SuperLucky Stories: YOUR creative wins in 2012!
Laura had an amazing 2012 with several top notch wins – her photos are sublime and I always look forward to seeing them. She lives in Brighton at the moment, which is where I’m moving this year so hopefully we should make a formidable comping team!
“My biggest win of the year (and life, so far!) was the top prize from the Yazoo competition (known to many as the Great PR Milkshake Mistake of 2012) — a whopping £10,000. It couldn’t have come at a better time as I’d just finished my BA, and wanted to do a Masters degree but had no idea how I would fund it. I spent weeks collecting props and trying out different photos, I spent the two days before dissertation hand-in constructing my cardboard cop-car which eventually won me the prize. I’m now halfway through my Masters and loving it, and I owe it all to Di for sharing the competition!”
“I’ve been lucky enough this year to go on two holidays and win a third: I went to Arctic Finland in February, and New York in July–both amazing trips, both found via Superlucky! I have yet to take the third as you can’t book more than 6 weeks in advance, but we’re hoping to go sometime in the Spring… to Jamaica! As part of the Olympics buzz the team at the Jamaica UK Facebook page were giving away an all-inclusive holiday to the best ‘winning Jamaican pose.’ A quick look through the entries (mostly people doing the Usain Bolt pose) prompted me to try to think of something a little bit different, colourful and eye-catching, so I popped to my local charity shop for some yellow attire, painted my face and arms, and turned myself into a living Jamaican flag!”
Katie wrote a guest blog for me back in 2011 and has continued her run of success through 2012! She bagged a Las Vegas trip with a fabulous quirky entry to Mecca’s video competition – here she is banging her gong for the PR people (photo from The Telegraph website)!
Katie also won a Mac Book Pro, Dre Beats headphones & Ableton music software in the Listerine chin competition with this fabulous rapper creation…
Cloggs always run some fabulous creative and fun comps on Facebook, and Vicky won vouchers with these fabuous shoe-themed cakes. Well deserved – and I love the All Stars!
Amy is a relatively new comper but has tried her hand at creative comps last year!
“At the beginning of the year I chose the name for the berries on Geobars new flavour of cereal bars (The Berry Buddies) and won a years supply of cereal bars! Then in the spirit of the Jubilee my daughter and I had great fun dressing up – this photo won us a ‘Buckingham Palace Break’ to London with The Mail Travel on Facebook.”
“Later in the year the kids got ‘Messy with the music’ for the Persil video comp (see our entry here) and we won a years supply of Persil! My son and daughter were also both winners in the Pudseys Adventures colouring comp you featured on SuperLucky!”
Emma won a Macbook Air and a new camera in the Odeon’s Facebook competition – the tiebreaker was what you would do if you had a superpower. Emma’s winning entry was:
“I would make ‘interactive films’ where the audience can walk into the film and see/feel the real people and get involved with what is going on. But…only one at a time…oh, and…yes, it would probably be my turn all the time!”
The other creative competition Emma was particularly proud of was another Facebook competition run by Kanzi apples.
“They wanted to know the most ‘seductive’ places in the UK. Luckily I had stayed on Burgh Island, where transport is via a sea tractor:”
“I wrote about the only hotel on the island which is 60’s themed and how Agatha Christie used to write there. The judges were impressed and I won an iPad. It was one of the most beautiful prizes I have ever received. Kanzi wrapped it in a box with a special message to me and it was all wrapped beautifully in tissue paper including things like a key ring, a pen, and even some kanzi apples. They had even engraved a congratulations message on the back of the iPad. I was very grateful and couldn’t stop thanking them!”
First Time Mum was chuffed with her runners up prize in the Jenny Craig bloggers comp I shared here on www.superlucky.co.uk.
“I won a runner up prize which was pretty amazing as it was a 28 days trial which include food hampers as well as weekly call from the Jenny Craig expert. I had to blog and ask them a question about weight loss: How do I lose the stubborn six pounds gained from pregnancy without being on a diet? Although winners was chosen at random, it is still one of my creative wins! I know I would never have paid the £375 for a 28 days weight loss programme being on maternity leave and ended up still annoyed with the extra few pounds after pregnancy. I have now lost all my pregnancy weight and feel very pleased, something that money cannot buy!”
Lisa and Laura are two good friends I’ve known for over ten years, and in the last couple of years they’re worked together on some brilliant creative comp entries.
“Despite having my hands full with a new baby, 2012 has been a great year for comping thanks to SuperLucky. Joining forces with my friend Laura we’ve dressed up as Alvin Stardust, Rebecca Adlington and a cow. We’ve thrown a discus in a supermarket, sailed a baby bath at the local park and I’ve slapped Laura in the face with a fish. But it was all worth it. Together we’ve won a £1,000 Red Letter Day voucher and a years supply of Fishermans Friends, £1,000 cash, a new camera each and the highlight of the year – a trip to the Olympics. Our new years’ resolution is to enter more comps in 2013 and rope in another helper – my daughter Flo. It’s good to share the embarrassment of making a fool of yourself in public.”
…and Laura‘s excellent ‘discus’ photo won them a VIP trip to the Olympics with Mini.
Lucy also did well with the same Mini competition with her photo of synchronised swimming – knowing the tricks of the trade, she took a few photos at the same shoot and a second one won 2 tickets to the Lloyds TSB Olympic ball!
Rachel won a Coca-Cola Spiderman competition to tweet your best Spidey pose…
“They shortlisted around 30 pictures. I got the DM a couple of days after they announced the end of the competition! I won a 3 night trip to New York! In a 4* hotel in Times square, a helicopter ride and a cheauffer driven comic book tour!!! I jumped up and down for many minutes! It’s all booked for next May and I would never have been able to afford a prize like that!”
Mandy had a great year in 2012 and her Mona Lisa entry was one of the most remarkable photos I’ve ever seen, and when I saw her winning Hot Boy face in my Facebook Newsfeed I almost wet myself laughing!
“The Jubilee Wall pic, along with a couple of variations on it, won me several prizes during the summer worth around £1500!”
“My Mona Lisa food pic is my all time favourite and I am very proud of this one. It won me and my comping friend Nikki a fantastic break in Florence.”
“The Zombie Farm amassed a further 6 prizes totalling £870.”
“My Movember photo was great fun to do and raised my awareness of such a good cause. Aswell as donating to the charity I managed to win 5 prizes worth around £450!”
“Lastly there is my Hot Boy face which won me a lovely Gourmet Dining Experience staying in a Michelin starred restaurant and hotel which we are taking for Valentines Day in February.”
Nicola was one of the winners of the Levi’s Charge bike #youride Twitter photo comp I shared on the blog – there was one bike to be won per participating store, and the manager told her that he was the ONLY entry for the Oxford store – here she is collecting her bike! “One per store” text/photo/entry form comps have GREAT odds, so it really is worth the effort!
I was pipped to the post by the talented Melissa in the ‘Why I love Yorkshire Tea’ video competition – this brilliant film won her a posh stay in Harrogate!
Kellie sent me some fab photos… including this very cheeky one!
“I won a 52 inch 3D TV with 4 pair of glasses and mega mind DVD with Marks Electrical. The competition was to do something funny with their logo, you can see my very “Cheeky” entry that won me the TV with the slogan “Marks Electrical, no bum deals just rock bottom prices”! It did cost me £10 to pose in the tattoo shop but hey little outlay for a fantastic return!”
“I won a VW campervan tent from Park Resorts with my tent design. The competition was to draw your design and send them your idea, a little effort goes along way so I actually “made” the tent and bagged myself the £299 tent and accessories.”
“I won a washing machine with 365 Electrical in their Zombie competition. My entry of the zip face nabbed me the prize.”
Claire won an unusual creative competition during Fairtrade Fortnight last year – her prize was to see her tiebreaker and name featured on KitKat wrappers!
A second SuperLucky reader to get her name on a product this year was Olivia – she was shortlisted in the LEC icecream competition and braved the voting to win the top prize – she got to create her own ice cream! CocoCherryFudgetastic: featuring Fudge, Cherry, Coconut and White Chocolate Chunk. Yum.
…and how about your talented children too?
Claire‘s daughter won £750 with her fabulous letter to Santa – this was a bloggers competition hosted by moneysupermarket.com and you can see Claire’s winning post here.
Anna got her kids into drawing and colouing competitions and was lucky enough to win £1000 of bikes from Flora with her son’s fab design – she won lots more goodies with photo comps last year too!
Viv is my main challenger when it comes to pancake competitions, so it was no surprise that as a new mum she was on the case with the Halloween comps this year too! And WHAT a brilliant fancy dress entry this was….!
“I love Halloween and looked forward to your usual Halloween roundup. As a new Mum I was looking forward to dressing up my daughter for the first time and wanted to make an outfit rather than pay out for a costume she’ d only wear once. I came up with a spider outfit made up of a black babygro and stuffed tights for the legs! I drew a spider web onto a plain paper table cloth which provided a fab background to place her on. Pipe cleaners attached to a headband finished off the look.As usual there were many costume competitions on your roundup and Skye’s costume ended up being lucky with a number of them! We won £50 to spend on a baby website, a Body shop hamper, a Trunki travel blanket, a high chair, a car seat, a photo canvas, a digital camera, a photography book, a baby bjorn and a luxury family break! As well as winning some lovely prizes, we also have some fab photos to look back on and I now need to plan what she’s going to dress up as next year!”
Although my blog is about ‘creative’ competitions, it doesn’t mean the entries need to be works of art that take hours – sometimes winning a photo comp can be all about being in the right place at the right time! Pauline did exactly that, winning a coffee machine by uploading this photo of herself in the new Trafford Centre cafe!
As you can see, putting the effort into creative comps really DOES pay off. And it’s fun too – lots more fun than sitting at your PC all day long! I love writing my blog and sharing creative comps – because the more I share, the more great entries they get, the more successful the promotion is, and the more likely it is that the promoters will run more creative competitions in the future. And of course, I LOVE entering creative comps too – because they’re low entry and the chance of winning is so good!
I know many compers don’t like to share their wins – so I REALLY appreciate all of you who have allowed me to share your wonderful photos and stories here. I’m glad you enjoy SuperLucky as much as I enjoy writing it – and wish you all the very best of luck for 2013.
All contributors’ names were put into a hat earlier and Ryland chose AMY GONZALEZ as the winner – Amy, email me your postal address and I’ll send a special fancy dress prize your way very soon!
