Football fever for Punch lessees as text message promo kicks off

Punch Pub Company licensees are bracing themselves for a prolonged dose of football fever as part of a text message promotion in association with Carling and Nightfly, the Diageo Great Britain-backed wireless media channel.

The text message-based football quiz, Forever Football, will be running in 750 Punch pubs in England and Wales.

Mobile phone users will receive a text message inviting them to visit their nearest participating Punch pub and collect a personalised game card. Customers will then have to answer three football-related questions, the first of which is on the game card, while the other two are sent as texts.

Three correct answers entitles the customer to a free pint of Carling and all players will also be entered into a prize draw to win one of five pairs of Premiership match tickets.

David Bremner, Punch Pub Company's marketing and promotions manager, said: "We see this as a great way of helping our licensees increase footfall in their pubs and to drive sales of a core product."

He added that licensees can utilise the information gathered from the Carling text promotion for future marketing initiatives.

"This promotion will build up a database of football enthusiasts and from that information we can easily create tailored text campaigns for any one of our pubs around an event or special occasion," Mr Bremner said.

"Text messaging is rapidly proving to be a highly targeted and cost effective marketing tool and together with key suppliers and licensees we want to exploit this technology to its full potential."