UNDER the cover of darkness, he sneaks into the warehouses and dodges those working on a late shift to deposit a surprise into a mystery crate.
It sounds like the plot of a Mission Impossible film, but it’s the bizarre life of Jeremy Stern, whose job is to hide prizes in Cadbury treats, Walkers crisps and Cornflakes packets before they’re distributed around the UK.
It’s a job like no other and has seen the CEO of marketing agency PromoVeritas, from London, creep into -20C freezers to deliver special promotions for the world’s favourite brands.
Jeremy quit a “six-figure salary” in marketing 20 years ago to become a “real-life Willy Wonka” and has planted millions of pounds worth of prizes.
From luxury holidays to Vespa scooters and million pound cheques, he’s deposited the lot. Now he’s revealed the secrets behind upping your odds and scooping the big prizes.
He told The Sun: “We have literally been in a factory putting £5 notes inside packets of biscuits, have made singing chocolate bars and hidden messages on wine bottle corks.
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“Once we replaced Dairylea Triangles with a light-activated sound chip that made a mooing sound. If you found one you won £10,000.
“We also made 700 plastic Cornettos; inside was not ice cream, it was the key to a brand new Vespa scooter – and a voucher for another ice cream.
“For that one I had to wear a giant astronaut-like suit to deal with going into the -20C warehouse for several hours to plant prizes.
“When you go into factories you have to make sure no one is following you. I go late at night – because there are fewer staff – and have to make up excuses to go inside the lorries.
“We’ve given away millions of pounds, luxury holidays and meet and greets with celebrities like Mariah Carey.”
PromoVeritas ensure prizes, promotions and competitions are “implemented fairly” to avoid fix claims.
“We call ourselves ‘promotions bodyguards’ because we protect brands from complaints and make sure things are done properly and fairly,” Jeremy said.
The way they distribute prizes depends on the value, how many they’re handing out and where the biggest number of consumers live.
Jeremy said: “If there are 70 per cent of sales in Birmingham, we would ensure 70 per cent of the winners are there.”
If more consumers shop in supermarkets, they’re more likely to plant the prizes there than in a small corner shop.
“We try to make it as fair as possible, so if there is just one single shop on the banks of Loch Ness we are probably not going to go there,” he said.
After dropping off a batch of winning items in an area, they can be found very quickly by the public – once, in Glasgow, Jeremy said there were calls within half an hour of them planting prizes.
Finding trustworthy people to deposit the winning tickets is no easy task.
Jeremy said: “Most of our auditors are retired or part-time magistrates, because they’re trustworthy and won’t do anything stupid.”
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Jeremy added: “I’ve been compared to the Easter Bunny and to Willy Wonka, which is ironic because I’ve also planted golden tickets with a Cadbury campaign.
“I absolutely love what I do. I enjoy knowing that we are making people happy and the sound of their excitement when they call us to claim their prizes is really thrilling.”
