Competition for Publicity

I'm often asked for some (free) marketing advice and find myself giving out tips and ideas readily. I gave a talk on PR to The Business Club in Norwich recently and one of the ideas I suggested seemed to spark a lot of interest so I thought I would expand upon it here.

I really love using reader competitions to generate PR coverage for clients and projects. Printed publications (especially newspapers) are getting a bit less keen on this type of coverage as their staffing is limited with marketing posts often made redundant, but there is still plenty of scope for this type of promotion through online and offline outlets.

Competitions offer many advantages to companies looking to raise the profile of their goods or services:
* Usually free to insert - cost is only in prize value
* Opportunities for data capture - every entrant is expressing an interest in your product or service and can therefore be considered a warm contact
* Impression of kindness and goodwill bestowed upon your company for giving away stuff
* Editorial style coverage which is a lot more discreet than advertising
* Implication of endorsement by the magazine etc by association with your product/service


Many publications will have a minimum prize value which can often be in the region of £500 - consider though that this is the retail value and the cost to you as a company is only perhaps half of that. Offering a money can't buy prize such as a VIP experience can also negate this prize value. Competitions are often given a generous amount of editorial space and frequently a full page of coverage plus front cover teasers so this still represents excellent value for "money".

Entry levels for competitions vary by publication - we only had one entry to a competition to win a martial arts lesson some time ago but we had 150 entries to another to win a hamper of spring bulbs from a garden centre.

Top Tips for Running a Reader Competition
1. Give plenty of notice to the publication - magazines are often running 2+ months ahead
2. Don't bother with BBC radio stations - they no longer run listener competitions since the bad publicity surrounding fake entries on Blue Peter etc.
3. Commercial radio stations will generally charge a fee to run a listener competition - expect to pay £300-500 plus the prize value.
4. Check with the publication to make sure they comply with Data Protection laws and ensure that there is a relevant tick box to allow you to share data captured.
5. Use Twitter to run a competition by asking people to spread the word about you by re-tweeting (RT) your message in exchange for a free entry into your competition
6. Follow up, follow up and follow up

You can arrange a competition yourself with some research or we would be delighted to help you to arrange a reader competition. Speak to Kate on 01603 716700 or email kate@activemd.co.uk for information