New Affiliate Competition (over £1000 worth of prizes).

**Patrick_Duggan** · 10-03-06

It’s competition time! We have decided that in the spirit of a little healthy competition we are going to run a 1st to 5th place affiliate competition. To keep it as simple as possible and to get everyone involved we are offering the following prizes:

1st Prize: A voucher entitling the winner to the Full Monty Rally [or similar] (http://trackdays.co.uk/Driving-exper.../Rally-Exp.htm) & £60 Voucher for our Supercar Competition

2nd Prize: A voucher entitling the winner to a Ferrari V Porsche Track Day [or similar] (http://trackdays.co.uk/Driving-exper...es/Super-4.htm) & £60 Voucher for our Supercar Competition

3rd Prize: A voucher entitling the winner to a Britsport Track Day [or similar] (http://trackdays.co.uk/Driving-exper...experience.htm) & £60 Voucher for our Supercar Competition

4th Prize: 1 x £60 Voucher for our Supercar Competition & 1 x £20 Voucher for our Sportscar Competition

5th Prize: £60 Voucher for our Supercar Competition

The competition will run from 10am today (10 March) until the close of our next Supercar Competition on 31 March (at 23.59). We already have some excellent artwork available on the networks (including Mother’s Day) but we will be releasing some new banners early next week. The prizes will be awarded based on top sales (open to all our affiliates) from 10 March (from 10 am) until 31 March.

If you would like any more information or want to request any specific artwork please let me know! Good luck and happy selling!!

**renegade** · 10-03-06

Yawn - Yet another "top sales" only competition 95% of us can safely ignore.

**Patrick_Duggan** · 10-03-06

Originally Posted by renegade

Yawn - Yet another "top sales" only competition 95% of us can safely ignore.

Shame you think so Joe - we just thought it might be fun as the prizes are a bit different. Does everyone feel the same way about these competitions?

**Mogga** · 10-03-06

Without a random element in there then you're not really encouraging people ...

One sale and entered into a prize draw gives everyone something to aim for.

**Fraser** · 10-03-06

I think you may need something that does encourage people to start promoting you but gets a bit of work from them too. Something like get 10 sales to earn your own voucher in the supercar draw.

It's a balance between making it too little effort for affiliates that you don't get a benefit and making it too hard for people to compete. I know that I looked at this and thought I've never promoted you yet but that if I start now I'm not likely to end up top 5. If it's a smaller target I might think it's worth a try.

**Azam.net** · 10-03-06

Agree with Fraser, Joe and Mogga. It was a good idea, Patrick, but needs to be some possibility of winning for the hundreds of affiliates who are not your top five earners don't you think?

**KieronD** · 10-03-06

Agreed, this promotion does absolutely nothing for me. The prizes are irrelevant if nobody has a chance of winning apart from existing top affiliates.

I also think you should give a bit of detail about your company when advertising a promotion. After all, not everyone in the world knows who best of the best are or what you do.

**morleymouse** · 10-03-06

ive been resisting this all day but as its kind of relevant, as an example:

http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40805

I think something like that might go down a bit better patrick

**Qui Gon Jinn** · 10-03-06

First of let's say thanks for the merchant for offering an incentive & prize... so thank you very much.. let's not seem ungrateful.

We have been lucky enough to win a few prizes with merchants in the past on performance, but do agree that the random element does induce more affiliates to look at promoting you where they hadn't before.

a) Either by one sale = 1 ticket into a draw .. i.e. more sales = more tickets = more chance

b) OR anyone reaching 10 sales gets a single ticket into the draw, that is the only threshold which is required, so any affiliate reaching that target has an EQUAL chance of winning.

However an annual prize of a car based on a) could be a blinder.

**drivetowin** · 10-03-06

Yeah I agree with all that has been said - great to see a merchant offering an incentive which is always to be welcomed but I'm never motivated by 'our top affiliate will win' type competitions cos chances are you know who your top affiliate is/will be anyway so why not just give it to them without making a public song and dance about it.

Far better to have a draw, with either one or a number of sales getting you an entry into the draw.

**loquax** · 10-03-06

Does everyone feel the same way about these competitions?

Yes I agree with the above...

By all means reward your top people, but even just one of the prizes you offer could be used more constructively to encourage new affiliates to look at your program, or current affiliates who make a few sales to perhaps try pushing it some more.

I don't know about others, but I automatically assume the PPC guys or cashback sites are going to have a field day in these promos and therefore sites like ours have no chance... subsequently we don't bother doing anything.

Jason

**renegade** · 10-03-06

Originally Posted by Qui Gon Jinn

First of let's say thanks for the merchant for offering an incentive & prize... so thank you very much.. let's not seem ungrateful.

Yep, that's a fair point, I was a bad mood this morning.
Perhaps we could make a sticky thread for merchants somewhere so they can read what motivates us before they tada their competitions?

I/we have explained this countless times over the years on the forum and still they come.

**Patrick_Duggan** · 13-03-06

Hi Guys - thanks for all your feedback it's been really helpful. And I totally agree that there needs to be more of an even playing field to get new affiliates to have a crack! I will be running more competitions in the near future so will definitely remember what's been said.

I think for us newbies any kind of information and feedback is always a good thing - after all, as a merchant I am most interested in providing an exciting and motivating programme!

Thanks again

**moogie** · 14-03-06

Hi Patrick

I have set quite a few competitions live for various programs. Firstly, well done on doing one, any incentive is always good for a program. I agree with some of what has been said in that the top affiliates will probably clean up and take the prizes.
One way to encourage newbies is to have a special prize especially for them. You could award the top selling new affiliate who has joined the program since the beginning of February or March and give them a prize for making the effort.
It is a difficult one, as you want to add incentive into your program and not upset the apple cart by rewarding the same old faces. Setting a sales target and then doing a draw is also another good idea for new affiliates on your program.
I always find cash is a much better incentive than rewarding with set prizes such as track days. Cash is king!