Renegade big screen TV manufacturer Kogan's World Cup Brazilian Million ambush, offering a million dollars to a player who could correctly guess the outcome of 48 matches, has delivered data in droves to the company but not much chance of a winner.
Sources suggest that just three people remain in the running for the prize after the group stage of the tournament, with the odds of someone going the distance and winning the million having dwindled to virtually zero.
The brand launched the promotion ahead of the FIFA World Cup despite not being an official partner of the tournament.
Contestants had to enter the competition through the brand's Facebook page, creating a valuable stream of data for Kogan.
Kogan then used some of the data to drive media awareness with stories such as 70% of participants not believing Australia would win a match, further boosting its unofficial association with the tournament.
Kogan has defended the stunt and its difficulty.
“It's very hard and that's where there is a million dollars on offer. We wouldn't be offering a million dollars to anybody who can pat their head and rub their stomach at the same time," Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan said.
“We wanted to create a bit of hype around the World Cup because we are in the business of selling big screen TVs.
“In think that people are smart enough to understand that if they have to have to pick the results of 48 consecutive events that their chances are very small. It was more around having fun around it.”
Kogan refused to confirm how many people were left in the draw and defended the data-mining that the company undertook as a result of the promotion, saying it was at the core of his business.
“We are a statistics business masquerading as a retailer so we pride ourselves on the abilty to be able to communicate relevant offers and deals to people who would be interested. Our business is driven by statistics in the background and so that was a benefit of the exercise, there is no doubt about it.
During the promotion the number of likes on the Kogan Facebook page has swelled to more than 629,000.
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