How to be a winner!
...just like this family, who entered a competition on a packet of biscuits and scooped a luxury safari
COMPETITIONS can be a financial winner, providing a great way to pay for expensive luxuries in life you might otherwise not be able to afford. Those who master the art of quizzes and prize draws will enjoy a share of the £300million worth of prizes given away every year in Britain.
Someone hooked on the pursuit is known as a ‘comper’ – and might spend their spare time delving into magazines and trawling supermarket shelves in search of competitions to enter.
But there is no need for this hobby to take over your life. If you are shrewd about which competitions to enter you can enjoy a pleasurable as well as rewarding pursuit – winning everything from sweets to a holiday you will never forget.
Sofia Baynham rarely enters competitions but noticed a ‘Win a Family Safari Experience’ prize draw on a packet of Barny chocolate sponge biscuits when shopping at a local supermarket during the summer.
When she got home, on a whim she entered a code that was on the packaging into the company’s competition website. She hoped she might win one of hundreds of pairs of binoculars on offer or an activity book for her family – which includes sons Callum, eight, Lucas, six, and three-year-old Jacob.
But to her great surprise, she won the top prize of a five-night family break in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
The 31-year-old pensions administrator, from Reading in Berkshire, says: ‘It was like finding the golden ticket in a Willy Wonka chocolate bar. This really will be the holiday of a lifetime and I am thrilled we can all share in something we could never have otherwise afforded.
‘I never thought people actually won such prizes – but now I know they certainly do.’ She is hoping to go on the safari next year. Sofia, married to Joe, 32, admits that luck was all that counted in her win, but the only way she got a chance to bag this top prize was by entering it.
The biggest secret of winning competitions is to enter as many as possible. Fortunately there are specialist publications and websites that can help.
Among those worth considering is Compers News. This monthly magazine costs £59.40 a year and includes details of just about every competition and prize draw in Britain.
Another is website Competitors Companion. This is free to join but if you want help with some of the answers it costs £10 a year. Website ThePrizeFinder also roots out hundreds of competitions to enter and it costs nothing to sign up to.
Jeremy Stern is managing director of promotions company PromoVeritas. He says: ‘Prize draws select winners on luck, but if you get in early and enter as many as possible you boost
your chance of success. But those based on judgment of how you answer a question often have fewer people entering them – and this dramatically increases the odds of winning.’
A competition asking you to provide a catchy ditty or explain in a few words what a great product a firm markets, offers a bigger opportunity to win yourself a prize.
Originality to a sound bite is key. For example, the phrase ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ is one of the most memorable coined. It was dreamt up 50 years ago by advertising executive Maurice Drake over a couple of beers at a pub in London. A way to add to the appeal of an original phrase is to make sure it includes alliteration – the same letter used at the start of different words – as well as doublemeanings. Competition judges also like humour.
Unfortunately you may have to enter a hundred competitions just to win one, so a huge part of the attraction needs to be the thrill of the chase. It is unlikely a competition is going to offer exactly what you really want, so part of the skill is knowing how to dispose of unwanted prizes for cash. Trading websites such as eBay can help.
Be wary of rip-off premium-rate phone number competitions. Numbers beginning with ‘09’ are the worst – often charging more than £2 a minute. It is also important to be wary of postal costs. A second-class stamp is only 56p but if you posted the answers to 50 separate competitions a week then the total cost would be £28.
If the terms and conditions do not specify that you must use a plain envelope or postcard then there is nothing wrong with using colourful envelopes or cards so they will stand out.