BBC News ask our opinion on ‘unfair’ McCain’s promotion
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This week the promotions industry was caught up in controversy after the the BBC reported on consumers being ‘taken for a ride’ by ambiguous prize fund claims from brands. As a leading expert on the promotions industry, our MD Jeremy Stern was asked for his opinion. Here is an extract from the ensuing article published on the BBC’s news website.
“Competition lovers claim they are being “taken for a ride” by prize draws which do not give out all the prizes advertised.
A number of “compers” say a contest being run by frozen food brand McCain is one example – the headline prize fund looks impressive, but the chance of winning is slim because not all prizes are guaranteed.
As the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) considers whether to investigate McCain’s promotion, BBC News looks at three current promotions – two of which have also attracted complaints.
The watchdog is encouraging people to come forward if they think a prize draw turns out to be less generous than it seems.
“It’s important promotions deal with participants fairly and honourably,” an ASA spokeswoman said. “We only need one complaint to investigate – so we would encourage anyone with concerns to get in touch.”
McCain’s raffle
McCain is advertising a £3m prize fund in its Great Village Raffle, with what it says is the chance of winning one of 26,000 prizes, including cars, spa retreats and restaurant meals.
But while all the prizes are “available to be won”, a large proportion almost certainly won’t be.
Entrants must submit a code from the inside of a product packet, along with their email address, to the promotion’s website and prizes are then “randomly assigned” using an algorithm verified by an independent third party.
Unlike a traditional village hall raffle, you don’t stand more chance of winning if fewer people enter.
Blogger Di Coke, who has been entering competitions for 20 years, said customers were being “taken for a bit of a ride”.
The promotion is also being looked at by the ASA, which has received one complaint.
“People think, ‘£3m of prizes. There’s almost 30,000 prizes advertised in this competition. I’ve got a good chance of winning,’ and people really haven’t.
“The only way all £3m of prizes will be given away is if every single code on every single promotional packet is entered on the website.”
Realistically, she explains, that won’t happen for a variety of reasons – people don’t realise their pack contains a promotion, they forget the enter, can’t be bothered, lose their receipt, can’t find or read the code – or because the products are still sitting on supermarket shelves after the closing date.
‘Not this time’
Di, from Brighton, says these sorts of promotions are becoming more common.
She says it’s likely only about 5% of the available prizes will ever be given out – a figure backed up by Jeremy Stern, from PromoVeritas, a company which runs competitions on behalf of big firms.
But he points out: “If more people would enter, more people would win.”
Francesca Jones, who has been trying to win in the McCain promotion, told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours: “Every code you put is, ‘Sorry you’re not a winner this time.’
“I have got a lot of friends who are trying the competition in the group I’m in and not a single person has won which is really unusual. Comping is our thing.”
The terms and conditions in McCain’s promotion make clear there is “no guarantee that all prizes will be won”.
A McCain spokesman said: “We can confirm that customers are winning prizes in the McCain Great Village Raffle promotion and there are still many more exciting prizes to be won until the closing date of 31 January 2018.”