5 Reasons why Giving Tickets Away as a Prize in your Competition or Giveaway may be a Bad Idea

Brands and agencies regularly seek to give tickets away as competition prizes, and it’s often thought of as an effective prize when attracting a youthful demographic.  Tickets for festivals, gigs, and other events can be highly sought after, but giving them away should be considered carefully.

Here are 5 reasons why tickets as prizes may be a bad idea:

• Events are typically in one location on one day which is immovable.  You may geographically (or otherwise demographically) restrict the potential entries to your competition.  But: maybe you want to do this – if so, you can effectively localise your competition and more closely restrict and refine your entries by geography;

• Events are subject to cancellation or unforeseeable changes – what if you can’t give away what you promised – is a replacement prize covered in your terms and conditions?  Consider an event cancellation, or some unforeseen disaster at your event – this may be completely outside your control (or your responsibility), but a negative winner experience may reflect badly on you;

• In some cases event tickets are non-transferable.  Booking them under one name and transferring to that of your winners may at best be tricky, and at worst be prohibited;

• Event promoters will often have specific terms barring the offering of tickets in any promotional way (like your competition);

• And event tickets, sadly, often go unclaimed or unredeemed.  Much will depend on the desirability of the event in question, but as well as their geographic and demographic restriction, events often have specific interest appeal.  If your promotion doesn’t target itself to meet those restrictions (if it does, it may yield very good results), these prizes may go unused and you may deny yourself any PR pay-off that comes with a winner experience.

Tickets can be used effectively, but are ephemeral in nature, and they require more consideration and planning than “tangible” prizes.