How VPAS Enabled Receipt Entry for a FIFA Football World Cup Promotion
Last updated:
November 12, 2026
Taggun’s receipt data and similarity signals gave VPAS the confidence to open its World Cup promotion beyond on-pack codes, letting consumers enter with just a receipt.
For a major beverage company’s FIFA Football World Cup promotion in South Africa, VPAS used Taggun’s receipt OCR API to support an alternative proof-of-purchase route. Taggun supplied structured receipt data and similarity signals; VPAS applied its campaign checks and managed the participant experience.
VPAS builds promotions on WhatsApp and the web for brands across African markets. Its work combines purchase-based competitions with first-party customer profiles that brands can use for later marketing and audience planning.
“Taggun helps us validate purchases with receipts, run our proof of purchase checks and allow consumers to have a valid entry. When we tested it, we liked how well it functioned and the level of data coming out of it.”
Supporting eligible products without promotional codes
The promotion linked qualifying purchases with a chance to win trips to the tournament, televisions, home theatre systems, airtime, mobile data and partner vouchers.
Some eligible products carried unique promotional codes. But bottling lines for other products, including sports drinks and bottled water, could not print those codes. VPAS needed another way to verify these purchases so shoppers buying those products could take part in the same promotion.
VPAS needed a receipt route that could apply purchase eligibility rules and identify possible repeat submissions or misuse, with enough transaction detail to support its reviewers.
Receipt entry alongside on-pack codes
VPAS ran two entry routes: unique codes for products that carried them, and receipts for the eligible products that did not. The receipt route worked with existing eligible stock, so those products did not need special promotional codes.
Taggun’s API extracted purchase information from submitted receipt images and returned similarity signals. VPAS used that information alongside its campaign rules and records of earlier entries to assess submissions.
The API approach fitted VPAS’s own promotion platforms. Managing Director Laren Foord valued both how Taggun functioned and the detail it returned: “having access to all of that data rather than just an outcome is incredibly valuable”.
Clearer feedback within VPAS’s receipt workflow
VPAS’s broader receipt workflow also uses that information to explain entry decisions more fully. Its earlier process could stop at the first failed check, leaving other issues unexplained until another submission. The revised approach brings the relevant findings together so participants can see which conditions passed or failed.
That feedback distinguishes between:
- An incomplete image: a clearer photograph may provide information cut off in the original submission.
- An ineligible purchase: another photograph of the same receipt will not make the purchase meet the offer’s requirements.
- A possible misreading: a participant who believes the required information is already visible can wait for manual checking instead of repeatedly resubmitting.
The criteria vary by promotion. VPAS uses the receipt data to apply the relevant product, retailer, purchase-date and quantity requirements, then tells the entrant what to do next.
A valid entry route for eligible purchases without unique package codes
Receipt scanning closed the specific participation gap in the World Cup promotion. Shoppers buying the relevant uncoded products could prove their purchase and enter alongside shoppers using promotional codes.
VPAS used Taggun’s receipt data and similarity signals to support proof-of-purchase validation, applying its own campaign rules and human review.
Operational benefits across VPAS’s receipt workflow
In discussing VPAS’s wider receipt-processing work, Laren reports:
- Fewer unnecessary resubmissions, reducing repeated work for reviewers.
- Clearer guidance for consumers, helping them decide whether to provide another image or wait for a human check.
- Earlier identification of organised misuse, using the available receipt information alongside VPAS’s own checks.
VPAS manually verifies every receipt. Fewer speculative or repeated submissions therefore mean less avoidable review time and an associated cost benefit, according to Laren. He distinguishes these operating efficiencies from campaign setup time, where VPAS already has established processes.
Receipt data within VPAS’s validation process
Taggun provides receipt extraction through optical character recognition (OCR) and returns structured purchase data, plus fraud and similarity signals. VPAS supplies the campaign logic, previous-entry context, participant messages and human reviewers.
VPAS describes these parts of its receipt workflow:
- Repeated-image checks: its platform first checks whether the same image has already been submitted.
- Similarity assessed in context: Taggun’s signals and available transaction fields help VPAS investigate suspected duplicates. Receipt numbers, cashier information, totals and retailer details can help distinguish separate purchases that look similar.
- Campaign eligibility checks: returned purchase data supports VPAS’s checks against the offer’s requirements.
- Human verification: VPAS’s team backs up the submission workflow by examining suspicious activity using the evidence available.