The soft drinks market is awash with promotions just now - as it should be this time of year. Perusing the offerings, my eye was caught by three of the brands with cash prizes on offer: Vimto, Ribena and Pepsi. While ostensibly they target different audiences, in the supermarket we're talking adult consumer, like it or not - a single purse or wallet from which to get your share. ............................................................................................................................................... Vimto's proposition is to win £10,000 - one prize, drawn at random from entrants to an online Cluedo game. Oddly, the url on the pack doesn't seem to work. (There's also a second-tier offer for a special edition of Cluedo, at £9.99 - but that's another story.) The trouble with cash - cash prizes, that is - is that sooner or later someone comes along and trumps you. ............................................................................................................................................... Sure enough... further down the fixture there's Ribena: "Win £1,000 a day." It says there's £94k up for grabs, with a grand a day from 1 July to 1 October. (I make that 93 days, but maybe there's a secret formula in action.) ............................................................................................................................................... Just when Ribena think they've cracked it... along comes Pepsi: "Win a £1,000 every 90 minutes." Take that, Mary Queen of Scots. Indeed, the Pepsi budget dwarfs its competitors, £308k by my calculations. (Although 'curiously' - euphemism - the 90-minute bit only lasted from 22 April to 21 May... after that it switched to a single draw for £1k a month... but you have to fight your way through the small print to discover this fact.) ............................................................................................................................................... Quite a bevy of promotional beauties... revealed as not all that they're got up to be when you get close enough. But the average shopper doesn't generally go in for this kind of sleuthing job, so it's often the prettiest face that wins the admirers. ............................................................................................................................................... Of course, it would be ingenuous of me to act like I think promotions are just trying to stimulate a one-off purchase. As we all know, they're many times more effective at generating repeat participation (and preferably repeat purchase). Looked at in this light, some of the mechanics have been thought out more thoroughly than others.