Win a Holiday with Kikkoman

A simply-executed promotion to win a holiday in Japan from one of my favourite brands.

Kikkoman Soy Sauce is one of my most loved food products. Those beautiful teardrop bottles with the bright red top are Japan’s answer to the Coca-Cola bottle; the unctuous almost-black liquid provides the backdrop for simple, understated typography. And of course it would be nothing without the taste. It pains me even to see the cheap brands of watered-down soy sauce on display in the supermarkets. They look awful, taste worse and yet they sell.

Thankfully, Kikkoman is ramping up its marketing and currently have an on-pack promotion to win a holiday for two in Japan. It’s a simple and effective prize, with secondary prizes of branded cooking aprons.

To enter, I went to www.kikkoman-promotion.co.uk and entered my unique code, name, email and postcode. I was told immediately that I hadn’t won but Kikkoman missed a trick here to drive the consumer on through the journey. Clearly this is a data collection exercise so it’ll be interesting to see how Kikkoman follow up.

The Kikkoman bottle was created by Japanese designer Kenji Ekuan. It took him 3 years to perfect and was released in 1961. He witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima when he was 16 and was inspired by it to be a creator of beautiful, useful things.