'Money for Nothing' - the Rise of the 'Professional Comper' Represents a New Threat to Marketing Promotions, Warns Leading Industry Expert
LONDON, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new breed of 'professional entrant' to competitions and prize draws threatens to affect tens of thousands of marketing campaigns unless action is taken now by promoters.
Research by leading promotions specialist PromoVeritas shows that 'professional compers' make an average 100 entries a week and often have 30-40 SIM cards to make it easier to enter 'Text To Win' type promotions multiple times. They also operate in syndicates, sharing entry forms, group buying promotional packs and tokens.
In one case, involving a frozen food on-pack promotion, a unique code had to be entered online in order for a chance to win regular prizes of GBP1000. Syndicates of 'hardcore compers' were staying up at all hours of the day and night and entering thousands of codes to gain an advantage over other entrants.
Some 'professional compers' even resort to using false names and fake emails to improve their chances of winning, with the result that their actions make it increasingly difficult for marketers to pick bona fide winners or to get a return on investment from such marketing activities which are frequently run to create a valuable database of future customers.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg!" claims Jeremy Stern, CEO, PromoVeritas who advises some of the UK's biggest brands on how to ensure that marketing promotions comply with industry regulations and ultimately help to drive incremental sales.
"Despite a liberal regulatory environment, there's still a high level of ignorance from promoters on how to properly run the back end of their promotions and this creates weak spots in a marketing campaign and risk to brand reputations plus wasted budgets", he warns.
Although most 'compers' do it for fun there is a danger that some could get hooked and end up requiring medical help.
Professor Cary Cooper, a leading organisational psychology and health expert at Lancaster University adds: "Comping is a peculiarly British phenomenon. And with rising unemployment some people have become more desperate and seek alternative ways to fund a lifestyle they can't otherwise afford. Habitual competition and prize entering can quickly take over an individual's life because it offers significant rewards for a tantalisingly small investment of a packet top or a magazine purchase. Unless individuals keep in check the amount of time spent on this activity it could lead to a form of addiction similar to gambling," he says.
For full story visit: http://www.promoveritas.com/PR.htm
Founded in 2002 PromoVeritas ensures the integrity and compliance of promotions and seeks to increase their success by enhancing consumer faith and confidence.
Core services include drafting of terms & conditions, judging of competitions, independent winner selection for prize draws and inserting winning tokens or code for 'Willy Wonka' style instant-win promotions, plus independent vote verification for live TV shows such as BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and ITV's National TV Awards.
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