Competitions Discussion Thread Part 8

Cheeky_Chicken

luvvabargin wrote: »

Think on, and please READ what I have written before commenting!

Ok, I'll assume you didn't mean for that to sound quite so rude, and reply! I'm not sure your theory holds up - the number of what you would call 'professional compers' has drastically increased over the last couple of years, and so have the number of online comps, despite sites like this helpfully listing the answers and entry methods, meaning many entrants don't visit or browse the site.

I'd also point out that the vast majority of competitions are nothing at all to do with the site running them, but are organised by PR companies, who ask any halfway decent website to run a competition promoting their new toy/film/game etc. The PR company couldn't give a stuff if FHM or whichever website runs the comp gets any more traffic, or newsletter sign ups or whatever, and will continue to offer prizes

The ones you refer to, with a small company wanting to increase business by running a competition are very much in the minority, although I agree that if they saw no return they might think again about running a comp - however, I have seen lots and lots of comments on this board about people discovering new sites through comps and buying items (I've done it myself more than once) so even if 90% of entrants don't browse the site, the other 10% who have a look round, and the few who may bookmark the site and purchase in the future probably balance that out.

It's very rare that regular monthly/quarterly comps on this board suddenly stop, which suggests that most sites think the return is ok

luvvabargin

Sorry - no I didn't mean that line to sound rude! - you know what its like when you type something and people read it in a different context!

Having had a little experience when I had an investment in an IT company for a while about 7 years ago (not clever enough to actually do the programming!) I can say with certainty that any decent PR company will have excellent stats on those people who enter the comps. Even 7 years ago, we could see exactly where the visitor came from geographically, what route they'd come by I.E. their browsing history, what computer operating system they were using, who their ISP was, even what size their computer screen was... and that was 7 years ago! - the rate computer technology moves, they can probably now tell your inside leg measurement remotely!

Companies don't just give a PR company a container full of their products, £50k to run a competition/promotion and then never expect to hear from them again. No, the PR people will give back a very very detailed set of stats on the visitors which will be analysed by some very clever but usually geeky people (the first 4 letters of the word analysed give you a clue )

er... no offence to any reader who is a geeky PR analyst

So back to my original point, if compers "appear" a bit more like "real" people by visiting the sites homepage and following the links to the comp, and having a look around, I think that is better than just going straight to the link to the comp/freebie entry form from a link on here, or one of the other freebie/comp news sites.

You could be right - maybe some don't care.... but I know I would!

If you've just spent say £100k on a promotion, and the stats come back from the PR comapny that half your spend has gone to people who have followed a link from an MSE forum, claimed your freebie, and left straight away never to return - would you be happy?

egil1978

Hi Im new to these boards so im hoping i have posted this in the correct place. I recently started entering competitions and was lucky enough to win the runner up prize in the ilove212 competition. The prize was a 212 gift set. However, on winning i was informed i needed to complete an elegibilty affidavit. The form is suited for Americans and asks for a social security number and notary public. My question is is this a common practice when winning comp prizes? As i am unable to supply a social security number they have asked for my passport number. Is this ok? Also what should i do about getting it signed by a notary public? We only have 900 in this country?
Thanks for your help in advance.

Rharni

If they didn't just give me the prize I wouldn't bother...none of my prizes had these sort of coinditions attached.

Cheeky_Chicken

luvvabargin wrote: »

Sorry - no I didn't mean that line to sound rude! - you know what its like when you type something and people read it in a different context!

Having had a little experience when I had an investment in an IT company for a while about 7 years ago (not clever enough to actually do the programming!) I can say with certainty that any decent PR company will have excellent stats on those people who enter the comps. Even 7 years ago, we could see exactly where the visitor came from geographically, what route they'd come by I.E. their browsing history, what computer operating system they were using, who their ISP was, even what size their computer screen was... and that was 7 years ago! - the rate computer technology moves, they can probably now tell your inside leg measurement remotely!

Companies don't just give a PR company a container full of their products, £50k to run a competition/promotion and then never expect to hear from them again. No, the PR people will give back a very very detailed set of stats on the visitors which will be analysed by some very clever but usually geeky people (the first 4 letters of the word analysed give you a clue )

er... no offence to any reader who is a geeky PR analyst

So back to my original point, if compers "appear" a bit more like "real" people by visiting the sites homepage and following the links to the comp, and having a look around, I think that is better than just going straight to the link to the comp/freebie entry form from a link on here, or one of the other freebie/comp news sites.

You could be right - maybe some don't care.... but I know I would!

If you've just spent say £100k on a promotion, and the stats come back from the PR comapny that half your spend has gone to people who have followed a link from an MSE forum, claimed your freebie, and left straight away never to return - would you be happy?

So why are there more and more comps all the time even though there are fewer and fewer people stumbling across comps and being genuinely interested in the site? There are so many comping sites these days that the vast majority of people entering comps are like people on this site - entering hundreds and hundreds of comps. The PR companies are fully aware of this, as with a few exceptions, the referral to the site would show as Loquax/MSE etc, and yet they continue to offer more and more prizes I think they target the prizes/promotional items to a particular section of society going by the site's average visitors rather then the specific comp entrants - ie you're more likely to see violent gaming comps on FHM than Pick Me Up, and vice versa for childrens DS games!

Last year I'd to keep chasing up a playstation I won from Nuts which was offered to promote a new Tomb Raider game. On one occasion when I rang up, the nice friendly man at the magazine had a vent about the PR company - something like 'They're always begging us to run these comps for them as it's cheap advertising then they're slow to send the prizes out.' In other words, rather than paying for a big banner ad on the site to promote the game/film/whatever, they offer a HDTV or DVD player as a prize, probably costing a lot less then the ad would have done!

From what's been said to me on winning on several occasions, the magazine/website just sends the name of the winner to the PR company to send the prize out. Apart from anything else, most of them would be breaching all kinds of privacy laws if they started giving too much personal info away about entrants!

Anyway, I shan't keep arguing about it - let's just agree to disagree!

rosemac

anyone able to tell me this morning comp answer thankyou

bucks73

31 - 50

rosemac wrote: »

anyone able to tell me this morning comp answer thankyou

Answer - C. Sarah Jesicca Parker

From HERE

Zebedeee

50+

Really interesting to read about your experiences at the IT company, luvvabargain. I had no idea they could find all that out about us compers. You're probably right - I bet they are measuring my inside leg right now:eek:

luvvabargin

lol - 30" - am I right?

Most of it is standard stuff - and is easily available for good reason: for instance it is useful for a webserver to know what size screen you have, so it can make the website display correctly... but the same information can also be used from a marketing point of view. You can sort of deduce that someone with a slow processor computer, running windows 98 with a small screen is *likely* to have less disposable income than someone with a super big high-res screen and the latest fast processor computer...

It is not always true, of course, but all statistics are about averages.

Just like an insurance company will assume that if you live in such and such an area your car is more likely to be pinched and therefore your premium is more expensive... it doesn't actually mean your car will be pinched, just more likely. So if I was trying to sell car security products, I probably would target such an area with the hope of generating more sales interest, rather than trying an area that has very low car crime.

Marketing is very very complicated, and the best marketeers and PR companies should not in any way be underestimated. They are very clever people indeed, running very sophisticated systems trying to identify the smallest changes in market trends in order to stay ahead of the competition... which is why they are making millions and we are poor consumers!

I'm not having a go at them by the way, I admire them for their ingenuity... just like when Tesco came out with the Clubcard (or whichever one was first) - massive massive databases full of your every purchase at Tescos... they can tell what you eat every day virtually, for as long as you have been a member... whereas you probably can't remember what you had to eat last tuesday! (I can't!)

It all gets a bit big-brother-scary, but when it works, it works well... for instance, Tesco hopefully only send you special offers on things you regularly buy, or which from your buying patterns they figure you would probably like. Of course, that also depends on the fuzzy-logic intelligence their programmers use... for instance, if you have never bought any meat from Tesco, they could assume one of two things: either you are a vegetarian, or you buy your meat elsewhere like your local butchers. Now that puts them in an interesting position: do they send you some special offers on meat and risk offending you if you are vegetarian and possibly loose your trade, or do they try it in the hope you will defect from your little local butcher to Tesco and fill their coffers even more?

Told you it was complicated!

luvvabargin

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