If you were scrolling through social media yesterday (16th September) then you’ll have probably be told several times that it’s exactly 100 days until Christmas Day. In comping terms that’s pretty meaningless though because Christmas pretty much starts from now. Already we are seeing a few advent calendar prizes but joining them are Christmas Crackers, Christmas Tree and even a Christmas Makeover. As much as we hate to do it our festive prizes section is now live so if you’re a fan then head over there. We can’t mention Christmas without mentioning advent – yes those pesky things, alongside an array of social media bans, are just a couple of months away. Hopefully a few more promoters will opt for a more traditional entry form approach to advent rather than go for the easy Instagram posts. Now many of you won’t want to be thinking of Advent or Christmas yes so for those of you prefer your seasonal events in some kind of logical order we’ve also opened up the Halloween prize section too. In there you’ll find a whole bunch of treats including some prizes to celebrate the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie.
Splash! Ah-Ah! The Sequel!
If you caught our last update you might remember we revealed that, pay to enter prize draw site, Countdown Competitions (the one who was fixing their draws and then posted 1/5 reviews about us when they were caught out) has relaunched as Splash Competitions. Splash claimed they were nothing to do with Countdown so we proved that they were. They carried on their modus operandi that we exposed with Countdown although we did note that there was apparently one real winner of a £50 site credit. Anyway the site now no longer exists. Instead it redirects to a different pay to enter site called Cash Splash Competitions. There aren’t any competitions running on this site and we couldn’t find any associated social media accounts. We can summise that either Cash Splash Competitions have forced Splash to handover their domain because of potential infringement/confusion or Splash have purchased the Cash Splash site and aim to use that in the future. Either way we’ll keep an eye on things and make sure that there are no further repeats of the scams pulled by the owners of Countdown Competitions.
I’ve Come For My Award
Staying with name changes and harking back to our previous update, we have news of another new pay to enter prize draw site. This one started life out as The Family Diaries Blog. They popped up on the comping radar when they offered a Maldives Holiday as a launch prize and subsequently went on to offer four more holiday prizes during August. Offering big prizes to create a social media presence but without any tangible website or background information raised a few eyebrows and red flags. More so when every winner of each draw happened to be a private account on one platform or another. Most compers tend to have public accounts. Anyway the reason behind these giveaways was to kickstart a new pay to enter site – not called The Family Diaries Blog – but Award Competitions. The site is now live and has a bunch of prizes on offer including Oasis Tickets, Barbie Toy Bundle, iPhone Pro and Disney Castle Lego. There’s even a free to enter draw that gives you the chance to win a Family Trip to Paris. Pay to enter sites are notoriously difficult to get established and their approach to the process has been a little maverick, expensive and naive to say the least. It looks like they’ve had to launch a new Facebook page for example. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
Eastenders Comping
Competitions made a cameo appearance on Eastenders this month. Whilst Sharon was in jail with Chrissie Watts, Kathy Beale was winning a holiday to Greece care of a radio competition. To win the competition she first had to text in an answer to a question and then answer a further question, posed by Dermot O’Leary, live on air. She was asked what deoxyribonucleic acid is more often known as – and as if by luck – Harvey, who had already helped Kathy with the original question, knew the answer because earlier on in the episode he’d bumped into Barney Mitchell who just so happened to be studying biology. Kathy won the holiday and then immediately passed it to Harvey so he could take Jean on holiday. Will this turn of luck convert Kathy and Harvey into real compers? Could they set up a Walford Comping Group? Or maybe they could login to a fictitious listing site and enter some online giveaways? Competitions have appeared in other soaps! Most notably Coronation Street and Norris Cole. According to The Corrie Wiki, Norris won £1000 which he shared with Freda whilst a few years later he won a Mr & Mrs competition and ended up having to marry Mary to get the Cape Town holiday prize. Note if you’re a Corrie fan and this is incorrect or there’s more to it then do let us know. We’ve not watched the show in years!!
Winning £100,000 On The Chase
According to Digital Spy this week was a record breaking week on, NTA Award Winning quiz show, The Chase. Two lucky contestants took on Paul Sinha, aka The Sinnerman and won themselves and incredible £100,000. For a moment it looked as though Paul would defeat the contestants but he incorrectly answered the key question which left just one second on the clock. This was insufficient time for another question and contestant Ian and Karen shared the incredible prize pot. If you fancy your own chances then do check our our Be On A Quiz Show section where we – try to – update with the latest shows seeking out contestants. Shows like The Chase are always looking for contestants but others such as Deal Or No Deal and The 1% Club tend to have deadlines. Another quiz show with a deadline is Wheel Of Fortune. This popular US show is returning to The UK but with Graham Norton (not Alan Carr as we originally wrote, d’oh) in charge of the wheel. If you fancy spinning the big wheel and solving puzzles for the chance to win prizes then get your application in before the 15th November 2024. If you’re unsure about going on TV alone then how about going on with a friend? ITV are also launching a new gameshow that “will involve pairs being teamed with a celebrity”. Details about the show are limited but you’ll need to apply by 25th October 2024. Do let us know how you get on if you apply.
First Class Stamps Going Up Again
On 7th October 2024 The Royal Mail will be increasing the price of a first class stamp from £1.35 up to an incredible £1.65. The reason for this 30p hike is due to a very real and urgent financial challenge (The BBC). The price of a second class stamp remains at 85p. This is good news for compers who like to send in a postcard to enter competitions. Many competitions used to specify that entries must be made using a first class stamp but a quick scan through those listed on Loquax and it’s rare to see such a specification now. If a first class stamp was a requirement then it pretty much makes the postal entry redundant simply because of the price differential between the various options. For example to enter ITV’s Dickinson’s Real Deal draw it’ll cost you £2 via SMS, £2 Online or £2 by phone. A 35p saving, assuming entry via post and a £1.65 stamp cost, may well add up but you’re still paying for postcards and taking the time to write out the entries. Using SMS, Phone or Online is quicker, simpler and you know your entry has definitely arrived. We know some people try the postal routes for pay to enter sites and house competitions but reports of postal entries being accepted tends to be a mixed bag. If you do look at that option then we suggest checking Trustpilot 1 Star Reviews first as there’s often comments left about whether postal entries get acknowledged. If you are a postcard entry comper then maybe purchasing a few stamps at £1.35 before the price rises would be a shrewd investment.
Winners Round Up
The Winners Post continues to be active with Loquax users letting us and you know of their latest successes. Amongst the prizes there’s been tickets to see England v Finland, rugby tickets to see Scotland v Portugal, a Craft Bundle from Baker Ross, Sandals, Ticketmaster Vouchers, £1000 cash from That’s Life and a Park Holiday Resort Break which also came with £500 much to Sheena’s surprise. There’s also smaller prizes like Crisps, Lidl vouchers, Irn Bru goodies and Coca Cola merch. Smaller prizes may not excite some folks but sometimes they’re an “easy win” and can help keep interest in the hobby. Of course none of this is possible, at least not through Loquax, without the selfless nature of Loquax users who consistently post new competitions and prize draws. As ever a big thank you to everyone who posts and also to those who flag issues and get involved. If you’re wondering how you can get involved then check out how to support Loquax via the forum.
Loquax Prize Draws
Finally, those of you who enter them may have noticed that we currently only have one Loquax Prize Draw currently running and that’s due to close on 22nd September 2024. We’ve run these draws for a few years now using either Gleam or Rafflepress as an entry mechanic. Our licence to use the latter ends at the end of September and we’ve decided not to renew it. Therefore there won’t be any more prize draws using Rafflepress. However it doesn’t mean that we won’t be running any future draws, after all who else is going to offer prizes such as an Elephant Watering Can or Cat Yoga Mugs! Our aim will be to run occasional giveaways via form that uses your forum login and everyone will be limited to one entry. Anyway we’ll keep you updated on progress as the implementation of this set-up is somewhere on Kirsty’s constantly growing to do list! In the mean time we should tell you that our contributor’s weekly prize draw is ongoing and could win you a £20 Amazon Voucher.