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"EXTRA EXTRA GAMEADAY ATTRACT PEOPLE TO SHOPS - WINNERS ANNOUNCED"

As the adjudicating officer for the retail store extra Gameaday prize(s) I, The Only Tony, hereby declare the official results of this competition.

While the quantity of entries was high the quality was "none too hot" with many "fantasy schemes" often involving females.

I must disallow any general suggestions of games championships as we did these last year and we are running them this year. I would have taken a different view if the ideas for these had been worked up into fully suggestions (with details).

As I am judging this I can hardly award my own "Two Can Play at This" idea the prize - though undoubtedly we will use something similar for an "introduce a friend" incentive.

YH had a good notion about working with schools and Meka came up with "People are Stupid" idea to give safety advice with every game!

Rakuga deserves a mention for persistence and I particularly liked his suggestion of a One Day Sale. IF we decide to do that then he will get a prize. The problem with one day sales is that once people get used to (even) lower prices they are resistant to buying at the normal prices.

Rakuga also suggested giving better directions to the shops.

I liked Namostar's idea of placing addresses of the shops on internet banners. We'll use this so Namostar - you are A WINNER.

The second winner is Fantasy Meister. He made a couple of reasonable suggestions including better promotion of Reddies. But his idea which caught my imagination was to print an 8 digit number on the receipts for people to match with a number on the internet. This gives us the possibility of running Gameaday in the shops. I'm not sure if we will actually use it but it is the best idea (in my view).

A difficult competition which has clearly stretched imaginations to the limit. Thank you for entering.

Congratulations to NAMOSTAR and FANTASY MEISTER and I won't forget Rakuga IF we use the one day sale idea.


***********

These are the original rules.

The next amazing Special Reserve competition (another one!) is to suggest ideas for attracting people into our Big Club Shops.

The main objective here is to think about the cost effectiveness of your ideas. In order for them to work they need to be, yes you guessed it, low on cost and high on impact.

If you haven't visited all or any of our shops then get yourself down to your local shop and check them out! Visit our Big Club Shops page for further details: http://special.reserve.co.uk/common/shops/shopsindex.php

This competition is open for 1 month and the best ideas that we USE will win a game as part of GAMEADAY. If no ideas are used then I will pick 1 winner that I deem the best.

CLOSING DATE: 27th July 2001 *********MIDNIGHT*********

The challenge has been set. Good luck!

I believe that gamers are in general already aware of the existence of Special Reserve shops, and are not really more likely to go into club shops for big promotions, but instead just go when they have money to spend, or when a specific game is out. Thats why i think any marketing campaign or display strategy should be focused on the selling of DVDs. The prices of your DVDs aren't that low, and most other large retailers often have large DVD sales which attract a LOT of people. The sale that HMV has at the moment for DVDs attracted so many people i couldn't even see what was on offer there was so many people. That's why a short-term advertised sale of DVDs would bring in a lot more interested people who wouldn't normally think of going into Special Reserve to buy their DVDs. I also think a short-term membership special should be brought in at the same time, i.e. Buy 3 DVDs and get free membership to Special Reserve: This type of strategy could increase the customer base significantly, and create new customer loyalties of people that previously went to the main hight-street retailers, but now may look at Special Reserve for their DVD, and consequently Gaming needs.

Why not have a competiton which is exclusive to the competition where people can design a mascot that will be used in future by special reserve, you could have prises for different age levels and an overall prise. Entries are given out when you buy something at the shop that costs more than 10 pounds

I think strategically placing scantily-clad ladies in the shops by the windows would have a miraculous effect in drawing people towards the front door

Why not have a game-a-day sort of thing in the shop... only not everyday, but say, every friday/saturday. Something like 'Come dressed as your favourite videogame character this friday and win a game!'. Would certainly make the shops more colourful, all those kitchen foil swords and lycra tights. :)

Why not stick a couple of arcade cabinets in the shop...

Or do Try Before you Buy (playing instore, not renting) stuff

I remember they used to do that at RAM electronics... and the shop was always busy with people comming in and out and chatting... Had a good little community spirit thing going on...

But then that was back in the eighties... ???

Perhaps all of the consoles you (we!?) sell should be on display in the stores and set up with with decent peripherals. eg. have a ps2 set up with SSX and the freestyler board, and Gran Turismo 3 and a steering wheel/chair to try out.

I don't think many shops have steering wheels etc set up to try out aswell as games...? Plus, even if people are not planning to buy anything they can still visit just to chill and try out some new products etc.

You could atract people to your Northampton shop by, umm, opening one here! :-)

You'd make a killing, I reckon.

The Game wrote:
> You could have special offers in selected shops.

I mean, you
> could sell Red Faction for £35.99 in general, but offer the
> game for £29.99 in Sawbridgeworth and Nottimgham!

I beat those are your nearest stores and I bet you don't own Red Faction but I can guess you want it? Do my pyschic powers amaze you? :D

Namostar wrote:
> kendozod wrote:
> Nice work everybody! Still a long time to go
> with this competition
> so keep those thinking caps
> on!
*****

"Ok thinking cap, activate". Namos thinking
> cap begins to shake, getting more and more violent at the second.
> The thinking cap, having run out of ideas, blows a fuse, as well as
> Namos head stright off of his body.

"Oh dear"


How
> long is there left on this compo?


Hi there,

Comp closes 27th July 2001. Plenty of time to fix your thinking cap, recharge your energy and get posting again!

Thanks for your suggestions so far and to everybody thanks as well.

You could have special offers in selected shops.

I mean, you could sell Red Faction for £35.99 in general, but offer the game for £29.99 in Sawbridgeworth and Nottimgham!