Meet the compers: Olivia Kirby

Today I’m kicking off a great new series on the blog called ‘Meet the Compers’, featuring a Q&A with successful winners worldwide! First up is the lovely Olivia Kirby here in the UK…

Olivia is relatively new to the scene, having only started comping passionately in the last couple of years, yet her success and popularity amongst fellow compers made her a great choice for my first Q&A. Olivia is a super social comper, entering most of her comps on Facebook, Twitter and online. I was lucky enough to meet Olivia last year when we both won an incredible trip to Milan with Indesit in their ‘Support your hero’ Facebook promotion and naturally, we got on like a house on fire!

Olivia, thanks for taking time out from comping to do a SuperLucky Q&A!

How and when did you start comping?
I have always entered the odd competition, when I had my first child over 12 years ago I would enter all the competitions in the parenting magazines that I bought and did actually win a few things through that. I began looking into it more at the ends of 2011 – by this time I had 3 children and the internet so I would enter any I spotted whilst on Facebook.

What’s the biggest prize you’ve won, and how did you win it?
In terms of value, I would have to say the trip to Milan with you Di! It was the type of experience that had a ‘priceless’ value. Included in the prize were flights, hotel, all meals, almost unlimited alcohol at the VIP events we attended, transport, shoes of our choice in a boutique opened solely for us whilst being served chocolate and Prosecco, and the men got to play football at the San Siro with footballing legends with full kits, souvenirs… the list goes on! It was Indesit’s Support your Hero campaign, you have to nominate your ‘hero’ (partner) with a photo and caption. There were plenty of prizes and it was the last day to enter so I thought I’d give it a go. I was amazed when I found out that i’d won one of the top prizes, and that you had too! I loved every minute and truly see it as the best thing I have ever done.

Olivia & I in Milan

What type of prize promotion do you enjoy most?
I like entering competitions through apps on Facebook, they are reasonable prizes, easy to enter and relevant to me.

What are your tips for fitting comping in around work and looking after children?
I work 2 days a week and often feel like I’m missing out while I am there – I do a few here and there on Twitter while I’m at work though! I do most of my comping after 7pm, when the little ones are in bed and Conor is doing homework or playing. It suits me, I don’t really like much on the TV and I just have that on as background noise. I find it quite relaxing, to sit back and look at what prizes are up for grabs! If I see any nice kids comps I get them involved in those inbetween time at pre-school. Melody has won a few prizes and win or lose she has fun taking part.

What tips do you have for entering lots of competitions quickly?
I autofill my details and I have daily entry comps, like Rafflecopter bookmarked so I can race through them. I have to say I find them a chore but blog comps that use Rafflecopter often have the type of prizes we enjoy and coming back for that daily entry has given me an advantage in the past. I filter the type of prizes we like, sifting out anything we are not interested in, no point looking at comps with prizes we’re not bothered about. If I am short on time I have to just cut the amount of skill comps and dailies I enter.

Olivia’s first big win was a family skiing holiday in the Alps

Like my husband Rob, your hubby is very supportive of your hobby. Was it always like that or did he think you were a bit crazy at first?
Tom has always been supportive – as long as the kids are happy and the house isn’t a cesspit then it’s ok! He helps out with comps now and again, but not often. His way of helping is to cook our tea while I carry on comping! He’s more than happy to do that as he has really appreciated the experiences that we have had together because of it.

What would you say has been your most magical moment as a result of comping?
It was pretty amazing to see our husbands run onto the pitch at the San Siro stadium and play football with their heroes! This is what I particularly love about comping, the magic, that amazing experience that you would never have without comping. As an Arsenal fan, that Milan trip was just a dream come true, from spotting Tony Adams at the airport to realising he was in the hotel room next to us, it was the stuff of dreams! As well as that, Melody won a place on the guestlist for the My Little Pony Royal Wedding! It was in a beautiful country hotel in a part that looked like a castle, with turrets that we had to reach by a little train ride. There was party games, food, cake decorating, face painting, cartoons and a wonderful goody bag. She was only just 3 and to her it was so special and magical. She even appeared (briefly) on the Nickelodeon TV advert because of it! Another magical moment was Conor going to the new St George’s Park Football centre at Burton Upon Trent for training and lunch with other winners and Jamie Redknapp. Him and his dad were in seventh heaven as Liverpool supporters!

You’ve won some lovely prizes in voting competitions. What negativity have you experienced as a result of entering these?
I try not to enter these but on a couple of occasions I’d had a reasonable idea so thought I’d enter. It’s always a stupid decision! The first one I won was for an icecream flavour for Lec, the company chose their top 10 then it went to the vote. Unfortunately one person decided to try using vote exchange groups around the world. It actually backfired on him as my friends that may not have actually wanted to be a part of voting rallied around and got everyone they knew to vote for me and I won! I didn’t encounter any real negativity in this competition, I think partly due to the fact that I had been shortlisted first and most preferred my flavour idea to that of my nearest rival. The other voting contest I entered and won was recent – there was clear cheating going on and the company was understandably reluctant to get involved. Someone entered a fake photo, got lots of votes, and created fake profiles to cause trouble amongst the other entrants. It was very stressful and upsetting – but I won in the end and was over the moon.

Olivia creates her own ice cream flavour

Which websites, forums, magazines or resources do you use for comping?
I have always used The Prizefinder. MSE is not for me! There’s too much there and I am not keen on the layout. I subscribe to Compers News too as I do enjoy the postal entries and all the kids comps in there. When I have time I Google for comps myself, which is a good way of finding low entry blog comps.

Are there any types of prize promotions you’d like to see more or less of?
The Facebook Like & Share comps are a bore but I think the companies that run them would have no comps if they couldn’t get away with running them! I like ‘best answer wins’ comps on Facebook, I try and put in some effort, some humour and often a bit of research. I just came second in a Pizza & Wine pairing competition with over 1000 entries, 1st prize was a trip to Italy – I got a wine tasting experience voucher for second prize!

Is there a prize you’ve tried to win but it has always eluded you?
I have tried and tried to win a new TV, nothing, even with all this year’s ‘watch the World Cup on a new telly’ comps! I really want to win a Lapland trip too, before the kids are much older.

What would be your top comping tip or piece of advice?
Play to your strengths. There’s loads of skill comps around with much lower entries. There’s baking comps, drawing, photo, video, poetry, Lego building, all sorts! These sort of competitions are more fun to enter and you can involve your kids in these. Read the T&Cs – with low entry effort competitions, you can write off half the entries as people don’t read the instructions and enter properly!

Olivia won a luxury break with £500 to spend in a Yours magazine prize draw

Thanks Olivia – and good luck winning that TV set!

If you’d like to feature on SuperLucky, send me a message via the Contact page!