There is no point running a promotional offer on pack if no one
can use it. How often are you drawn in by a great headline offer
only to find your nearest venue is 50 miles away? As we always say,
coverage is king. But what is good national coverage? Well, it
depends on what promotional partners you are wanting to feature.
For example you're not going to want to travel for half an hour to
collect your Friday night takeaway, but you might be prepared to
travel up to 2 hours for a big day out or to visit the coast where
you'll spend most of the day. So, adequate coverage for one will be
poor for another. To illustrate this, take a look at the following
chart.
You will note that only business and holidays / day trips achieve
an average travel distance over 20 miles. In fact, trips for all
other leisure and social purposes are less than 10 miles.
How can we use this to work out national coverage?
The UK covers an area of 94,526
miles2. Dividing up the UK into 10 mile squares,
you would get c. 945 locations. But, this of course assumes
that the UK has an even spread of population and amenities.
UK population density per hectare, with 25 mile grid
As you can see from the map, only about 1/3 of the UK has a
population density above 1.5 persons per hectare. So 1/3 of 945 =
315 locations. However, as we can see from our chart, most people
travel less than 10 miles for most leisure purposes. For a 7 mile
grid the number of venues doubles to 630 locations and roughly
doubles again to c. 1260 for a 5 mile square. We appreciate that
the population density varies across the UK but this is evened out
by the fact that we are basing the grids on average journey times
for the different purposes.
These figures are obviously ideals, but are they achievable? We
also need to take into account the universe of available venues for
your chosen sector. Naturally the number of businesses in each
sector tends to expands to meet available demand for mature leisure
sectors; that's market forces for you.
Approximate universe for certain leisure sectors:
| Sector |
Universe |
10% target |
| Public Houses |
60,000 |
6,000 (nigh on impossible) |
| Takeaways |
30,000 |
3,000 (we've done this) |
| Hairdressers |
20,000 |
2,000 (unlikely) |
| Health Clubs |
6,000 |
600 (yes) |
| Public Swimming Pools |
5,000 |
500 (yes) |
| Days Out & Attractions |
5,000 |
500 (yes) |
| Cinemas |
780* |
78 (n/a chains dominate here) |
* Source: Screen Digest, CAA
As a rule of thumb, you are likely to secure a promotional offer
from 10-20% of any target base. (Paradoxically landlords are far
more reluctant to run promotions that will drive traffic into pubs.
On the other hand Indian restaurants are very promotionally savvy.)
So in most cases, the available universe of venues would not
prohibit the recruitment of good national coverage.
Final Thoughts
Third party offer recruitment
is 'self selecting'. Partners will participate where there is
competition between businesses and competition exists in more
densely populated areas. Ironically, this means that businesses in
more remote areas have a captive audience and are less likely to
participate, which in turn means that these people are least well
served by promotions.
Clearly if you want to provide a great sales promotion that
delivers on it's headline, good coverage and therefore
accessibility is essential. Using our figures as a guide, will help
you determine if a provider is offering a good proposition. Always
compare like with like when considering a promotional offer and be
wary of the offers fulfilled on a concierge service. Ask them for a
list of venues and do due diligence. If the venues know nothing
about the promotion - run a mile.