Mark Titus, Business Reporter

Last year, the giveaways were spectacular as the mobile giants jockeyed for market share by dazzling customers with expensive cars and lots of cash.

Then the recession happened, and while the 'Big Three' are rolling out new promotions, none matches up to the 2008 'shock-and-awe' prizes, and the advertisements and displays on street signs, and walls and billboards, and vehicles, and that eye-catching Digicel blimp.

Digicel, Claro and LIME all claimed to have generated massive new business from the undisclosed investments in those promotions, making it difficult to assess whether the returns in new clientele were sufficient to cover the outlay.

This year, the promotions have already begun, but matched against last year, are a lot more tepid.

Digicel, boasting some two million subscribers, was the first out of the blocks with its 'Digicel-Christmas-with-great-deals' promotion.

Buy a new cellular phone worth less than $4,500 on a pre-paid plan and you get $1,200 and a bag; buy a phone costing more than $4,500 and you get the same amount of call credit, plus an MP4 player.

Post-paid customers will get a free high-end handset - ranging from Samsung E2210, to the Sony Ericsson W302, to the Nokia E63 and to the BlackBerry Curve 8900 - with their purchase of any Digicel post-paid plan. Both subscriber classes are automatically entered into a weekly draw to win a Sony Home Theatre System.

Later, Digicel also rolled out 'Gimme Five', giving away to all two million customers free talk time, text and international calling.

But these specials pale compared to the 14 Mini Cooper cars, each valued at about $4.2 million, that were offered to one customer in each parish last year.

"The challenging economy this year has meant that we had to become more innovative in how we deliver value to our customers," said Mark Linehan, chief executive officer for Digicel Jamaica.

"The feedback from our customers on our products, services and promotions for 2009 has been fantastic and we will continue to drive innovation and value into the market."

Jacqueline Burrell-Clarke, corporate communications manager at Digicel, declined to reveal the marketing budget for Christmas, saying it was included in the private company's overall financial plan.

Claro Jamaica did not respond to queries, but calls to the customer-care centre elicited information on a free phone on offer, a Nokia 1208, but subscribers are being told not to expect a repeat of the previous year when nine luxury C-class Mercedes Benz cars, with a price tag of $6.5 million each, were on offer.

It wasn't clear, however, whether a version of last year's weekly $1 million prizes would be repeated, though the suggestion was that it would not.

LIME is offering $12 million in prizes, featuring two draws each week in which customers can win cash, mobile handsets and vouchers for groceries and petrol.

New landline, mobile and Internet customers will also be rewarded with special free gifts and discounts on service contracts. New customers signing up for a one-year contract for any post-paid service will receive one month free of charge, while those signing up for two-year contracts will get two months free.

Depending on the cost of the phone, one can win either 50 per cent, or one or two phones with the one purchased. LIME will also offer $1 million to four winners.

Last year, the company forked out US$1 million (J$80 million), but this prize was a LIME Caribbean promotion available to customers in all 13 markets in the region.

"The current economic climate has served to increase our drive to ensure that we spend ourmarketing dollar effectively," said Wayne Lawrence, vice-president of marketing for LIME Jamaica.

"We will always seek to drive maximum value and return from every dollar spent and to ensure that both existing and potential customers are able to benefit."

LIME's rivals extend beyond mobile to fixed-line broadband, where Flow Jamaica has made strong inroads.

"While the other landline operators are just getting up to speed with modern technology and are only now introducing features, such as direct international dialling to their customers, Flow's customers have been enjoying direct international dialling from launch of our services," said Director of Marketing Sharon Roper.

For $995 this Christmas, Flow bundled international and local calls into one package in their 'Big Up Christmas' promotion.

The plan gives unlimited calling options to landlines in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and offers direct international inward dialling (or virtual number service) allowing for foreign calls to be billed at local rates.

This represents a savipngs of more than 50 per cent to customers, the company said.

"We are also giving away free landline phones to every new customer," said Roper.

Other promotions are targeted at bringing in new clients through reduced subscription rates to February and a once-a-week giveaway of a television set.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com