Meet The Compers: Mel Crumpton

Welcome to another Meet The Compers interview! Today’s guest is the lovely Mel Crumpton, who’s been comping for around thirty years and had great success with her foodie photos and bakes. Mel also had a fantastic 2022, winning four incredible holidays!

First of all congrats on all the recent holiday wins – tell us all about them!

In 2022 I won some amazing holidays to Oman, the Maldives, Ibiza and a cultural trip to Japan. I have taken most of them already this year, along with my other trip that I won before lockdown – a fabulous £10K holiday to Tokyo from a Tesco Text to Win competition! 

I won the Oman trip in the #halftimeforoman promotion, the Maldives holiday was a holiday company website entry, I won Ibiza with Magic Radio and the cultural trip to Japan was with the Ivy Asia restaurant, so I will have been on five winning holidays this year which is unbelievable!

How did you first get into comping?

I saw and entered a competition to win an electric organ in my local paper and I won – from then on I was hooked!

Do you have a daily comping routine?

I spend at least an hour early every morning and throughout the day if I am not working, entering for things that I would like to win. If it’s my working week, then I try and do as many as I can when I get in after work in the evening. Lucky Learners and SuperLucky are fabulous for finding different kinds of competitions, and I also use Loquax daily to check for any other competitions that I would like to enter.

What’s your favourite prize, and why was it so special?

I won £20,000 with the National Lottery. For the competition you had to put your actual ticket number (not the lottery numbers!) into their website. I just couldn’t believe it when I got the winning call to tell me that I had won £20,000! I used the money to take my husband to New York as he had never been before, then to Sandals resort in Barbados, then finally with the last of the money I took my kids and some of their partners on an amazing 2 week holiday to Florida. Winning £20,000 was pretty special because all my family benefited from the prize!

What’s your favourite type of competition?

I do love the challenge of a good creative competition, especially baking or cooking!  I do get some good wins from my food photography photos, I have won so many luxury afternoon teas, cookery courses, experiences and kitchen gadgets from my food creations. 

I’m not frightened of making an idiot of myself either, so if I need to make a silly video or photo to win, then I will! Sometimes my ideas just come straight to me but sometimes I spend ages trying to think of a good idea for a competition. I won £1000 Greene King Vouchers for my entry into the Shakespeare Pub sign competition!

Have you recruited any of your family and friends as compers?

Both my sisters now avid compers after seeing how much I was winning. They have had success in winning holidays, kitchen gadgets, weekends away and pizza ovens!

Which winning competition entry are you most proud of?

It has to be my entry for the Fortnum & Mason judged Instagram picnic photo competition. I got up early with all my props and food and went up to Hadleigh Castle.

My photo won an amazing prize of a F&M hamper worth £2500! There were so many lovely posh goodies in the hampers and boxes when my prize turned up. It felt like Christmas opening up all the boxes!

Are there any types of prize promotions you’d like to see more or less of?

I would like to see more purchase necessary competitions where you have to upload your receipt first, as I think this is the fairest and best way to enter a purchase necessary promotion.

Do you have any embarrassing comping stories to share?

Yes! I won a makeover competition in a magazine when I was 27. The makeover included a new haircut, clothes and makeup, but they actually made me look more like 47 with a suit and old fashioned hairstyle! I was mortified when I was plastered in their magazine centre spread with my makeover day look, and a big A4 page of the new me! One day I hope I can enter it into a “worst competition win photo competition”!

What would be your dream competition prize?

I love winning holidays so it would have to be a holiday to Australia, the Seychelles or Fiji.

What do you love most about comping?

It has to be winning things and experiences that I would never be able to afford normally. I won a fabulous trip to Las Vegas to watch Tyson Fury fight, I even got an Instagram message from him congratulating me, that is something I never would have been able to afford.

Have you had any luck with radio competitions?

Yes, I am proud to say I won £2,000 on Heart’s Wake Up and Win – plus holidays to Madeira, Greece, Tenerife and Ibiza.

Which other compers do you look to for inspiration?

I think Nicola Stott – @nikewikewa – is brilliantly talented with her creative entries!

Where can SuperLucky readers follow you on social media?

On Instagram I’m @melcrum19 and @daddiesmumpet on Twitter.

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Thanks so much Mel – all this talk of holidays this has given me itchy feet!

If you enjoyed this interview please do check out the other Meet The Compers Q&As here.