It’s been a while since we’ve seen an article on comping in the news, but it’s perhaps no surprise that the current crisis has resulted in a new one in The Daily Mail. They’re telling their readers how to “be lucky in lockdown” with “super-successful competition pros who are always in it to win it”. It’s a fairly empty piece in our view. There’s the usual prize highlights of a couple of compers plus the standard tips for beginners, such as read the terms and conditions.
The More You Enter…
There are a couple of things that stood out in the article. One comper says she only enters 60 competitions a month whilst the other says she does 20/30 a day. Being selective and focusing on low entry creative comps does seem to be a good approach for some entrants. If you’re struggling for wins then perhaps it’s time to consider a different strategy? However the article does say at the beginning that “the more you enter, the more likely you are to win” – so surely with that premise 60 competitions a month doesn’t seem that many to do considering there’s several thousand competitions to enter every month? In addition the article touches on house raffles. One comper doesn’t enter these “as these can vanish”. Of all the competitions that have launched since 2017 there are just five which have “vanished”. And by vanished we mean that either the promotion has disappeared (e.g. Eddie Jordan’s Win A Property) or we’ve been unable to get any winner details (e.g Reve House). The quality of how the non-vanished house competitions were run is open to debate, but there are better reasons to not enter them than “as these can vanish”.
Lucky In Lockdown
However the biggest issue we have with respect to the article is that it says how to be lucky in lockdown. This is a fair enough idea but the compers featured have won some prizes way before lockdown. Not a problem but highlighting “a weekend trip to Majorca on a private plane for 100 people hosted by celebrity Rylan Clark-Neal” is a prize that is probably not going to happen in the near future. It’s good that the article does mention some prizes won in lockdown, but flowers, gin and £100 vouchers probably won’t encourage more people to start comping. Perhaps the article could have highlighted some of the prizes that can be won at the moment, how prizes have changed since lockdown, and more examples of winners – including a couple of win a house winners from those vanishing house raffles. We’d also have liked to have seen some advice about whether you should enter competitions for tickets, holidays and other people events? The article does quote Jeremy Stern, of PromoVeritas on comping, so why not get his advice on the subject at hand.
One In Four
One stat from the article was that “one in four people has taken part in competitions in the past three months”. This is according to PromoVeritas although there’s no reference to how they derived at this figure or the number of people surveyed. It does seem like it’s just been plucked out of the air. Whilst we’ve seen increased activity on Loquax over the last few months – and this may not be just down to lockdown – we’re also aware that people’s circumstances mean they may do less comping. The quality of prizes, fewer competitions, having to homeschool, stress of the situation and even the hot weather are all factors which will influence who is comping. So here’s a question for anyone who’s managed to read this far. Have you been comping more or less during the last few months? Has lockdown changed the way you comp? Have you won any big prizes during that time? Has your success rate been better or worse? Let us know in the comments and let’s see if you really have been lucky in lockdown.