Beyond discounts: Introducing creative currencies in promotions

Yet, for all their prevalence, promotions are also the single most costly activity in marketing, with an estimated 20% of revenue discounted away every year. And for most brands, the return on that investment isn't nearly what it should be.

That’s why today, we're launching “Creative currencies in promotions” — a new report that explores why most promotions fall short, and what brands can do differently. Developed with contributions from WPP Enterprise Solutions and Mando, we look at how to run effective promotions that are great for the customer, business, and brand, backed up with new research from thousands of global consumers.

For too long, promotions have been treated as a blunt instrument — a price cut dressed up as strategy. Most brands default to the same playbook: simple discounts, cashback, and short-term offers repeated quarter after quarter. The results can look compelling in the moment — customers respond, revenue spikes — but there's a longer-term cost that rarely shows up.

At Talon.One, we call this the discount death spiral: a cycle in which otherwise strong brands unwittingly train their customers to wait for the next price cut, eroding margin and premium perception with every repetition.

Our research, based on a survey of 2,000 UK consumers, puts numbers to the problem:

Promotions are everywhere. But meaningful promotional experiences are rare — and the gap between how much brands invest in them and how much customers actually value them is significant.

One of the most persistent myths in marketing is that creative promotions are risky, that customers want simplicity, and that anything beyond a discount is a gamble. Our research tells a different story.

In a study conducted with System1 Group across 1,800 consumers in six global markets, gamified promotions frequently scored higher than discount-based offers on the dimensions that matter most for long-term brand building: being unique, exciting, and memorable. These are the qualities that drive brand salience and sustained customer engagement.

Other creative mechanics reinforce the point. Gift with purchase, instant win, collect-to-get, and prize draws all deliver strong engagement and, in some cases, rival traditional discount-based approaches on participation.

While discounts drive immediate response, more creative promotions have a greater ability to build brand impact, create memorable experiences, and avoid over-reliance on price.

The takeaway is simple. Creative promotions are not niche or experimental. They are already a viable, competitive alternative to discount-led strategies.

This is where the idea of creative currencies comes in.

In the report, we introduce eight distinct ways brands can create value through promotions beyond simple financial incentives. These range from gamified mechanics and cultural moments to social recognition, aspirational rewards, and purpose-driven initiatives.

The creative currencies are, at their core, a reframing of value. Price is one form of value. But so is exclusivity, recognition, play, purpose, and belonging. The brands winning on promotions understand this. They are not asking how much to discount, but what their customers actually care about.

Creativity in promotions isn't just about the concept. It's about having the infrastructure to bring that concept to life — consistently, quickly, and across every channel where your customers are.

The pressure on marketing teams to deliver short-term results isn't going away. But the brands that will come out ahead aren't the ones with the most aggressive price cuts. They're the ones building promotions that customers actually look forward to, engage with, and remember long after the offer has expired.