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Service

Mobile competitions

The mechanic that has driven South African FMCG marketing for two decades, run properly. Entry capture across the channel the consumer actually uses, prize sourcing, a draw that holds up to audit, and the CPA-compliant paperwork so you do not have to chase it.

What we mean by end-to-end

"End-to-end" gets used loosely in this industry. When we use it on this page, here is what we are actually responsible for once the brief is signed off.

  1. Mechanic design. What does the consumer do to enter, why will they bother, and what does that mechanic actually cost to run at the target entry volume.
  2. Channel build. The USSD menu, the WhatsApp flow, the SMS shortcode, the web fallback if there is one.
  3. Terms and conditions. Drafted to CPA Regulation 11. Reviewed by the brand's legal where they have one.
  4. Prize sourcing. If the brand has not pre-bought the prize pool, we will source it. Vehicles, electronics, vouchers, travel, cash — all in our supplier book.
  5. Live monitoring. Daily entry volumes, fraud detection, network-side issues caught and escalated in real time rather than discovered at the end-of-campaign reconciliation.
  6. Winner draw. Random selection, recorded, replayable. We do not pick winners on a spreadsheet someone could quietly edit.
  7. Notification and fulfilment. Winner contact, ID verification, prize logistics, the photo for the press release.
  8. Reconciliation and the audit file. Numbers, costs, entries, winners, dates, consent records. Everything the regulator might ask for, in one folder.

Why brands come to us instead of building in-house

The mechanic looks simple on the brief. It is not, once you start running one. The boring parts — winner data integrity, network reconciliation, prize delivery timing, T&C drafting — are where in-house campaigns quietly go wrong. The big-budget hero campaign is fine; the rolling weekly draws on a smaller brand are where the wheels fall off. We do not skip the boring parts because we have learned which ones become expensive later.

The credentials, briefly

We are WASPA-registered (mandatory for any service running on Vodacom, MTN, Cell C or Telkom Mobile networks — the operators do not let you on without it). We are a verified Meta Business Partner for the WhatsApp side. We have direct technical integration into all four South African network operators for the USSD and SMS legs. The combination matters because a single campaign often touches more than one channel.

Frequently asked

Which channel should I use for a competition — SMS, USSD or WhatsApp?
It depends on the audience and the mechanic. For a mass-market consumer promotion where you need every till-slip entrant including the LSM-7-and-below audience, USSD wins. For an opt-in journey that involves multimedia, a verification quiz or any kind of conversation, WhatsApp wins. For pure-broadcast announcements to a known opted-in base, SMS still does its job. We will tell you which one based on the brief, and we are happy to argue against the channel you arrived with if we think it is the wrong call.
What does the Consumer Protection Act require for a promotional competition?
Regulation 11 of the CPA Regulations covers promotional competitions. The short version: you need a written copy of the rules available to every entrant, the rules must specify how winners are chosen and notified, the prize must be awarded within a specified time, and you must keep records of entries and the draw for at least three years. The National Consumer Commission can and does audit. We build the audit trail into every campaign so the file is ready to hand over.
Can the prize be cash, or does it have to be goods?
Either. Cash prizes are common and legal. The more common pitfall is the prize-fulfilment timeline — the rules will state when prizes are delivered, and missing that date is a CPA breach. We coordinate fulfilment so the dates in the terms are dates we can hit.
Do you handle the actual draw and winner audit?
Yes. Random selection from the entry pool, witnessed by a second party where the brand wants the extra rigour, with the seed and the algorithm recorded so a third party can verify the draw was actually random. We have done this with everything from a R500 voucher up to vehicle giveaways.
What does a fully-managed competition cost?
Hard to give a single number — it scales with the prize pool, the entry volume, the channel, the run length and how much of the back-end the brand is asking us to handle versus running in-house. Small once-off promotions start around R30,000. Multi-month campaigns with hero prizes and multi-channel entry typically run between R150,000 and R500,000 all-in.

Brief us on your next competition

Whether the prize is a Polo or a R250 voucher, the rigour is the same. Get in touch.

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