Considering Reporting a Competition by an International Brand to ASA

escapevelocity

On May 19th I took part in HONOR's Hunt the HONOR 8X competition in Manchester from this post - E: 24/05? Honor 8x ( x88 Effort) - and I now believe they have broken multiple Advertising Standards Agency rules. No terms and conditions were available and I believe they changed the method of entry throughout the course of the competition. Also I suspect they have not awarded the prizes to people who took part.

The wording on the Facebook post suggested that there were phones to be found at several locations - eight sets of coordinates were given (well actually seven as they mistakenly duplicated one). The wording was: 🧐 Can you find a #HONOR8X in MANCHESTER? Another video stated - 5 countries, 11 cities, 88 HONOR 8X to win.

This was not the case. I spent some time looking around my first location when I was approached by a woman in a white cap who asked 'Are you looking for me?'. She explained that at each location was a woman in a white cap taking people's Name, Email address and Twitter or Instagram username. To be eligible to win I'd have to take a selfie with the white cap at that location and post it to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #HuntTheHonor8X before 8pm that evening when the contest would end. She said the more locations I went to, the better the chance of winning and that it would be a prize draw. There was no mention of any of this in the social media posts online. I explained that this was very different from what was suggested online, but decided to take part and visit several locations.

I got talking to the girls at each location. One said that originally in some cities the girls had a phone to hand out, but they decided to change it. Only a handful of people posted selfies that night - I was the only person one of the girls had seen across the two hours. There was actually nobody at two of the locations I visited. Despite this, I posted 5 selfies to Twitter that evening at 5 of the 8 locations.

When I returned home I looked for Terms and Conditions online as I wanted to know the date of the draw, but couldn't find any. A couple of days later I reached out to HONOR on Facebook for terms and conditions, as this was where the competition was advertised. My message was read but not responded to. About a week later a fellow comper contacted me on Twitter to ask if I'd heard anything and since I hadn't I sent another message to HONOR asking if they had any luck getting the terms and conditions for me. Again it was read but no response.

After another week I decided to search for the hashtag on Twitter. I managed to find evidence of one person in Spain having won a phone and another from Manchester asking HONOR when they were doing the draw. This person has received no response. What I found on Instagram was Manchester based Instagram 'influencers' using the competition hashtag saying they had been gifted HONOR 8X phones. One even claims to have taken part in the hunt, but the required selfie on May 19th is nowhere to be seen on her social media.

At this point I decided to email HONOR to ask for the terms and conditions - I was given an email address for Red Consultancy, a PR company. It is now coming up to a week since I sent them an email and I've had no response.

I think my next step will be to chase up the email and ask again for the Ts&Cs once a week has passed. Then I will wait another week for a response, but doubt I will get one. At this point, I think I will let them know that I believe that they have broken Advertising Standards Agency rules and will be reporting them.

Does that sound like a good plan of action? Does anyone have any advice regarding reporting a competition to ASA? Has anyone here actually done it? I've given up on getting a phone out of this, but I don't think HONOR or their PR company should be allowed to get away with running a competition in this way.

pate-ci0

I did complain to the ASA last year about a competition which was drawn 3 times in order to award the prize to someone the promoter judged not to be a comper. Whether it did any good or not....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=73903687&postcount=32

escapevelocity

Thanks for the link pate-ci0. I'm not sure if reporting them will do any good either. Red Consultancy have numerous big-name clients and should know better than to run a dishonest campaign. If they are investigated by the ASA maybe it will make them think twice about doing so again.

mjm3346

escapevelocity wrote: »

If they are investigated by the ASA maybe it will make them think twice about do so again.

Obviously it is better to complain than not but -

Even if the company don't bother to respond to the ASA they are still likely just to be told not to run the ad/promotion again in it's present form plus to reply to them next time - repeat offenders can get put on the "naughty step"

We expect all advertising online to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Here we list those who continue to make claims on their online sites that do not stick to the rules despite repeated requests for changes

Sometimes they do refer the offender "We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance Team." and I don't know what they are likely to do

Rahven

I made a complaint to the ASA about a company who run a lot of competitions that are posted on the forum regularly. It was a couple of years ago and I won a holiday prize with them. I booked it and invited my friends (it was for 6 people max), and we were all super excited. Then the company decided to withdraw the prize and offer me 2 nights for 2 people in a B&B instead.

My complaint was on the basis that this was not a fair substitution and they did not follow their own T&Cs or ASA guidelines. The company involved were totally unprofessional with both me and the ASA and about three/four months after submitting the complaint the ASA found in my favour. It was satisfying.... BUT.... mjm3346 is right - there ain't much the ASA can do about it beyond publishing the company name online with details of what they did wrong (realistically, who's gonna even see that?) and telling them off. They don't really have any teeth unfortunately.

I'm glad I did it (it was the principle of the thing, for me - as it sounds like it is for you), but it didn't really achieve much. Maybe it would cause some companies to think twice before doing it again but their attitude made me think it probably wouldn't with them.

thingamaBob

Would the ASA have any authority to do anything in this case?
You have a Chinese company (Honor is 100% owned by Huawei) running a Europe wide competition on American owned Social media with no published Terms & Conditions.
Without knowing any specific terms and conditions, how can you say they haven't followed them and who's laws would they be subject to?
I can't imagine Honor/Huawei worrying too much what the ASA might say.

I would assume that Honor will be subject to all the same difficulties that Huawei are suffering with an Android Operating system that they will no longer get updates for and access to Google Apps being restricted. Is it a worthwhile prize anymore?

escapevelocity

Honor and Huawei's existing phones are unaffected by the current situation with the US government, so it is still a worthwhile prize.

Additionally, Red Consultancy is based in the UK with headquarters in London running a competition that takes place in the UK on behalf of Honor. Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei, which is registered in the UK as a Private Limited Company (HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES (UK) CO., LTD.).

UK rules should apply for at least the UK segment of this competition, meaning that if this was a prize draw then winners should be picked randomly from entrants.