The importance of being early!There have been several examples over the last couple of months that have demonstrated how crucial it can sometimes be to ‘get in quick’ with a competition. And even when the speed of entry is not an issue in itself, it can sometimes still be in a comper’s interest to act fast to obtain the necessary forms and qualifiers – especially when special packs or seasonal products are needed. So this month, I’ll be trying to hammer home the fact that speed really IS of the essence when it comes to comping.
Taking a ‘normal’ competition first then, one with a single closing date a long time in the future, why should you act fast when deadline day is several months away? Well, entry forms won’t be around for ever, so always make an effort to find them as soon as you know that they’re out there. The same goes for any qualifiers that you need to enter the comp. Buy them as soon as you can. Special promotional packs tend to sell out quickly, usually well before the closing date that can often be a long time away. Seasonal goods, be they a particularly decadent item that a store might only stock at, say, Christmas or Easter, or fresh produce that might only be around for a short time before being replaced by later varieties, or crops from a different country, rarely hang around for long. So snap them up as soon as you see them. Once you have the entry form and qualifier safe in your hands you can sit back and relax, using the weeks or months remaining until the closing date to hone your tiebreaker to perfection.
Although entry form suppliers provide a useful, sometimes essential, service for many compers, it’s never a good idea to become completely dependent on them. Most tend to send out forms only in the month that a competition closes, and if a particular form was originally issued months earlier then the qualifier – perhaps a product at a special price, or a till receipt to be dated within a particular period – might have become impossible to obtain. So, if you can, try to use EF suppliers more as a safety net rather than your sole entry form source, and always do your best to get out and about yourself to look for forms. If you can’t manage this, always check Compers News and Chatterbox carefully for signs that a qualifier might have a short shelf life. And if so, take a gamble by getting that qualifier before you see the entry form. It could be a risk worth taking, since potential pitfalls like this will invariably keep entry numbers down as other people fall into exactly the same traps that you’ve made a deliberate effort to avoid.
Moving away from comps that seem to run and run, at the other end of the scale we have promotions with extremely short closing dates. Again, these are often seasonal but can sometimes come about as a result of distribution problems delaying forms or packs reaching stores. In these cases, speed is not only desirable – it’s a necessity! But again, it’s an effort worth making because many people will be caught unawares and entry numbers will be lower. The best finds in this category will be comps with such a short closing date that it’s impossible for them to be featured in magazines like Compers News. Which, of course, isn’t much use to you if you rely solely on magazines like Compers News for your information! Another example of why it’s best, if you possibly can, to have a look around a few shops yourself once in a while to sniff out rare and short-life comps. And check out Chatterbox regularly for those last minute finds that turn up too late to be included in the main magazine.
But the two kinds of comp where speed is a real advantage are those with more than one closing date, and those where prizes are awarded on a ‘first come first served’ basis. I won’t insult your intelligence by going into too much detail with the latter category, since it’s obvious that the quicker you enter, the more likely you are to win. But where a comp has multiple closing dates, perhaps weekly or monthly draws, then it really does pay to get your entries in for the earliest possible date. Entry levels will always be lower, as special packs or entry forms may not be as widely available, the general public take a while to cotton on and even us compers might not be up to speed right at the start. Added to which, nothing whets a comper’s appetite more than the whiff of a prize, so when we all get wind of winners in the early draws, you can bet that we’ll all pile in with a vengeance later on. So always get in quick to beat the rush with this type of promotion.
So what then are the examples that I referred to in the very first sentence above? Admittedly a veritable hotchpotch covering most of the situations above, but all have hit the shelves in the last few weeks so are excellent examples of what I’ve been saying.
Despite having a relatively lengthy lead-in time before the first draw, the Walkers iPod promotion attracted more than TEN TIMES the number of entries for some of the later September draws, compared to the first couple of days. This reflects the pattern across similar promotions in the past – NutriGrain, Kit Kash, cokeauction et al – where, contrary to common sense perhaps dictating that entries might actually be more plentiful at the start as people are keener and have accumulated lots of entries ready for the off, the opposite invariably happens. So always be aware of this.
The Crusha Milkshake on-pack promotion required you to enter a code from the label to play an online game, with weekly closing dates, but despite trying extremely hard to find promotional bottles I didn’t succeed until the very last day of the first week’s comp. Having managed to actually enter the comp with just thirty minutes remaining before the first week’s deadline, the leader board showed that just two other people had managed to do the same – this in a comp with eleven weekly prizes. I’m the world’s worst computer game player so, needless to say, got a frankly pathetic score. But I still came third in the first week’s competition, and was in the prizes. Less than a week later, the leader board was full to overflowing – so beating the rush by just a couple of days made all the difference.
Staying with milkshake, Yazoo offered thousands of magic sets over several monthly draws. Everybody who entered the first draw won a prize – not surprising, since promotional packs only started to hit the shelves a week or so before the first closing date. And exactly the same thing happened last year, when they gave away footballs. Relatively small value prizes admittedly, but worth the cost of a stamp when success is almost assured.
Those of us who entered the Dairylea and McVities biscuit on-pack promotions early were able to take advantage of loopholes on the websites that made it almost impossible not to win. These were quickly rectified by the promoters, presumably as soon as they had been buried under an avalanche of prize claims, but are good examples of the early bird most definitely catching the worm. Cases like this come and go so quickly that they can never be included in Compers News, but they’ll always be discussed on Chatterbox whenever they’re discovered, so always try to check out the forums for the latest news.
And finally, there was a Carling text promotion exclusively at Asda – a very low profile comp, where it quickly became apparent that prizes were being given away on a first come, first served basis. Chatterboxers were able to clean up on that one in the day or so before the comp reached a wider audience, which again demonstrates how every second counts with comps like this. This particular example should also serve to remind us that the text comp, and even comping on the web, is a comparatively new phenomenon, with punters – and promoters – on something of a learning curve. Which could all mean rich pickings as lessons are learned, so take full advantage and try not to miss out on any opportunity.
These examples are not exhaustive – they’ve simply contrived to arrive on the scene together as if to emphasise the need for speed at so many different levels of our hobby. Of course, I’m not advocating that a leisurely and enjoyable pastime should suddenly become a frenetic, non-stop whirlwind of activity. But sometimes, a little added urgency really can pay dividends.
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