Pitfall protection

This is the second in a two-part story on the pitfalls of online promotions — and the best way to avoid such hazards. Contributor Jed Weissbluth continues this month with a list of warning flags that should alert marketers to the beginning of a slippery slope, as well as a checklist that managers can use from the start of the campaign.

MONITOR IRREGULAR ACTIVITY

A digital promotions vendor should have the means to note suspicious volume or questionable activity, trace the source and take proactive measures to address the potential problem. Irregular activity might result from “war dialers” (automated telephone dialing systems) or software-based entry applications that are a favorite of cheaters. These devices are incompatible with the sponsor’s intentions and should be prohibited in the Official Rules. Multiple software tools and benchmarking techniques should alert the vendor, and blocking is one viable solution.

BLOCKING

A digital promotions vendor should offer the ability to block abusive participants from entering the promotion, either by using caller-ID technology to identify and block the telephone entry or an IP address (similar to a home address for your computer, but not quite as accurate) to block Web entries. The widespread use of proxy IP addresses makes it difficult to peg the abusive participant because many innocent participants can share the same IP address as the offender, and the use of cookies is at best a limited solution. In this regard, telephone-based promotions offer superior blocking capabilities. While most promotions participants are trustworthy, some are unscrupulous and will seek any unfair advantage or violate any official rule to win multiple prizes. It is impossible to expect everyone will play fairly, but it is important to be able to enforce fair play. Specific enforcement criteria should be planned before the promotion begins, and the vendor should assume full responsibility for executing the plan.

HOLDBACK

Want to make a serious statement about the gravity of over-redemption? Retain the final vendor payment for a defined period after the promotion has concluded. Inform the vendor that this last withheld payment will be applied first to any legitimate prize claims in excess of the planned prize pool, and second to the outstanding balance. Most promotions have rolling fulfillment periods, so 30 days should be sufficient without imposing on the vendor. State this policy up front in the agreement with the vendor to avoid surprises, and your vendor will have a vested interest in preventing over-redemption arising from both innocent error and fraud.

While these are only a few of the practical tips that should be considered in the vendor selection process, they can form the basis of queries that are substantially more informative than asking questions such as: “Have you established an internal culture of security and its supporting infrastructure, including a formal written plan?” or: “Do you employ firewalls to protect personally identifiable information?” These questions suffer from seeking too little relevant information, and they invite superficial or simplistic answers that can lull you into a false sense of security.

Jed Weissbluth is VP-business development for Chicago-based On Call Interactive. He can be reached at [email protected].

A Safe Practices Checklist

The following checklist should be considered major criteria in selecting a digital promotions vendor

1. All systems should be decentralized and redundant, from back-up hardware to emergency power. The question to ask is this: if the local transformer blows up and cuts power to your vendor’s office in the middle of the night, will the promotion be affected? All critical application hardware should be situated in a collection facility where companies such as Verio and Qwest have made substantial investments in biometric security, bandwidth, fire-suppression, and so forth. The extra price you pay is worth it.

2. All testing should be budgeted, planned, thoroughly executed and documented. What testing methodology was used? How was peak capacity ascertained and what happened when the system was flooded with entries? What is necessary to resuscitate a struggling system? Are there any instances when system resources “deadlock” because they are competing with each other? Are there known trade-offs between security and performance? Dedicated project management is one additional reliable indicator of a competent vendor.

3. Robust communications are vital for regular updates and crisis response. Regular reporting features, to evaluate activity while the promotion is in progress and avoid client-side surprises, help the sponsor keep a finger on the pulse of the promotion and manage budget expectations. A comprehensive, final report at the conclusion of the promotion should be expected. Cascading automatic alerts, so that the appropriate personnel receive telephone calls, text messages and e-mail in the event of any service interruption or 80% peak capacity is reached, are required for an adaptable plan. All response times should be three hours or less. Remember, you will judge the digital promotions vendor by the response to problems, not by “perfect world” technology.

4. Thorough plans for problem resolution and disaster recovery increases the odds of success. Remote administrative access through a password protected Web site allows technical and account personnel to monitor activity and fix problems no matter where they are situated. Contingency migration plans, including prepared scripts and Web pages, will make a positive difference in case there is a disaster or prolonged service outage.

5. Advanced technical capabilities separate the top tier of professionals from the rest. The best have excess capacity “overflow” systems to handle volume that substantially exceeds the plan. They are acutely aware of the fact that a wildly successful promotion is a beautiful thing, until the system crashes from the unanticipated load. They use a variety of the “No Winner” default, the process by which a communications interruption or invalid response results in a null sequence, so that no prize can be awarded. Finally, they offer a PSTN/IP address signal trap, because identification of the originating phone call or web entry is critical to ensuring the smooth operation of a digital promotion.

Notice that we put specific technology assets last on the list, with most of the attention focused on business imperatives. We did this because business priorities drive the promotion, not technology. Test this view of the world when evaluating digital promotions vendors by asking one or two “pocket protector” questions. If the vendor answers with a litany of technical gobbledygook, be careful. Hard-core technologists seek the unattainable zero failure rate, but ordinary business people understand that the manner in which technology responds to failures is more important than designing technical features for “the ideal world.”