FAQs Promotional Scratchcards

YES - each promotion is individually branded, compartmentalised in its own space and unique to you.

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No Problem - we have bags of experience interpreting brand guidelines and implementing them effectively. If you have a specific requirement just ask - contact details here.

As soon as we receive your Order (here's the Order Form), we'll e-mail you Confirmation with a Checklist of the bits and pieces we need to prepare your promotion together with an invoice. The invoice can be paid via PayPal even if you don't have a PayPal account using any major credit or debit card. Or, you can send us a cheque.

As soon as we receive everything from the Checklist we'll prepare the files and pages for your promotion. This will take 2-3 days.

We'll then send you a proof so you can approve everything. Once it's approved and payment has been received your promotion can go live immediately.

If it's an e-mail game we'll break the list down into batches of between 200 and 500 per day (or less if you like) to spread the impact over several days.

If you can't find the answer to your question here please use the Contact page.

NO - we do all the set-up and design, and then host the promotion for you on our secure servers.

On our own secure servers. Each promotion has its own dedicated space and is ring-fenced from all others. And, as each promotion is individually branded, the outside world will see your pages as being a part of your overall web presence.

The majority of promotions are variations on a straightforward picture matching game. Ideal in many ways, as you can use product images or something specific to your business to reinforce the brand values or sales message.

With a little creative thinking, picture matching games can be anything from poker or pontoon to penalty shoot-outs; holiday destinations to gardening seeds.

Entirely up to you. You can have as many or as few as you like. And the value of prizes is yours to decide. For maximum promotional value it often makes sense to link the prizes to your products or services.

Again, entirely up to you. During set-up we tell the system how many of each category is required (1 x 1st, 3 x 2nd, 10 x 3rd for example). The system then tracks and counts the number of times each is displayed until the limit is reached. See also Prize Structure Suggestions.

Each page of your promotion (the game, "winner" and "loser" pages) will carry your name and logo. The game itself can carry the same, or any other title or branding that you might want that fits within the confines of the game space. The background for the game can be any image or colour you like, or you can opt for one of our stock backgrounds.

And, what hides beneath the scratch layer can also be anything you like: pictures of your products, variations of your logo, pictures of your Mum's cat and so on.

You can see a Sample Page here.

The graphics for the page your game appears on and the game itself can be fully customised. If you're unsure about any of the following there are downloadable templates here or we can sort it for you.

• We can accept: JPG, PSD, PNG, EPS, BMP, PDF, TIFF - JPG is the preferred option
• Page headers: 900x175 pixels
• Game title: 470x90 pixels
• Game background: 500x250 pixels
• Combined game title & background: see template for positioning
• Icons: 85x85 pixels

Please note: it is your responsibility to ensure that you have copyright on any images supplied.

Exact details will be on the Checklist that will follow your order: you specify which image combinations should be used for which prizes. The balance of "losing" combinations will then be generated randomly by the system.

Rather depends what you wish to achieve. If the promotion is aimed at a distinct group of people - your client base or a prospect list of new business targets, for example, e-mail will probably be your best bet as you can direct the promotion to whoever you choose.

If you're running a general promotion, open to anyone, or you want to increase website traffic, then a web link will suit you best.

If we do the e-mailing for you, the e-mails will come from an address "YourCompany@promotionalscratchcards.co.uk." Whereas if you do it, they will come from your address. Apart from the time it takes, the main advantage would be a "known" e-mail sender for your targets which may or may not be a benefit - your call!

There's one other difference: If we do the e-mailing no allowance is made for any wrong addresses - if you supply 1,000 addresses and a proportion is bounced or undelivered for any reason, you won't be able to make up the numbers. If you handle them yourself you'll be able to send replacements or resolve any address issues.

The system will only display the number of games ordered so if you do send more there's a chance that someone would miss out but only if everyone who is e-mailed opts to play. If this happens, an error message will be displayed informing the player that the promotion has ended.

We'll provide you with a link to the start page for your promotion together with a graphic of the game which you can add anywhere in your site.

As part of the promotion set-up, separate pages are created to handle the different prize categories. Each of these pages will carry your instructions for what the winner should do next: either e-mail you or telephone you.

YES - but we do it all for you. There is a format for promotions such as this with certain information that needs to be given such as dates, who's allowed to play, who the promoter is and so on. We'll ask you for this info on the Order Form to enable us to create your Ts & Cs.

If your promotion has time-related prizes, then "Yes". If the prizes are not time-related an end date isn't essential but it's probably worth setting a random date anyway just so it's not completely open-ended.

YES - we'll show you a proof of the game before anything is published.

Data is never shared with any 3rd parties and is deleted from the system as soon as the e-mails have been sent.

We've pursued a rigorous test regime to ensure the system can count any number of permutations to ensure you receive the correct combination of winners and losers for your promotion.

When we create your promotion the quantity of each category (1st prize, 2nd prize and so on) is entered into the system and a winners page is created for each category. The system then maintains a count as each game is displayed and played until the complete promotion has been displayed or the time limit reached.

Until such time as computers become absolutely reliable there is a small chance of a spanner in the works so if you're planning a high-value prize we suggest you take out Prize Insurance. Ask us for details.