Don’t we all dream to strike it rich one day like Columbus did when he found a contintent while looking for spices? The discovery of America was an accident just like the first gold that was found in the West and the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania. These rags to riches stories have one thing in common – the desire to stand out from the crowd and to stumble on a goldmine unexpected, for the most part after a long period of trying without success. Many people have the secret desire to become millionaires but don’t know how to go about it. Contests and sweepstakes have one thing in common with these good-luck stories. They bring a relatively few participants some nice prizes and leave a few so well off that they don’t have to work the rest of their life. I am thinking of the million dollar sweepstakes winners or the $ 500 a week winners. The probability might be 1 to 150 million, but somebody will be the grand prize winner in every sweepstake, but only if they enter. So many people think in the back of their mind, that they can never win and entering contests and sweepstakes are nothing but a waste of time and not worth to bother with them. They have better uses for their paper and postage stamps. They even think that the judges give the prizes to their relatives and that sweepstakes and contests are most of the time not even legitimate.
People who entertain these thoughts are dead wrong. Contests and sweepstakes have such a stronghold that they are not going away any time soon. Sweepstakes can make us instant millionaires or just bring some nice prizes to our door. They are legitimate and the judges never give the prizes to their relatives. The rules always states that nobody who is in any way related to anybody associated withe the contests or sweepstakes is eligible to enter a sweepstake or contest.
The only reason contests and sweepstakes are advertised is to make money, in other words to increase the sales of the sponosors’ products. With contests it is easy to see how the money comes into play, because the contestant is usually required to save labels or boxtops and send them in with their contest entry. These qualifiers help the sponsors enormously because if you like the products you have to buy, you will most likely keep on using them.
“But sweepstakes are free to enter,” you say, ” and there is no such thing as something for nothing.” Can a private company afford to give away all these prizes when they are not even allowed to make us buy their products or services? The answer is yes. Every sweepstake advertises a product which is an indirect request to buy. The sponsors of sweepstakes consider the prizes they give away as part of their advertising budget because they attract attention to their wares. Manyfacturers have discovered that the chance of winning a prize after reading an ad with a sweepstake attached to it, gives the consumers a sense of involvement and excitement and what is most important, their interest for the products becomes more intense and they will likely go ahead and buy it. With a display in a department store, the consumer will not only buy the product advertised but also buy many other items which is of course beneficial for the department store owner. Most of the time the entry blanks will say that the sweepstakes can also be entered online. The increased traffic to the sponsor’s website will bring even more interest in the product and exposure of the product is the ultimate purpose of every promotion. Sweeping attracts many enthusiasts who make it their hobby. It gives us pleasure to to enter sweepstakes for some time at a regular basis. Compared with other hobbies, sweeping is easy to stay with because we can spend as much money as we can afford. When the cash runs out for envelopes and postcards and postage we go online and try our luck there. Hobbyists without a computer can go to the Public Library where they can also scan national magazines for sweepstakes. The anticipation for all those prizes that will show up at our doorstep eventually keeps us going for a long time. We should keep in mind that the sponsors and the judges do not care who wins. Their only purpose for sweepstakes promotions is to sell their products and make money.
MANY WILL ENTER - FEW WILL WIN. ( On the carton of Yogplait GoGurt and you could win $ 10,000 Grand Prize, ends Nov.30,2007)
Tags: instant millionaire, judges, sponsor, strike it rich
