive resort, this single Fixed Fee will cover any variable cost that increases as redemption rates increase - the prize or reward, handling, postage, SMS or web entry, customer services, coupon redemptions, payment processing, campaign management and reporting.

So, if your consumers “over-indulge”, there is no financial risk to the brand’s budget.

And best of all, there is no additional budget needed to incorporate a Fixed Fee.

We at VCG have been providing the all-inclusive solution of a Fixed Fee for 18 years to many of the most well-known brands in the world.

With inflation now a major concern, consumers are looking for ways to get the most for their dollar. Promotions influence people into trying new brands or forming a stronger loyalty to their favorites.

When you’re planning your next promotion to meet these challenges, let us show you how we can amplify your budget to offer your customers more opportunities to win, more excitement and bigger prizes – and maybe even an all-inclusive vacation!