When I began comping many years ago the most common competitions were ‘buy to win’ competitions where you had to purchase a product, keep the receipt or packaging and send off an entry form (or put it in a special box at the supermarket). Times have definitely changed! Obviously the main aim of competitions is to encourage more potential customers to try a businesses product to ultimately increase sales and raise brand awareness in the marketplace. So having to purchase a product to enter seems perfectly logical.
‘Buy to win’ competitions appeared in the early years of the C20th as seen in advertisements in newspapers and magazines of the time. However, it was during the 1950s that these began to become especially popular when advertising agencies came to realise that the chance of winning a prize (usually a product being promoted) increased ongoing sales, product and brand awareness. I am sure these ‘buy to win’competitions still work well for businesses and supermarkets otherwise they wouldn’t keep running them. I have actually bought quite a few products in the past to enter competitions, come to like them and continue to buy them, for a while anyway. There are some competitions that came my way unexpectedly by simply buying something I would buy anyway. However I don’t enter all of them. I’m still a little choosy.
These days, however, with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter competitions being so prolific and easy to enter many compers can’t be bothered with ‘buy to win’competitions but statistically if you do enter them you will probably have a reasonably good chance of scoring a prize (even if small) especially if there is a large prize pool and a multiple entry option. But they can be a lot of work entering apart from the added purchase cost.
That is where Nabbit comes in. Nabbit is an app which give you a simple and quick way to enter ‘buy to win’ competitions while you are doing your shopping. Nabbit is easily and quickly downloaded onto your smartphone from the App Store or Goggle Play. Competitions are listed and you can choose any that interest you. You can also be informed of new competitions by email or through the Facebook page as they come onboard. After buying the product (and putting the receipt carefully in your wallet where you can find it if you win), you simply scan the barcode and your details are automatically entered into the competition.
Nabbit was only launched in February this year so the competitions will start to build as it grows. The brains behind Nabbit, Mitchell Barber told me why he developed Nabbit: “a lot of the biggest competitions with the largest prize pools are limited to purchasing a product but unfortunately (or fortunately for those that decide to enter them) not a lot of people end up entering them as they don’t know about them or if they do the steps they need to take to enter are too complicated” Nabbit certainly takes care of that.
I’ve only just downloaded Nabbit and am still trying it out (so haven’t won anything yet…) however it seems to have great potential and I will be keeping an eye on it over the next year or so. As Nabbit scans most barcodes, it also has a function where you can create a shopping list. You can find more information on Nabbit at www.nabbit.com.au.
If you decide it is something worth trying don’t forget that the most important things to remember is to ALWAYS check the Ts & Cs first and take note of anything you need to know before entering and ask for a receipt when buying the product for a competition and keep it somewhere safe. Nearly all ‘buy to win’ competitions will require you to provide a receipt as proof of purchase to claim a prize. There would be nothing worse than winning a prize but not being able to claim it as you didn’t qualify for it, ask for the receipt and kept it safe or had lost it.
Photo attribution – Simon Shek
