“The competition ran in The Times, Daily Dispatch and Sunday Times newspapers,” says Michelle Hargreaves, from Penquin International. Hargreaves specialises in newspaper-based competition concepts. “Responses vary according to the brand, entry criteria and prizes on offer. With a cheeky Suzuki Swift as the prize, we expected a good response but had no idea that it would be this successful,” she explains. Over the twelve days of the competition, 14,818 cut-out entry forms were submitted - in person - at the entrants' nearest Suzuki dealers. “That's thousands of feet through dealership doors purely as a result of this competition,” confirms Hargreaves.
A Port Elizabeth resident, Ntombizodumo Dube, is the deserving winner of a Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLS AT. As an educator of special needs children, Dube dedicates her life to identifying and developing their talents so that they are able to work, support themselves and contribute positively to society. “When I got the call I thought it was an April Fool's joke but then I realised that April fools day was long passed,” she says, smiling.
Suzuki also ran a concurrent SMS competition in the three newspapers, offering daily cash prizes of R2,000. Readers were required to SMS a daily code word to enter. “We received 12,038 SMS entries in total, over the two week campaign. We gave away a total of R120,000,” says Hargreaves.
“Suzuki is very happy with these overwhelming results and they are delighted that the winner is so deserving of this wonderful Suzuki Swift,” says Account Manager, Veronica Weinstein, from Penquin International.
