BIC SA WINNER JETS OFF TO LONDON
TO SEE P!NK LIVE IN CONCERT

The lucky winner of BIC's Cristal Gel PINK Competition, which ran earlier this year, is about to board an aeroplane bound for London, UK, and embark on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the Internationally renowned performer, P!NK, live in concert at the 02 Arena in North Greenwich, in the London leg of her PINK Funhouse Europe Tour. Saskia Dillen (16) who hails from Stellenbosch, Cape Town, still can't believe that she is the lucky winner of this awesome prize, which also includes all Hotel accommodation plus R20,000 spending money, and will be travelling with her sister Katelijne.

BIC's Cristal Gel PINK Competition ran from May 2009 to October 2009, and was communicated through various University campus activations nationally, promotional point-of-sale at various retail outlets and print advertisements in popular magazine as well as online and via Mixit. Saskia entered BIC's Cristal Gel PINK Competition after seeing it advertised in the HEAT magazine, and she only entered once via SMS! .

"Beside the fact that I thought the prize was really cool, I was motivated to enter because the cost of the SMS was so affordable! When I received a number of messages on my cell phone from Purple Hat Advertising, informing me that I had won a fantastic prize and urging me to return the call I really thought it was some kind of joke!” Saskia laughs. “Thankfully, my sister convinced me to return their call, and I couldn't believe it when they told me about the awesome prize I had won! I still don’t think I actually believed it was really happening to me, until the confirmation email came through a little later that day!”

"The main objective of the campaign was to increase sales in the stationery category, focusing on the BIC Cristal Gel pens over this period. The campus activation was also a perfect platform to launch BIC’s New Cristal Clic Gel pen into the market, but we also believe in rewarding our local consumers with great prizes. We received thousand of entries from all around the country via a WAP site, a competition website and SMS," says Millicent Quoilin, Marketing manager of BIC SA Stationery.

“As the world’s leading manufacturer of ballpoint pens, BIC is perhaps best known as a producer of writing instruments (in addition to ballpoints, the writing product range includes rollers, refillable fountain pens, felt pens, pencils and mechanical pencils, permanent markers, highlighters and some of which are produced under the Sheaffer (R) and Stypen (R) trademarks,” Quoilin adds.

The BIC brand also produces correction fluids, pens and tape as well as erasers (under the key sub-brands Bic Wite Out and Tipp-Ex) and also has an exciting range of colouring and drawing products under the BIC Kids brand.

Quoilin explains that the brand’s aims in this area include maintaining a high presence for all products, improving the quality (through, for example, the use of new inks and grips) of classic products whilst expanding product lines, and adding more value by launching new products designed on a platform of innovation.

She notes with pride that 24 million BIC stationery products are bought every day, and that each BIC ballpoint is able to write for two kilometres.

"BIC SA would like to congratulate Saskia on her fantastic win! We hope she and her sister have an unforgettable experience that they will treasure for the rest of their lives!" Millicent concludes.