Earlier tonight I saw a tweet from a friend @pkahill who was excited about finding 32 coupons of Shell Fuel Save.
I just landed on my mother’s 32 fuel and win, free fuel coupons… she says wmshe doesn’t know how to load them… #HappyDance
— Patricia Kahill (@pkahill) July 27, 2014
Those that do not know what Shell Fuel Save is, in summary; It is a Shell Uganda (@shellProductsUg) promotion where for every 20,000Ugx worth of fuel you buy, you get a coupon with a code on it which you SMS to 6777 and stand a chance of winning free fuel for a year.
It is an awesome promotion really. I too took part in it – yeah, I stopped.
Here is why; I have been using Shell fuel for a while so a chance at winning free fuel while doing what I have been doing all this time seemed awesome. I started asking for my coupons every time I refueled. I did send the codes to 6777 too.. till I got bored.
First of all there is no confirmation that your code has been received. A simple reply SMS saying something like “..your code has been submitted, best of luck!” Would have done a lot here
There was no gamification used at all. You can’t know how well you are doing, what chances you have, or how many coupons you have submitted. The whole process is just boring.
Those that do not know what gamification is;
Gamification is the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the users impulses which revolve around the idea of Status and Achievement.
There is no mobile notification (to the people that have submitted codes before) about the winners. Hearing that so and so has won after he/she submitted 10 coupons or one lucky coupon, would go a long way to get me sending more codes. As for the radio advert that say please remember to SMS the code – Waste of resources. A reply SMS would have cost way less than the cost of the radio advert.
There is no mention of the end date of the promotion to create urgency for us to submit the codes to beat the deadline. Even the codes I submitted most of them I submitted them days after I got them – there was no need to rush to send them. I have no idea when the promotion ends or when I will win.
I do believe it was a great promotion but it was poorly executed. I am no marketing or branding expert but I do believe that gamification is something that we all ought to know about it.
For those that are still hopefully (and not yet bored like me), here are a few codes that I had not yet submitted, good luck!
X6YU93
NUHEXC
9MG6CU
HATQ46
YMREHT
