Ben’s Original: Ben's Beginners Rice Buddies

Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products. Their confectionery brands include Milky Way, Bounty, and Twix, while their non-confectionery brands include Ben’s Original and Dolmio. Ben’s Original is an American brand of parboiled rice and other related food products. Match Marketing and their client, Mars, partnered with 3 tier logic to launch their national ‘Ben’s Beginners Rice Buddies’ gift with purchase program, exclusive to Canadian consumers. This was the fourth program activated with 3 tier logic for the Ben’s Original brand and the ninth overall with Mars.

Program Objectives

• Drive purchases and sales

• Increase brand engagement

• Improve brand loyalty

• Capture customer data

Strategy

3 tier logic used PLATFORM³ to create a microsite for Mars’s ‘Ben’s Beginners Rice Buddies’ gift with purchase promotion, leveraging the following modules:

• Contests and Promotions

• Purchase Receipt Validation

• Data Capture & Analytics

When consumers purchase five qualifying Ben’s Original products in one or multiple transactions from participating retailers, they are eligible to receive a physical gift of 3 Ben’s Original Rice Buddy molds. Through the Purchase Receipt Validation technology on PLATFORM³, customers can validate their purchase by registering and uploading a picture of their receipt(s) to the promotion microsite. Once their purchase(s) have been validated, customers receive their Rice Buddy molds via mail after the end of the promotion.

With 3 tier logic’s marketing software, PLATFORM³, Mars was able to capture meaningful insights on their consumers’ purchasing behavior throughout the duration of their promotion. The Data Capture & Analytics module provides information on user activity on the microsite. Mars is able to use this data to make informed business decisions for future promotions to continue driving sales and improving brand loyalty.