How has comping changed in the last five years?

Many of the the competitions with 'apparently' large numbers of prizes are far less generous than they used to be.

The word "algorithms" seems to be creeping into the rules of competitions more and more. It is the promoters' way of drastically cutting down the number of prizes they have to award without giving you much of an explanation on how exactly they operate.

The_3rd_Zebu wrote: »

Many of the the competitions with 'apparently' large numbers of prizes are far less generous than they used to be.

The word "algorithms" seems to be creeping into the rules of competitions more and more. It is the promoters' way of drastically cutting down the number of prizes they have to award without giving you much of an explanation on how exactly they operate.

I was just wondering (after looking in my freezer), that the McCain's Village Raffle has over £3 million quids worth of prizes advertised. But, I haven't heard of anybody winning anything on it.
All my codes so far have been duds too.
I remember when Heinzies Beanzies did that code comp in 2008. The prizes were brill, I won a camcorder from it, and I think everybody on here who played won at least a Play voucher.
It was actually the reason why I joined this forum, to say thankyou to those* who posted the codes.
*BTW, it's all you lot's fault that I am on here everyday too. Hooked on comping lol. :rotfl::T
Be Lucky

I comped when unemployed for 4 months in 2011 and won some nice prizes. Nothing major but a Lucozade, Redbush tea, BFI and £200 in Love2Shop vouchers stand out.

6 years later I had 8 weeks of medical leave and got back into it. Since May 2017 I've had two small wins (A Royal Mail Survey prize draw £10 and a £50 Homebase voucher) The twitter and FB wins seems near impossible and there are lot more people dedicated to comping either full time or in their spare time.

I am back at work now so more casual but I thought it would be as easy as it was in 2011

One thing that's changed considerably in the last 5 years is the blurring of the line between "judged" photo comps and the payments given on social media to so-called "brand ambassadors" (mummy bloggers, etc) to advertise products with the mandatory #Ad hashtag.

In other words, they're fake competitions – the prizes are miraculously awarded to the Instagrammer/Tweeter/Blogger instead of payment because they've got lots of followers and give the right kind of exposure to the brand. I would even argue that some of these "winners" are pre-selected before the comp has even begun.

There's a small close-knit cabal of comping queens, some of whom have spouses or relatives in the advertising industry and utilise their professional resources when producing their entries, who are scooping up a vast number of high value luxury prizes including cars and holidays. One of them seems to spend more time abroad on prize holidays than she does in the UK.

Needless to say this is all completely against the CAP code, as the companies aren't picking entries fairly based on their individual merit, and blatantly aren't using an independent judge as they should. But as we all know, the ASA is a complete joke. The companies seem to be wising up to this too; I've seen plenty of big well known companies completely ignoring the fundamentals of the CAP code. Whenever I tell them, they simply couldn't care less.

It's also disappointing to see a well known comping blogger now promoting a photo comp on her blog where the winner is selected by public vote, despite her well known criticism of this style of comp because the winner is always the person who persuades/pays enough people to vote for them. The reason she's promoting it is because the company is paying her to do so. The irony.

The "tougher" ASA were rubbish on a complaint I made re failure of a site to provide winner information or how to obtain it -

Complaint was made last year, in January I got

We’re sorry that we’re taking a little longer to assess your complaint than we would have liked. We’ve experienced a significant number of complaints over the last month or so and are working our way through these. We’ll be in touch with you shortly to let you know whether or not your complaint will be investigated further.

Then 28/02 when they also asked for further info

Thank you again for contacting the ASA and for your patience while we’ve been considering your complaint.

01/05 I emailed them for an update as it was 6 months since the original complaint and 2 months since they had been given more info (I had also received a reminder to complete a customer satisfaction survey!)

No reply to date and I haven't bothered chasing them any more (site now gives the details).