Sales promotion in the 70s – you couldn’t get away with it now
The golden age
Other classics include the Cadbury’s Golden Egg promotion, which had thousands of people digging up great tranches of the English countryside trying to discover Golden Eggs that Triangle had buried. Today the environmentalists would pull their hair out. And the free piggy banks from Gales Honey, put together in a mental asylum in Devon, did not look like any animal that I have seen.
Shell Make Money was my number one, and could be unbelievably successful in today’s climate. The Andrex Puppy appeal from my agency broke new ground for that brand and continues today in various incarnations. Heinz led the way with charity promotions, and its incredibly successful Win a Car a Day. Reputations were made, and sometimes lost, in two great decades.
Colin Lloyd is president of the Institute of Sales Promotion, a founder of 70s SP agency KLP, and co-author of a forthcoming book called BOGOF: The Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll of Marketing.
