Ideally a gift card giveaway should work like this: fill out form (either on paper or online), perform requested action and get a gift card in a timely manner without hassle. It would even be better if they gave cash. 🙂
This is how Mazda did it recently:
– Sent me an email in early March inviting me to test drive a Mazda and get a $25 gift card as I had previously signed up for promotions as some of the new models were of interest
– Printed off pdf file
– Filled out form
– Went to Mazda dealer
– Found salesperson who didn’t know about the promotion
– Had manager figure out the details
– Test drove a Mazda
– Mailed in form
– After 8 weeks card had not arrived and wrote blog post about it
– A week later, the card arrives in the mail and I pick it up as I leave the apartment
– Since it has no sticker on the card saying it’s not active, I proceed to try to use it at a gas station and the guy tells me it’s not activated
– Went to myecount.com and filled out a form that was just way too long (see below)
– Put in mazda as my password for secret questions – for $25 this just is not necessary
– Unchecked default boxes to get updates from myecount.com
– Finally spent card
– Wrote post on this non-optimal customer experience in terms of duplicate data entry, time, cost and user utility
This is a great example of how not to run a promotion, not exactly a good idea when you are trying to get someone to build trust in your brand for a 5 figure purchase.
See the full size of this form here.
