Free Flights Promotion

Why it works

In August 1992 Hoover's British business, trying to shift vacuum cleaners and washing machines in a recession, promised two free return flights to anyone who spent £100 on its products. The first offer was for European destinations; a second, to the United States, followed while the first was already struggling. The flights were worth far more than the appliances, so people bought the offer rather than the product. Hoover had planned for about 50,000 applicants and got around 200,000, putting its factory on a seven-day week. The scheme leaned on deterrents, including tight deadlines, unwanted dates and pressure to buy costly extras, which drew a BBC Watchdog investigation, a customer pressure group and years of small-claims cases. Three senior Hoover executives lost their jobs in 1993, the bill reached £48m and about 220,000 people eventually flew. It is taught as a classic promotion disaster: an untested offer too generous to honour, which the Advertising Standards Authority later called an example of "what not to do".