PB Diamonds Dazzle You U Deposit Contest
Opened to all Public Bank’s deposit or foreign currency accountholders, individual, business and institutional depositors, the ‘PB Diamonds Dazzle U’ deposits contest offers not cash, but diamonds to the winners.
Quick Facts
- Contest Period: 1 May to 31 December ‘07
- Total number of prizes: 288
- Total prize money: RM665,900 worth of diamond
- Prizes (diamond): 1x RM200,000; 1x RM100,000; 1x RM66,000; 1x RM45,000; 5x RM15,000; 5x RM10,000; 10 consolation prize of RM6,500; 33 monthly prize of RM5,300
How and What
Comparing with other contest, the Diamond contest is simpler - participants only need to maintain a minimum monthly average balance of RM3,000 where each RM1,000 is given one entry. Therefore by ‘default,’ every participant would have 3 shots at the diamonds. This contest also offers more monthly prizes - 33 for each month for 8 consecutive months. All entries will be automatically tracked. No contest forms, SMSes etc are required. If you are a PB account holders, you might already taking part in the contest without knowing it.
The Caveat
Some would say diamond is forever but more would say cash is king. The value of the diamond is based on retail value, therefore the face value should be discontented by at least 30% - especially in the event that you want to exchange the diamond with cash. For any buy back, retailers usually offer at best 70% of the purchase price. Also, there weren’t any information on the 4Cs of the diamond thus making it hard to evaluate the prizes in monetary terms.
Bottom Line
This diamond deposit contest is easy and simple to enter. Easy because you only need RM3,000 and if you could maintained that amount for the next 8 months, you would get 24 chances to lay your hand on those diamond. On the other hand, doing away with the ‘incremental’ (top-up) requirement that is confusing and difficult to monitor, you need not do anything else after parting with the money. The only problem is if you win at all, is how to cash out that diamond.
In conclusion, PB Diamond Dazzle U deposit contest is very much like a loyalty campaign - the contest rewards PB account holders for keeping their money with the bank for a sufficient long periods. In another way, you can also look at it as a ‘defensive’ strategy where PB aims to keep its deposit account holders from defecting to rival banks that aggressively wowing for deposits with deposit contests.
[This is the final installment of the 4-part series on deposit contest]