WHAT started with a US$5 airtime win has ended with Edgar Sadomba driving away in a brand new Hyundai i10 after more than 1.3 million entries were submitted in Coca-Cola’s FIFA World Cup promotion.
Sadomba’s route to the grand prize was anything but instant.
He entered the promotion after buying Coca-Cola and initially won US$5 worth of airtime. Another attempt brought him US$1.
Encouraged by the small wins, Sadomba continued entering codes from promotional Coca-Cola products, even as colleagues began teasing him about his persistence.
He also missed out when the first vehicle draw was conducted.
Instead of abandoning the promotion, Sadomba continued submitting entries, unaware that another car was still up for grabs.
“It was not easy because the bar codes were too small to read,” he told guests during the official vehicle handover at the Coca-Cola plant in Graniteside, Harare, on Tuesday.
His persistence eventually paid off in unexpected fashion.
Sadomba said his phone battery had gone flat and, when he eventually switched the device back on, he received the call that changed the outcome of his campaign.
“Fortunately, when I switched it on, a call came through from a Coca-Cola official saying I had won the ultimate prize,” he said.
Sadomba received the keys to a white Hyundai i10 during a ceremony attended by his wife, Clementine Nyamundanda, relatives and company representatives.
He admitted that his regular consumption of Coca-Cola had become something of a joke among his workmates before producing an unlikely reward.
“I used to buy Coca-Cola almost every day because I’m an addict, and I would take the code and enter and some of my workmates used to laugh at me,” Sadomba said.
“Little did I know that the addiction would earn me this super brand new car.”
Delta Sparkling Beverages marketing executive Dr Claybough Mapfumo said the promotion attracted more than 1.3 million entries, highlighting the scale of competition Sadomba overcame to secure the vehicle.
“It was a tough and stiff competition indeed, but here he is reaping the fruits,” Mapfumo said.
“Today is about more than receiving the keys to a vehicle. It is about turning an ordinary consumer moment into an extraordinary experience.”
Mapfumo said Coca-Cola had sought to use its association with football to bring some of the excitement surrounding the FIFA World Cup closer to Zimbabwean consumers.
“Football brings people together across generations, communities and borders, and the FIFA World Cup captures that spirit perhaps better than any other sporting event,” he said.
“Through this promotion, we wanted our consumers to experience some of that excitement, anticipation and possibility here at home.”
Coca-Cola Operations Executive Henry Nyoni said the campaign was designed around the company’s relationship with football and its consumers.
“At Coca-Cola, we believe football is a shared emotion that unites us all,” Nyoni said.
“Through this campaign, our goal was to bring the global magic and excitement of the World Cup directly to our passionate local consumers.”
For Sadomba, however, the promotion became a lesson in persistence.
After collecting small airtime prizes, missing out in an earlier vehicle draw and enduring jokes from colleagues, he kept entering.
That persistence eventually turned a routine Coca-Cola purchase into the biggest prize of the campaign: a brand new car.
