Zak,
Personally I do see it as a decent promotion and the ones you have offered past, present & future have been & will continue to be. In your case they are usually associated with products you offer, with some other merchants this is not really feasible i.e. a financial service company offering free pet insurance for a year when all you have is a goldfish.
Generally prizes and incentives I guess need to have a bit of variation & imagination rather than predictability. If offering "tangible" goods if that is the correct word then maybe several different prize options are required.
It is horses for courses but for you personally Zak this could be quite good
Prezzybox.com: Mightymast Retro Arcade Machine £1,295.00
I have noticed with your comps in the past that you do offer good variation, whilst some others offer the standard MP3 Players & IPods in surplus (maybe even surplus to requirements). Granted beggars can't be choosers, but a little thought into what affiliates may not have may be the catalyst required to spur action (as in promote further) whether it be a hospitality day to an event, a holiday, electrical products or cash lump sum. Has anyone won a car yet?
With cash lump sums how many zero's will float an affiliates boat and invigorate them? For me personally £50 & £100 doesn't do it for me or cut the mustard. £500 I may take a cursory glance, anything with three zeros or more, time permitting, I 'll more likely assess to would I have a chance. But we musn't forget what is realistically affordable for the merchant.
The manner of the competition is also important, personal preference goes to 1 sale = 1 ticket.
The style of the competition too may help. Some merchants have football or F1 league tables where there is week to week results. Sunshine.co.uk were proactive in actual participation on a regularly basis with varied ideas keeping the promotion alive & interesting with regular updates, rather than just announcing & then quickly forgotten. In your face but in a good way. Could the Maldives be next?
We see a lot of activity days circulating around, whilst for me Buyagift reign supreme for obvious reasons, think about the others that offer these too. Affiliates are based in different parts of the country, what doesn't get factored in are travelling & accommodation expenses incurred by an affiliate in attending these sometimes equates or exceeds the value of the activity itself.
At the end of the day, beggars can't be choosers & perhaps we should be appreciative of any promotion / incentive (except for biggest earner takes all). But we are in a multi million pound industry now. To get the creative & marketing juices of the affiliates flowing, they (merchant, agencies, networks) perhaps need to conjure up imaginative prizes as well as constantly prompted or keeping affiliates aware by engaging & regular updates.
That's why I look forward to hopefully seeing a dedicated section soon, so that opportunities don't pass affiliates by because they were not aware or need reminding since they were busy & may had forgotten first time around or simply didn't notice.
