Spawned by HTA-Direct in November 1998, to jump-start demand during the recession, the concept behind the shopping festival-and-contest was simple: HTA-Direct would bring together 30 to 34 non-competing brands on a common, nationwide, advertising and shopping platform called `Lucky '99-Shopping Blast.'

Initially, the contest/campaign was scheduled to run from January 1 to January 31, 1999. To participate, all a consumer had to do was buy a product of any one of the participating brands. Fill in the forms for the contest which would beavailable at the showrooms of the participating brands, and post the entry to compete for a slew of lucky draw prizes. The contest would have focussed on 23 cities with a population greater than 10 lakh and HTA-Direct expected at least 20 lakh contestants.

On the corporate side, HTA-Direct had several schemes for participation. A company could contribute either Rs 6.75 lakh in cash or Rs 5.5 lakh in prizes, and win the corporate brandname an honourable mention in all the Lucky '99 advertising. Or a company could contribute Rs 15 lakh in cash, which would get the corporate brandname and product a prominent position on the Lucky '99 campaign. Plus for a handsome consideration of Rs 62 lakh, the Lucky '99 project was to have had one main sponsor.

HTA-Direct's calculations? "If all 34 companies came together, we would have had Rs 3.5 crore in the kitty. But the total media impact and coverage would have been as high as Rs 9.3 crore thanks to HTA's media-buying power," says Bhatia. Moreover, it was meant tohave been a win-win situation all around. The benefits were meant to be as follows:

* For the consumer, there were three levels of prizes. Two Air-India tickets would be given away on a daily basis. A Maruti Zen and a Maruti 800 would be given away every week. And the final mega-draw prize at the end of the contest was a Ford Escort. In addition, 1,999 prizes would be given every week. In all, a total of 20,000 prizes would be given away over five weeks.

To ensure that the chances of a person buying a television set were the same as that of one spending much less on a pair of branded sunglasses, HTA-Direct planned to separate entries into two classes--those who had purchased goods priced above Rs 10,000, and those below Rs 10,000. The prizes would be divided equally between the two categories.

* Participating companies stood to gain exposure and visibility. HTA-Direct's pitch: a ticket price of Rs 15 lakh would win a brand an overall visibility of Rs 9.3 crore. Two, with a company's brand exclusive tothe category, the company stood to gain by getting its brand into the considered set of the consumer--HTA-Direct reckoned that as high as a five to six per cent switch in brand loyalties could take place because of the campaign.

Finally, Lucky '99 would also cause preponement of purchase--HTA-Direct expected at least a four per cent rise in sales for participating brands, on this account. Says Bhatia, ``We estimated there could be a total of 20 per cent increase in sales in terms of pulling power.''

* For HTA, the pay-off was in terms of the billings involved. If all 34 companies signed up, the account would total a whopping Rs 3.5 crore. According to Bhatia, the HTA media-plan had earmarked Rs 2 crore of the Lucky '99 advertising for the press, Rs 30 lakh for magazines, and Rs 7 crore on television. Of course, the media coverage was to have leveraged on HTA's strength in terms of tie-ups, contest management, data-management, etc.

For the television advertising for example, HTA planned to tie-up withone channel exclusively, and work out a deal where an additional five-second spot would be provided to brands already advertising on the channel--for free.

Unfortunately, the idea failed to take off. For one, the project had too short a gestation period and many companies were not able to confirm participation quickly. Companies willing to contribute Rs 15 lakh were LML, Yamaha Escorts, Goodyear, and Onida, while those willing to contribute in prizes were: Air India, Ford Escort, Maruti, Rayban, Pantaloon, Zodiac, Sleepwell, Maxima Watches, Outlook, Trigger Jeans, Oberoi Hotels, and Spice Telecom.

Only two companies were willing to pay Rs 6.75 lakh: Reebok and HPCL. But perhaps, the main hitch was HTA-Direct's inability to bag a main sponsor. Pointing out that the agency managed to bag Rs 1 crore worth of prices, Bhatia says, "We needed a minimum of Rs 2.5 crore to run the promotion."

To that end, HTA-Direct is still shopping for sponsors--one option being Pepsi. Admits the Pepsi spokesperson, "We arestill studying the proposal. We have not taken a decision so far." Optimistic that it will be able to get the project going latest by March 1999, HTA-Direct is at present waiting and watching--for better luck in 1999.