How To: Terrific Tie Breakers & Super Slogans

Hello again compers!  How is your week going, any nice wins to report?  Not a sausage to report here, going through another dry spell!  Been a really busy time here the last week or so what with half term, Tudor projects to finish, trying to carry on working as usual and trying to get ahead so that I can take 3 days off and head to the bright lights of London for the weekend on Friday morning – hurrah!  Scary to think though that Easter is only a month away and the kids will be home again  - this time for two weeks!  Best get myself organised with activities and supplies and keep my eyes peeled for good kids’ comps coming up too!  How are you getting on with your Comping Resolutions, managing to stick with them?  I have been pretty good at being more selective of the comps I enter so far this year – got into a good cycle of entering the comps closing, then the holidays and short breaks, then the cash and vouchers and then anything specific on my Wish List such as things for upcoming birthdays and treats I have had my heart set on.  Determined that 2015 is the year I finally break my duck and win a holiday – sending out tons of positive vibes into the ether to try and make my wish come true!

Carrying on with my series of How To Guides, I thought it would be a good opportunity for us all to get Old School this week.  Back in the 1980s and 1990s if you looked through the comping publications of the time, or the local newspapers you would see loads of fab competitions to enter that required you to come up with a witty slogan for a product, or give your reason for wanting to win a prize with a clever and well thought out tie breaker.  These days’ slogans and tie breaker comps are more few and far between, and they often take on a different guise.  Nowadays you are more likely to be asked to enter a social media comp by telling them why you would love to win in a comment, add a caption to a funny photo or wrote a topical poem – but slogan and tie breaker comps are definitely still around if you look for them.  Because these comps require an element of thought, time and skill they are generally lower entry than regular click to win or prize draw comps, so your odds are greater of winning – bonus!

To get the most of out of these types of competitions, here are my top tips:

• Read the rules:  First things first, read the rules thoroughly.  Check the closing date, any hashtag or phrase you need to add to a social media comp and any word limits stipulated.  Word limits will alsways be adhered to strictly – no going over by one or two words, you will be disqualified for sure.  Also make sure you know what the entries are being judge on – if they are being judged on the funniest poems, come up with something funny.  If they want you to be creative and original, make sure you think completely outside the box and give your entry lots of thought before you start.
• Get into the mind of the promoter:  What is the product or company that is running the competition?  What do they provide or sell?  What words come to mind when you think of their products?  Make a list of all of the words and phrases that you feel best sum up the product or company in question.  You can then use this to pick out useful ideas for your slogan or tie breaker.
• Be creative:  Think outside the box when you are coming up with slogans and tie breakers.  It is usually a good rule of thumb to disregard the first few ideas you have, as generally they are the first ideas most people will be having.  Try and be creative and think of things that other people won’t be coming up with.
• Ditch the sob stories:  If the competition requires you to say why you deserve to win a prize, or nominate someone else to, try and stay positive and sunny and try not to meander off into a mire of unhappiness, sorry situations and tales of woe.  Generally the promoter wants you to make then smile, laugh and think about what you are telling them.  Be witty, use puns and clever wordplay around the product name and company name and try to make the promoters laugh if you can.
• Try a rhyme every time:  It isn’t always possible or appropriate to make your slogan or tie breaker rhyme, but it is always worth having a go.  Rhyming tie breakers are generally witty, funny and make people smile – this is exactly what the promoter wants you to do.  If you have a talent for making things rhyme, use it!
• Assess the competition:  With slogan and tie breaker comps on social media you will usually be able to get a good look at the other entries that have already been submitted for a comp.  This is strictly against the CAP guidelines, but it does give us compers a head start when it comes to entering them.  Use this loophole to make sure that your entry is unique and original – you don’t want to rule yourself out of winning if someone else has already had pretty much the same idea as you.  Likewise try and hold off submitting your own entry until the last possible minute – you don’t want other people stealing your entries if you can help it!
• Stockpile Entries:  At certain points through the year there is always a glut of competitions asking for slogans and tie breakers.  These tend to be New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween and Christmas with a few others thrown in.  If you have a spare evening why not take the time to stockpile some good ideas and possible entries for slogan and tie breaker comps that are likely to be coming up. You can use your entries on more than one occasion too, so if you are particularly proud of an idea make use of it and use it whenever you can!
• Use the Windex Database:  As a Compers News member you have the advantage of being able to access thousands of past winning slogans and tie breakers, going back years!  Log into your Compers News account and have a browse through the Windex Database to get some ideas of competition entries that have won in the past.  Search for the product name, type, season, holiday etc and make some notes to add to your ideas.  This is a real wealth of knowledge and a great resource for all you lucky compers.
• Get a fresh pair of ears:  Try out your slogans and tie breakers on a friend or family member, more than one if you can.  If it makes them laugh, smile or groan then it is doing the job.  The more feedback you get from people the better, as it will help you to refine and improve your entries before you submit them.

So there yon have it, the basics of getting into slogan and tie breaker comps.  I have had a few nice successes with tie breakers and caption comps – my best so far being a £200 Liz Earle Ultimate Hamper I won before Christmas from a tie breaker comp on their Facebook page.  These kinds of competitions do still exist, but have morphed into a slightly different form than you might be used to if you have taken a break from coping.  Do give them a go though, and please do let us know how you get on with them – we love to hear from you!

Happy comping and lots of Lucky Dust to you all!

Kirsty x