Promotion Mechanics A Winning Business

By Nancy K. Crevier

Before dimes are poised over scratch and win cards, before slick brochures advertise a tempting sweepstakes, before the first film frame is shot for an online video contest, President Peg Heetmann and her staff of four at Promotion Mechanics in Newtown are hard at work. After consulting with sponsors and tweaking promotion details, their goal is to get one of the hundreds of nationally known companies her local company represents the high profile exposure results they want.

The Promotion Mechanics, Ms Heetmann, her son James Heetmann, Ilona Pomeroy, Mary Williams, and Lou Ann Cordoso, are specialists. Their expertise covers “chance” promotions such as sweepstakes and games that involve matching pieces, codes, or scratch-offs, and “skill” contests that include films, photography, artwork, or essays.

“There are many laws that cannot be violated. For example, the chance to win is free; there must always be a way to enter for free. We make sure our clients stay on the right side of any lottery laws, and for every state that is different. When we lay out the rules we make sure we protect not just our client, but the consumer, as well,” said Ms Heetmann. The rules, she explained, serve as a type of “contract” between the sponsor and the client.

Ms Heetmann, her son, and Ms Pomeroy cover the legal end of business. The other employees’ responsibilities include judging, accounting, and fulfillment of prizes — that is, sending out the prizes. They work together as a team to turn the sponsor’s initial idea into a concrete program that results in happy winners all around. It is the result of many years of experience in the field, said Ms Heetmann.

Promotion Mechanics has created thousands of regional, national, and international consumer and trade promotions since the company was founded in 1981 by Newtown resident Bob Walker, who saw a niche to be filled in doing the behind-the-scenes work of promotions that make a program successful.

“I became involved in the business strictly by accident,” confessed Ms Heetmann. “At that time the company was known as Promotion Marketing Systems, Inc.” A former English teacher and piano teacher, it was 1986 when Ms Heetmann’s friend Esther Nichols needed some help with a part-time job Ms Nichols had undertaken for PMSI.

“I was offered a position for the summer and I took it. My first job was getting FedEx boxes ready for shipping and the very first contest I judged was for a mystery game to familiarize people with the Queen Mary, which was docked in California. I guess I was good at it,” recalled Ms Heetmann.

In 1997 she became president, taking over the detailed work of developing and implementing sweepstakes, contests, and games for hundreds of clients all over the world when Mr Walker retired. By then, Ms Heetmann had seen the company outgrow its Sandy Hook location, move to Southbury, change its name from Promotion Marketing Systems, Inc to Promotion Mechanics and return to Newtown, where it is now located at the rear of the South Main Common complex at 87 South Main Street.

Not only the location of the company has changed. Over the years, technology has evolved, in some ways making business easier, in other ways complicating things.

“Once upon a time everything we did was on paper,” said Ms Heetmann. “Typing the rules, collecting the entries, everything was done manually. Computers and email have been a huge blessing for us. With the Internet, which I think really got going in about 1990, the volume of mail was vastly reduced. Before the Internet, we had a mail person who would go to the post office to pick up all of the promotional material. We used to have the Sandy Hook post master pulling his hair out, there was so much,” recalled Ms Heetmann.

The advent of technology in the business place has challenged the timetable for promotions, though. “We used to have weeks or months to turn around a promotion. Now, it’s a matter of days. Technology has made it so that we work much faster,” Ms Heetmann said. As more and more options become available to consumers, Promotion Mechanics must keep up with the times and evaluate how to handle entries that can now be submitted not only on paper, but online, through texting, PDAs, cellphones, and via BlackBerries. “Laws prohibit charging to enter a sweepstakes or game, so because texting actually costs money, we need to also make sure that there is an alternate, free way to enter. It’s an interesting challenge,” Ms Heetmann said.

Contracting A ‘Hit’

Promotion marketing goes beyond what the marketing divisions of most companies care to undertake. What their clients seek is the specialized knowledge built on years of experience, said James Heetmann. “Having specialized knowledge is an advantage,” said Mr Heetmann. “There are specific state and national laws that need to be adhered to and that’s what we know and what we do,” he explained.

A customer may approach them with a concept, but relies on the expertise of Promotion Mechanics to get the project off the ground. “Our job is to look at how they want to promote the company and help them see the best way to make ideas work,” Ms Heetmann said.

That includes designing and writing the rules to comply with laws that vary from state to state, and country to country; registering the promotion; and getting ready to receive the thousands of entries. When a game card is part of the promotion, the service includes a trip by James Heetmann to a printing locale that could be in Wisconsin, Georgia, or California to ascertain that the winning card is properly printed, the printing mold for the winning card destroyed, and that all legal steps are adhered to in the process.

“These books are our Bible,” said Mary Williams, indicating two huge tomes of Promotion Marketing Law, in which the regulations that govern sweepstakes, games, and contests can be found. None of the five at Promotion Mechanics are attorneys, but because they have been in the business for so many years, all of them are familiar with the laws and are aware of the updates to any of the laws. Outside legal advice is sought whenever it is needed, as well. “The rules are often just one or two lines and can be reinterpreted from year to year, so we need to be aware of any of those changes,” Ms Heetmann said.

Alcohol and beverage promotions can be subject to additional specialized laws, as well, and it is Mr Heetmann’s area of expertise that keeps Promotion Mechanics on top of any issues related to that particular area.

“We work hard, but we work smart. We’re good at what we do and we like what we do,” Ms Heetmann emphasized. The enthusiastic attitude plays a big part, no doubt, in why Promotion Mechanics rarely needs to sell itself to customers. Much of the business is derived from repeat customers who are happy to recommend the Newtown company to others.

Nor are these small clients. Discovery Communications is one of the company’s biggest clients. Among the hundreds of other names are Fox, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops, Cracker Barrel, Royal Caribbean, and Sprint. Mary Williams viewed several videos one recent morning, serving as an impartial judge for a PBS Kids Sprout Network contest. The Bear Naked Granola promotion “Live Bear Naked…Drive Change!” is a Promotion Mechanics contest, as is the Drambuie Pursuit adventure competition in Scotland.

“It’s always new and interesting every day,” said Ms Heetmann, from the development of the concept to the part that she finds the most fun: telling someone they have won.

Convincing someone that they are a winner takes a bit of panache, said Mr Heetmann. “We are often met with skepticism when we make the phone call. Usually, we let them know they’ll also get something in the mail and that they should keep an eye open for that. Because an affidavit must be signed to receive the prize, a lot of people are nervous — it’s a legal paper and written in ‘legalese.’ People can be uncomfortable, so we just try to reassure them,” he said.

Other people are totally devoted to a contest, said Ms Heetmann, and sitting on edge when they receive the winning phone call or notice. “That is especially true when it is a big ticket item. Those are the ones that get us some fun responses,” she said. Fun entries include different sized envelopes, colored envelopes, envelopes embellished with stickers and photos, or even huge collages and long missives about why they should win.

Playing By The Rules

No matter how clever or colorful an entry is, though, the contestant must comply with the rules, and the extra amount of work put into the entry is for naught.

“We cannot be swayed by an entry and they are strictly amusing to us. We just take the official form that is usually attached to the project somewhere and it goes into the pile with all of the others. There is absolutely no advantage to fancy entries,” Ms Heetmann emphasized. They are strictly bound by and adhere adamantly to all of the laws surrounding promotions.

For some people, entering sweepstakes, contests, and games is a way of life that can result in amazing prizes and vacations that they could not otherwise afford. “We do have people who are professional contest entrants. We see the same names over and over again in different contests,” said Mr Heetmann.

“What I love best is the contests,” Ms Heetmann added. “With sweepstakes or game cards it is just a name and an address. With a contest where someone has to make a video, or take a picture, or write something, you see the people behind the entry and get a feel for the people,” she said.

One example of that is the Animal Planet Hero of the Year Contest her company has overseen for three years. “People are nominated who have done exceptional work on behalf of animals. We weed out the contestants and then the final nominations are posted at Animal Planet online and the public votes. It is always overwhelming to me to see what wonderful things are being done all over our country,” Ms Heetmann said.

Promotion Mechanics also distributes the prizes provided by the sponsor, meaning that occasionally an 18-wheeler snakes its way into the parking lot, filled with hundreds of boxes of prizes that the five staff members must unload and stack in any free spot they can in the office. The prizes encompass everything from mugs to reusable bags to perfume or food items.

Big-ticket items are generally not on premises, though. Cars, trucks, appliances, and other large items are handled one of two ways, explained Mr Heetmann. “In the case of a car, for instance, if the vehicle has already been purchased by the sponsor and used for on-site promotions, they would arrange to have it transported to the winner. If the car needs to be ordered, the sponsor provides Promotion Mechanics with the funds. We contact the winner and wire them a downpayment, then when all of the paperwork is in order and the car is delivered, we wire the final funds to the dealer,” he said.

“Cash is still the king of prizes,” said Ms Heetmann, followed by cars, and travel. And while other businesses may be sagging under the weight of the recession, the sweepstakes business can actually flourish in times of a poor economy, Ms Heetmann said. “The best time for a sponsor to promote is during a recession, really. Travel is so much more expensive now and people are watching what they spend, so if they can win a vacation in Hawaii or Disneyland, they are more likely to give it a try. Gasoline promotions are huge now, too, of course,” she pointed out.

Working to put together the minutiae of a promotion can be tedious, but even after 22 years, Ms Heetmann said that she continues to look forward to each day at work. “It’s just a wonderful business,” she said. A winner, one might add.