Changing world of competitions

"One idea", he told us, "is to organize a prize competition."

I laughed. Not because what he said was amusing, far from it, but because you have only to look in high street stores, flip through magazines and newspapers, turn on the TV and radio or connect to the Internet to notice competitions everywhere.

Yes, organizing prize competitions is just another form of advertising, albeit a win-teresting one, but it's much more. It's a powerful sales and marketing tool. 

"A competition," said our university lecturer, "is a way of getting a product or service noticed in a fun way, and hopefully the consumer will try the product, like it and buy it regularly."

Now that I have to agree with. For I have been 'persuaded' by the chance of winning a wonderful prize, to buy a product I'd not normally buy, just to enter the competition, especially if it involved a challenging task, such as writing a tiebreaker slogan.  Having won a fantastic holiday to Margarita, with a new brand of product I'd bought solely to enter the contest, I have stayed loyal to that brand ever since.

I did wonder whether Internet comping would see entry forms disappearing from stores. However, although there aren't as many now
in-store (in the UK), as there were a few years ago, there are still competitions to be found. 

I believe you, as a comper, have a certain amount of influence over competitions, simply by choosing whether or not you wish to enter. For instance, I remember many people complaining bitterly about the sudden surge in Instant Win promotions and premium rate telephone call contests. Let’s face it, if you don’t enter certain types of competitions, surely the promoters will question why.

We've seen, over the years, lots of competition entry forms with estimation tasks, such as 'how many chocolate bars can you fit into the back of a particular model of car'.  Or, 'how many words can you make from the product name'.  I've noticed a decline in the latter type of competition task, and I believe this is because the Internet has made it easier, as there are websites where you type in the word and at the click of a mouse, comes up with a massive list of words that can be made from that word. Now that to me, takes away the fun of finding words from dictionaries.

Until a couple of years ago, when competition rules in the UK changed, promoters had to offer a competition with a degree of skill in order to ask entrants to make a purchase to enter. A proof of purchase was usually a till receipt from a specific store, highlighting a specific product.  The skill contest was usually some sort of task, such as solving an anagram or answering questions about the product or theme of the contest, and then completing a tiebreaker, such as: 'I want to win a car with product from store because...'

Personally, I was happy to buy a qualifying product to enter these types of competitions, as skill played a part in your chances of winning a prize.  Where the promoter offered hundreds of runners-up prizes, your chances of success increased.

By contrast, winning a free prize draw, when all you had to do was write your name and address on the entry form, perhaps answering a simple question, was much harder, as winning was the 'luck of the draw'. However, as it was free to enter, with the only cost being the price of a postage stamp, many compers would have a go.  Even if the prize draw was on the back of a product packet, there always had to be a free means of entry without buying the product.  Usually, this meant completing your name and address on a piece of plain paper and posting it to the prize draw address given on the product packet, for an equal chance of winning.

Because of the change in competition rules in the UK, promoters can now ask for a proof of purchase to enter a prize draw. Therefore, a promoter can make the choice whether to choose a task involving skill to enter their contest and then spend time wading through possibly thousands of entries to judge the best entry, or whether to simply pick a winner based on 'first drawn from the hat'.

From my viewpoint, when I spotted a prize draw entry form to win a car in a prize draw, where winning was based on the luck of the draw, and the qualifier to enter was to purchase six large packs of the promoter's product, I declined to enter. Whereas I would happily have done so to enter a slogan competition based on skill, I wasn't prepared to make this purchase of goods I wouldn't normally buy, just to enter a lucky prize draw.  Therefore, I have become more selective in the types of competitions I enter.

There are plenty of prize draw entry forms around, you just have to read the rules first to see whether you need to make a purchase or whether its free to enter, i.e. a free prize draw.  Happily, there are still many free prize draws to enter.

Many compers, myself included, much prefer to post competition entries, for the price of a stamp.  However, I've also noticed that a postcard entry is not always an option as a means of entry for a competition. Increasingly, entry choices seem to be by telephone, often premium call lines, by text or on-line.   Personally, I dislike the latter two, simply because of the number of promotional texts I then receive for each contest entered, and the growing number of emails received after entering competitions.

As competition rules change, then so I believe, do compers.  I still enter competition entry forms found in high street stores and supermarkets, for there are still contests with skill to be found, but now I much prefer magazine competitions, as they offer, in my opinion, a variety of skill based tasks in order to enter, and thus increase your chances of success.

So whatever method of entry you prefer, from in-store prize draws, on-pack contests, postal comps, text comps, online comps or magazine competitions, there's plenty of choice to suit all tastes.  Most of the fun of 'comping' now, I find, is hunting for those elusive competitions, where entries are likely to be fewer, or ones with difficult tasks to solve. And no doubt, as favourite tasks come and go and new challenges appear, we'll all still enjoy this exciting hobby of 'comping' and changing world of competitions. 'Good luck!'

© Copyright Lynne Suzanne www.win-with-lynne.co.uk