I’m in research mode again and when post-group I found myself in need of food late on Tuesday evening I headed to the local Beefeater.
Stop sniggering, all you trendy Shoreditch types at the back, at least at this particular one (in a town I visit quite a lot) I know I’ll get a friendly welcome, quick service, comfort food and that there’ll be lots of other people eating on their own as it’s attached to a Premier Inn.
Along with the bill, my smiley waitress delivered this game card, with a ‘come back again before September and you could win a prize’ mechanic – the only rule being that you couldn’t open and reveal whether you’d won until your return visit:
Fair enough, it might be enough to nudge someone to choose the restaurant over another option and if nothing else, hanging on to it keeps the brand front of mind.
But there was a tiny snag:
As soon as you flexed the card slightly the end popped open, revealing the prize inside without you technically ‘opening’ it. What if I’d won the holiday to Las Vegas? Would the brand reject the gamecard as it was accidentally opened? Another design fail.