The Reluctant Millionaire

How did H&R Block convince its $1 million winner to come forward? Katie Couric, take a bow.

Until his sister-in-law saw the bouquet of flowers at the H&R Block office in Turnersville, NJ, Glen Sims didn’t believe he’d won.

Block picked Sims’ name from among the 17 million customers automatically entered in its Million Dollar Giveaway sweeps after they had used the tax preparer’s services last spring (January PROMO).

But when Arrowhead Promotion and Fulfillment Co. called to tell Sims he’d won, he thought it was a scam to get his Social Security number. Sims threw out the affidavit and release forms that Grand Rapids, MN-based Arrowhead mailed him, blew off three follow-up phone calls, and ignored a letter from Block headquarters with ad slicks verifying that the contest was for real.

“I’ve been doing this for 17 years and I’ve never had to get involved to this degree to get a winner to come forward,” says Block director of consumer promotions Kevan Neff. “Here’s a million dollars staring [him] in the face; I’ve seen people get more excited about winning a can of Pepsi.”

Block and its agency, Minneapolis-based Campbell-Mithun, were torn between keeping the integrity of third-party fulfillment and stepping in to assure Sims that the reward was genuine.

Neff drafted his own letter to Sims, but when Block’s legal department got through with it, “they made it sound like a direct-mail solicitation,” he says. Ironically, the trickier phrases — “you are a potential winner” and “if you qualify” — are standard promo-speak designed to protect consumers and marketers. “Qualifications” may mean only that the recipient is over 18, is a U.S. citizen, and is not an employee of the sponsor, but it makes consumers suspicious. In the end, efforts to shield consumers from fraud may be the biggest contributor to the current mood of mistrust.

Nearing the July 6 acceptance deadline, Block tried a p.r. plea. Marketing vp Joe Sevcik appeared on Today begging the winner to come forward. Katie Couric said, “They’re going to start calling him an H&R Blockhead,” and asked if the company had considered a Publishers Clearing House-style Prize Patrol. Sevcik said Block thought about it, but since it was an auto-entry sweeps, the winner hadn’t authorized prize acceptance ahead of time.

Bogus offers have made people “generally more cautious and skeptical,” Sevcik said on the air. “Some of that’s very healthy,” but misplaced in this case. “We want him to have this money.”

Sims’ father-in-law saw the show, but didn’t know his relative was the winner. “He told me, ‘Some shmoe in Washington Township is turning down $1 million,’” Sims said in a press conference. “I told him, ‘That shmoe is me.’”

Block and its anonymous winner got national news coverage as media outlets picked up the story.

After the Today interview, Neff got Sims’ wife on the phone. “She was still very blasé about it,” but got her husband to call back. Neff arranged to meet the couple two days later on July 5 — one day before Block’s deadline — in the Turnersville office where they had their taxes done.

Sims’ sister-in-law checked the place out first while he and his wife waited in the car. The flowers and video camera tipped her off that it was for real.

It wasn’t until he was halfway through signing the affidavits that Sims started getting excited. He talked about buying a new truck and taking the honeymoon he and his wife never had 10 years ago.

Sims agreed to a Today interview and a press conference at the local Block office. He attributes his skepticism to living on the East Coast, “where we hang onto our wallets and ladies clutch their purses.”

Ironically, the same Midwestern friendliness that made Sims skeptical in the first place finally won him over. “I kept getting referred to [in Sims’ interviews] as ‘the sincere gentleman from H&R Block,’” Neff laughs. Sims’ wife told Orvik that the Arrowhead rep who first called “‘sounded like my best friend,’ and that put her off,” Orvik recalls.

Arrowhead set up annuity payments and Block has left the family alone. But its post-mortem offers a few lessons. “In retrospect, our automatic entry [meant he] was vaguely aware of the sweepstakes, and had filed it away in the back of his brain somewhere,” says Neff.

If Block ever does an automatic entry again, it’ll make sure consumers know they’re participating. “Automatic entry was the right way to go this year because it’s easier for offices to implement,” says Tom Tessman, Campbell-Mithun senior vp-director of promotion. Any future sweeps will include a tracking mechanism for traffic, he adds.

Block also may make winners’ notification more official-looking, with Block letterhead and ads as proof. “We could have alleviated many of his concerns at first, if we had said, ‘You entered the sweeps when you had your taxes done at this office by this preparer,’” says Neff.

“Clients trust us with their information,” Neff says. “We can’t let even a promotion waiver from that.”

And be careful with words like “waiver.”