Competition prizes

The best competition, and by best I mean then ones that generate the most interest and entries will normally have some element of resonance which shrewd marketers will use to engage their potential customers. This can be related to the season or to particular events Winning a trip to Australia promoted during the winter months, with the premiss of would you like to escape the sleet and snow, have more of a, impact in the winter months than if the same competition was promoted in the summer months. People imagine what it would be like winning the prize next week, even if it may be for some future event, people think about the immediacy of the the prize. They don't necessarily stop to think about the terms and conditions, closing dates, that is in the small print, just what it would feel like, say, to be on the Great Barrier reef in January while your friends and neighbours are digging themselves out of snow and moaning about the lack of gritting lorries. It's not about the prize itself, just what it would feel like if you actually won. The challenge with using a topical opportunity is that often the design for packaging and promotion means planing significantly time period in advance But there are some great examples of opportunities that's up coming, or looking at or trying to anticipate future events that may or will probably elicit a greater response and one that you can align your product too. One of the big opportunities upcoming is the 2012 Olympic games on London. Few people will really get chance, even if they could afford the admission prices, to see the events, looking at the international demand for tickets. This makes it a unique and extremely scarce prize. No doubt any competition that had olympic tickets as a prize would attract huge numbers of entrants. So, we can look out for a plethora of Olympic based prizes in the coming months, now tickets have started to be sold. Few of us, even if we could afford it would get the once in a lifetime opportunity to see the opening ceremony or one of the big events , like a sprint final. Or to witness one of the British athlete hopefuls actually winning. The idea of being able to tell your friends and grandchildren that "I was there, will undoubtedly be seen by many as worth far more than the cash prize and would appeal to a specific audience. And knowing that audience and if they are the target market for your product then paying ten times the cost of a ticket would be worth the cost for any company wanting a competition prize to link it's product to a dream such as this. When a full page colour ad in a Sunday supplement can cost several thousand pounds how much publicity would a competition which had a pair of tickets to the Olympic sprint final be worth in generating engagement and brand association to any company?