Sky is a company that’s been known to jump through hoops to get people to sign up to their TV packages. As far as they’re concerned the target market for SkyDigital includes everyone and anyone with a TV. This did not stop the element of surprise that hit me when I saw their latest form of chocolate bribery.
Little squares of indulgent white and dark chocolate were sent to the office today in a white box with the infamous ‘Sky’ logo. The words ‘make work a little sweeter’ were imprinted on the individual chocolates and of course that promise was fulfilled. For all of two minutes we all sat and ate a few chocolates which of course did help to make the day ‘sweeter’. But now I’m sitting here reflecting on the chocolates I ate and not the packages Sky can offer me. The rectangular box that was sent to our office caused an interesting advertising debate. Is Sky’s chocolate bribery a creative and effective form of marketing? Or are they wasting their money?
It’s difficult to pinpoint if Sky’s motive was to convince us to have Sky TV installed in the office or individually at home. But suppose one box of chocolates has cost £5, (after all it wasn’t your standard cheap milk chocolate bar) if it does miraculously make someone sprint home excitedly to subscribe with them, Sky will be making anything from £21.50 to £42.50 a month. Safe to say that is an outstanding profit of over 300% – and that’s with the cheapest ‘original’ package they offer.
However the general consensus with the team at Studio 4 was mainly something along the lines of ‘thanks for the free box of chocolate sky’. We had the idea that they could have added an element of social media into the product by including a quote stating ‘follow us on Twitter #thanksforthechocolatesSky’ as this could have sent offices to go into a Sky promotion Twitter frenzy. Not only would this demonstrate our appreciation but it’s a way that Sky could have got some free advertising off the back of the chocolates.
As a company who specialises in marketing we applaud the creativity involved in producing the chocolates- it is a clever idea, but I am highly doubtful that Sky will gain drastic increased profits. It is crucial to note that they are a global company who infamously spent £9.1 million to promote their new Sky HD system in Christmas 2010 alone. A few boxes of chocolate are hardly going to put pressure on their budget but maybe they could improve the idea slightly to benefit their company more… and not just our sweet tooth. 