Comping in France - A year on!

lydias

Almost a year ago we moved to France and I was very sorry that it seemed that I would have to stop comping. Gradually however, I have discovered several French comping sites and have just come through the maelstrom of French advents.

So I thought I would put together a little piece to highlight the differences between the two countries, competition-wise.

Initially, my first though was that there seemed to be a lot of spammy comps but this is probably true for a new comper in the UK, it was just harder to decide in a language that I am still not fluent in which were worthwhile.

Once I had got some bearings, I realised that there were a lot more dailies and these had decent prizes. Many of the big companies have dailies and I have won several prizes through these including a luxury spa break.

There are many less magazine comps/radio comps and only one has a click to win page – a refreshing change! Some names are familiar we seem to have Stylist but not Shortlist for example.

The non-daily competitions are also the province of companies rather than bloggers etc., and this includes Facebook and Twitter. Facebook comps are almost always run through an app, I think I have seen only a handful of "Like and share" comps. There are very few Twitter comps and I have yet to win one. Generally the rules and regulations are very tight, but I do not know if they have a body like the ASA as so far I have received what I have won, although there seems to be a longer time lag.

Prizes are mixed but not of the "3 sweets and a badge" variety, and entry levels seem to be about 7-10k but this is an estimate. There also seem to be more prizes per comp, before Christmas Nestle gave away 10,000 Dolce Gusto machines and looking at the forums, most people who entered got one, including myself and my neighbour.

There are far less comps than on the MSE boards and I can get through them comfortably in an hour. Winning rate is not huge, but steady, at approximately two a month, better than my last year in the UK but not as good as a few years ago. Big prizes seem to include cars, holidays, breaks, phones, food and wine, clothes beauty and vouchers, there are less electrical, computer and technical comps, but many more cinema tickets (which I don't enter for!)

Quite a lot still require a purchase and there are many photo comps, but few slogans.

So that was my first year – I do wonder if this is how it will continue or if comping here will change as it had gradually in the UK to become more Social Media orientated.

Marg2k8

Very interesting read. Thank you for taking the time to post. May your luck continue.

galaxynicole

Very interesting! I used to live in Belgium and there's hardly any competitions there really but the ones that were, I did get the feeling that a lot less people enter hence the chances of winning was higher. I used to win something once a month, usually cinema tickets, which I loved as a teenager at the time.

Jersebean

I have recently moved to France and cant find many competitions to enter. I do miss that about the UK