Compers News. Who Knew?

Who knew! 

Compers News.. a magazine dedicated to competitions. I subscribed last month out of curiosity and have enjoyed the secret world of the compers community and become part of the club. Of course it is no secret but I hadn’t stumbled across it in all my years in promotional marketing. My new family consist of those that dedicate themselves to competitions as a hobby and go online to chat to each other about their comping experiences.

I was surprised by this world, then on reflection, I asked myself why? Comping is such a huge industry that it would be a travesty if the community couldn’t come together like any other and share stories and successes.

Whether they are prize winners or just those that are happy to have a new hobby. I presume they want to win the prizes but I get the feeling that it is more than that. 

The magazine is broken down into several key areas. Firstly on the cover you get the main headlines from the big winners of the month….This is then followed by the editors topic of the month which is great. It tells us marketeers about the questions that consumers are asking and interested in. Last month was all about ‘No Purchase Necessary’ competitions while this month it is about the rise in QR code entry, how to do it and a little bit of history. For those that want the brief version, QR codes (Quick response codes) first appeared in Japan in the early 90s. It was useful for some things but didn’t really take off. Even in 2018 it was dying out to some extent. But roll on Covid and everything changed. Now the nation knows what they are, have devises that are set up to scan them and acknowledge the time saving exercise of waving a phone around to visit a web site rather than trying to type it in and on many occasions, typing it wrong. 

I digress. Returning back to the phenomenon that is Compers News, once the editor has had their say on the latest tech, for this month at least, they have gone into ‘name and shame’ mode. Flagging the competitions that have been brought before the ASA (Advertising standards Authority). Competitions that are misleading, have fallen foul of the law or simply rubbish competitions where hardly any prizes are won.

The next part of this A5 sized magazine (which you can also download the pdfs) are the subscribers letters.

Compers are inspired by other peoples letters and as mentioned earlier, this magazine does a fantastic job of bringing the community together. The best letters are printed and cash prizes are given away for the best ones. They really do practice what they preach. In fact the magazine if flush with chances of winning prizes including crosswords and every excuse you can imagine to connect with the reader.

￡30 H&M gift cards, ￡25 Sainsbury’s gift cards, Collector scheme…. collecting tokens to win ￡300 and it goes on.

The magazine concludes with the most important info of all… The new competitions launched this month.

This is approximately 25 pages of competition listings. And not just listed alphabetically but by competition type. With many compers happy to make purchases while others are not, and some keen to enter the more time consuming competitions believing (correctly) that they may have a better chance of winning, this really opens marketeers eyes up to the behaviour behind the comper.

Competition listings are categorised by:

- Purchase needed competitions (with No Purchase necessary option)

- Free prize draws

- Phone & Text

- Entry forms

- Famous Brands Online Selected Web Comps 

- Effort Needed

- Komping Kids

- Bits ’N’ Pieces

In each case, the listing shares the closing date, the prizes, the type of promotion it is, entry mechanism and general notes.

I bring myself back to the heading of this article. Who Knew?

Just for the record I have no association with Compers News and only discovered it recently when I heard that one of my competitions had made the magazine and that is why there had been a spike in plays. Maybe I have had my head buried in the sand and everyone else knows about this but I didn’t and it got me thinking about the marketing opportunities and how it supports what I regularly shout about. 

Whether my article and the publicity results in me receiving a special prize from them, I’ll wait to find out. :-)

As for my findings, well it is more about confirmation of what I already know and a timely reminder to all marketeers. There are thousands if not millions of people out there who are looking to engage with brands. The industry is huge and thriving. Consumers aren’t fussy. Dangle a great prize in front of them and people will flock. It will be those that are familiar with the brand as well as those that aren’t loyal or have never had an experience from the brand before. However, a promotion opens that door for potential customers to peer in and see what’s inside. That opportunity needs to be grabbed.

Be flamboyant, eccentric, generous, gregarious, friendly, welcoming and rewarding and the potential customer may well become a customer and a loyal one at that. You may just get their heads turning into a loyal customer.

Do you think the lady that won a year’s supply of McVitie’s biscuits this month was a huge McVitie’s fan? Maybe she was. I love a chocolate digestive. Can’t beat it. But don’t you think after now being given a year’s supply, the lucky lady will forever be buying McVitie’s after she has discovered she had forgotten the taste of Penguins and chocolate chip cookies? Not to mention her friends who come round to help her devour the snacks and then go and buy it themselves?

Of course we can’t forget the publicity it brings with her telling the whole Compers News family her story.

For marketeers it is relatively straight forward. Run a fantastic promotion, keep a decent budget back for prizes so that the winners become brand ambassadors. Show the nation you are open for business, keen to share and happy to spread the love. Do that and you will gain loyal followers that talk about you and spread the word free of charge to their friends and family.

I’m now off to buy myself some hob nobs and maybe I'll 'P P pick up a penguin!' (I haven't said that famous line in years).

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