Friday, November 27, 2009

Why I hate contests like iCoke

Back in 2005 Coca-Cola changed how they did contests in Canada. Back when I was growing up (and for many years after), their contests consisted of looking under the liner of a Coke product, and the liner would tell you if you won something or not. Sometimes you would win another Coke, sometimes a bag of chips, sometimes a prize much larger than that.. but usually.. nothing.

Now, Coke wants you to do everything online. Now you can no longer randomly get a free Coke anymore. Many Coke products have a PIN number that you have to enter through their website at iCoke.ca. Through that, you can enter contests, buy "products" and if you submit enough pins, it will give you the option to use your POINTS to buy a "free" 591 Coca Cola product.

I think iCoke is just a stupid promotion. I've used it for 4 and a half years, I've submitted easily hundreds (if not thousands) of PINs, and the only thing I've got to show for it is an email from the iCoke customer service regarding a point disagreement I have. Well a month back I bought a Coke at Burger King. If you buy a large Coke, you get 1000 points, however I only got 500 (well not really a big difference), but they refused to give me the points I was guaranteed.

I haven't won a single item on iCoke in the 4.5 years I've been on the site. I doubt most of the general iCoke population will ever win anything, also anything you do buy is heavily inflated. You would have to purchase up to 84 bottles/cases of Coca Cola to get THIS ugly Olympic hat, which would probably retail for $15/tops. Points wise, you would have to spend many many more dollars just for a cheap hat.

Also, iCoke gives you the option to "win a Coke", but the only way you can WIN a Coke it seems is if you submit a bunch of PIN codes, and after 8 or 10 PINs, you can use the 8-10 PINS to get a "free" Coke. Um.. it's not free. 8 pins? Seriously?

I'm no longer going to enter the iCoke contest, it's a waste of time, especially after 4.5 years of entering codes. I would have expected to win something by now, atleast a pair of tickets to a movie. But nope, nothing. iCoke is a waste of time, and a poor promotion.

Pepsi Access is just as bad. I wish soda companies would bring back the traditional liner promotions, but I guess they're saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by not letting any random person winning a product. Atleast we still have Roll up the Rim to Win.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:23 pm

    I agree that the things you can buy with icoke points are ridiculous. I mean, the amount of points to purchase something is just way too high, might as well just go out and buy it.

    However, I will say that I have been able to get a pair of movie tickets with my icoke points. And I've won free bottles of coke a couple times randomly. All I did was input my points and it automatically took me a page where I won a free bottle of coke.

    P.S. Are you thinking that buy entering pins on icoke that you will randomly win a contest? Because you have to search through the list of contests and enter them using icoke points.

    I agree that buying some things on icoke website is a little ridiculous, but then there are the gift card contests like the $2000 best buy gift card. That's worth a shot. And they list real winners of the contests.

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  2. Cody Lobreau4:01 pm

    I have entered in almost every single contest iCoke has had since '05. From a contest to win a car, to the usual Best Buy gift cards to chances to go to the olympics, to prizes only worth a buck or two, haven't won anything so far.

    I wish they brought back the bottle liners where you could win free things!

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