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A Winteresting
Pastime - Part 1
By
Lynne Suzanne
A new leisure pursuit is sweeping Britain - comping.
And everyone is getting in to it. Ordinary people of
all ages and all walks of life are winning cruises,
cash, cars and cuddly toys. Yes, comping is so
widespread, the word has now made a dictionary appearance.
Comping - entering competitions.
It's
the new exciting, challenging and stimulating hobby.
So if you love completing crosswords, rearranging anagrams
and solving puzzles, you can join the winners.
”Compers” are jetting to exotic locations
and driving gleaming new cars, all for the price
of a postcard and stamp. And you can have a share of
the action.
“Oh,
I enter lots and never win a thing”, is a common
cry. Well now you can increase your chances of
success. Have a flutter on the National
Lottery and you've an approximate 14 million to one
chance of winning the jackpot. Enter a national
supermarket prize draw and your chances increase to
several thousands to one. Submit entries local
competitions and success looms nearer.
It's
all down to luck. Should your numbers come up or your
entry be `first drawn from the hat' you're a lucky winner.
But now you can increase your chances of success even
more. By entering those competitions where skill is
involved. You may have seen them. Entrants are
asked to answer a few simple questions, then complete
a tiebreaker sentence, for example: “I buy product
at store because...”
Like
any other hobby, there's a knack to writing winning
tiebreakers. You can learn this knack. Since learning
this, I've won two cars, holidays half way round the
world, had my home professionally decorated and shopped
in supermarkets at their expense. Just think, you can
be rewarded with a gleaming new car, all for writing
a ten word tiebreaker. And mine is in the
drive to prove it. My mum drives my other winning car,
just in case you thought it was a fluke.
You
can learn how to win your dream prizes, too. Motor
-vated? Read on.
To
win prizes you need to say in a given word limit, for
example, ten, twelve or fifteen words, what benefits
you receive when you buy and use the promoters product.
Let's
imagine your local diy store has a reputation for good
quality products and is currently promoting shelving
with a tiebreaker competition. You could write:
`They are packed with shelf confidence!
Have
a look through magazines and newspapers and read the
headlines. Note how many use short eye-catching
or play on words to get their message across.
Here’s a few ideas:
“Garden
gives shear delight”
”Tree-mendous value at every branch!”
”Gold-en opera-tune-ity!”
If a headline `grabs you', then you read on. If not,
you skip the paragraph and read something else. You
need then, to apply this principle when writing your
tiebreaker slogans.
For
a competition offering a prize-winning holiday to Paris,
via the Channel Tunnel, you could follow the lead-in
line:
”I would love to visit Paris because...”
“Eiffel
in love with (product) at the end of the Tunnel!”
One idea can lead to another.
The word love may make you think of the phrase –
love at first sight.
”Eiffel in love at first sight – with (product)!”
When the product is something eatable, then simply adapt
it to:
”Eiffel in love at first bite!”
And if the product is a computer, then how about:
”Eiffel in love at first byte!
Part 2...
© 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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