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The
Changing World of Competitions
by
Lynne Suzanne
The other night I attended a marketing meeting in which
a University lecturer outlined ways of advertising products.
"One
idea" he told us, "is to organise 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,
organising 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.
I
did wonder whether Internet comping would see entry
forms disappearing from stores. However, having collected
over fifty new competition entry forms in the high street
this month, it seems that in store comping is alive
and flourishing. Click on the link below for an example
of some great prizes to be won.
http://www.wincompetitions.co.uk/whatsinstore
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. Then too came a spate of premium rate
telephone call contests. Let’s face it, if you
don’t enter certain types of competitions, surely
the promoters will question why.
From
talking to many of you at competition events, your favourite
competitions are tiebreaker slogans as they make winning
dependent upon skill, not the ability to open a can
to see if you've won. Next came factual questions and
tasks such as `how many words can you make from the
product name’. Estimations and imaginative tasks
are also favourites and of course, free to enter prize
draws, which when drawn after the closing date, give
all eligible entrants an equal chance of winning a prize.
As
I read several glossy magazines a month, I've noticed
a recent trend that gives you the reader a greater choice.
Many of the prize draws, giveaways and reader treats
now offer you a choice of entry, either by post or a
telephone call which costs about the same price as a
stamp, as opposed to expensive premium rate calls.
A
useful tip, if you don’t want your quarterly telephone
bill to come as a shock, is to buy a telephone card
for the sole purpose of entering comps. This great idea
was revealed by a comper at one of our Win With Lynne
Fundays. When she wants to enter phone contests she
chooses a selection based on the prizes she’d like
to win and those with charges around the same price
as stamps. Then she makes her calls from a phone box
until that month’s allocation is used.
I’ve
begun to notice lately that a few competition promoters
are giving you three entry options, by post, by phone
or on the Internet. After all, promoting competitions
on the Internet is just another form of advertising
products.
A
friend told me an interesting story the other day. She
hasn’t got computer access at home so thought,
as no-one was in the office at lunch time, she’d
just visit a couple of comping sites. She made her entries
and didn’t notice any data protection notices to
receive further marketing offers. Satisfied all trace
of her comping had been eliminated from the history
file, she thought no more about it. Until she was called
into the Manager’s office.
Like
most large companies they delegate the job of postmaster
to the Manager who, using the filter on his email system,
receives all the firm’s incoming emails before
forwarding to the appropriate persons.
Confronted
with two `Thank you Mrs X for entering our competition
which will be drawn at the end of the month, and in
the meantime you may like to take advantage of our special
offer’ emails, she wished the ground would open
up and swallow her. Needless to say comping at work
has been banned.
But
then it got worse. Unfortunately, because she hadn’t
read the rules, one of the promoters of a competition
she’d entered had passed her email address to other
companies. Over the next few weeks, she cringed with
embarrassment every time one of those `take advantage
of our offer’ or `you may like to know about’
emails found its way into her in-box.
It
certainly makes you think doesn’t it? Now is there
such a word as ejunk I wonder?
© Copyright 2002 Lynne Suzanne www.win-with-lynne.co.uk
About the author
Lynne Suzanne is a freelance writer, consultant and
speaker. She has written four books on winning prize
competitions and slogan writing and presents Win With
Lynne Roadshows and marketing seminars.
FREE Win With Lynne Expert Guide to Winning competition
prizes
http://www.win-with-lynne.co.uk
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