Advice from an ex-contest junkie

Contests. Ah yes. They used to be my life. I’d spend all of my free time looking for contests to join. Back then, there was no Facebook giving away prizes left and right. I had to rely on good old-fashioned print publications, TV commercials and Google in order to keep myself up-to-date with the latest giveaways.

It all started when I won a mall’s essay-writing contest and took home around P20,000 worth of prizes back in 2005. My sister-in-law prodded me to make a 300-word essay as fast as I could. She said she was joining this contest and that she could submit my entry along with hers. I had no idea what the prizes at stake were; I just quickly put together a composition and handed it to her within the hour since it was the last day for submission. A few days later, I got a call on my cellphone and I was told that I was one of the Dream Package winners. I still didn’t know what the prizes were. When I went to their office to claim the prizes, I was really surprised. I was handed a stack of GCs, including one for an overnight stay at Holiday Inn Galleria. That pretty much got me on the contest wagon.

I was at it for about three full years… from 2006 to 2008. I hit my all-time high in 2008 when I won Discovery Channel’s writing contest, which spanned all of Southeast Asia (including Australia). I was told there were thousands of entries. In the end, I was one of three winners and I got an all-expense paid trip to Singapore for four and our family starred in a TVC for Singapore Tourism Board.

These days, I no longer have the luxury of time to devote to joining contest after contest. Sometimes I fill up online forms for quick raffles or submit one-liners but that’s about it. Having won several writing contests, which had my works published in magazines and newspapers, paved the way for freelance writing. To date, I regularly contribute to at least four magazines.

It’s easier now, really. All you have to do is log on to Facebook and the contests will come even if you don’t look for them. But I do have some words of advice to share, based on my experience from years of full-blast contest joining.

1. Choose your battles

I learned this the hard way. There was a magazine before that gave away prizes every month for the best letter senders. I made the mistake of sending a really good letter for an issue that was giving away gift packs. Predictably, I got published and won a gift pack. The following month, a trip to Paris was at stake. I sent another letter and was short-listed but in my heart of hearts I knew that I would not win this time having just won the month before. I was right. This happened to me in another magazine too. I got a gift pack in an earlier month and although I was short-listed for a cellphone the next month, I did not win. Bottom line is, contests are all about making consumers happy and if the same person wins every time it won’t make people happy… so companies will most likely give chance to others. Thus you must choose wisely.

2. Follow the mechanics to the letter

Nothing sucks more than getting a perfectly good entry disqualified due to a minor technicality. It could be not submitting on time, not including required information, or simply not sticking to the rules. Read and understand the mechanics before you even start making an entry.

3. Do not cheat

My son won a Nintendo DS in an old-fashioned raffle before. I simply put his details at the back of the receipt of some gummy bears I bought and dropped in a drop box. When we went to claim his prize, I was told by the organizers that the grand prize winner of a Nintendo Wii was disqualified because he/she sent in a multitude of photocopied receipts in an effort to inflate the chances of winning. They had to draw another winner. There was another case where my beauty blogger friend’s nail art photo was swiped off her site and entered into a contest. The cheater was caught and called out by her readers. Can you imagine the humiliation all for a nail polish gift pack? If you are caught cheating you will most likely get blacklisted in the brand’s future promos.

4. If you feel something is amiss, do not hesitate to ask questions or complain but be logical about it

I joined a contest for a year’s supply of fabric softener before. We were given a few questions to answer. I researched mine well and was very confident I got it all correct. When the correct answers were revealed I was very surprised because they did not seem to match the question. I wrote the organizer and sent an appeal. I presented all the info I had. It turns out that one of the contest questions was erroneously printed. In the end, all of us who got the other questions correctly got our year’s supply of fabcon.

I hope this helps! Given my very limited time these days, I’m very picky about the contests I join. I usually give it a go if I like the prize or if it’s really easy to enter.