A Loyal Reader Writes:
“Recently you discussed treating contest winners like customers. What would you do if a contest winner came to the station, said they didn’t want the prize they won, and asked for something else?
“Our station policy has been that the winner gets what they were told on-the-air they won, with no substitutions. With your suggestions of keeping listeners happy, we probably should give them another prize.
“I lean toward the ‘they won what they won’ theory, but I’d appreciate your opinion.”
If you’re not talking about a compensated promotion that requires you to give a specific prize for a specific contest….
If you can easily provide them with a prize that they will appreciate more….
If it won’t cost the station more…
If it won’t violate the rules of the contest…
And if it won’t somehow harm the provider of either prize….
Why not give it to them?
I mean, if essentially they’re getting something from your “prize closet,” and it really makes no difference to the station whether it’s a day-glow frisbee or a morning show yo-yo, you’re both getting what you want:
The winner gets a prize, and you get to clear out that much space in your prize closet.
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You make a good point, if it costs the same, I guess we could substitute the prize.
Afraid I respectfully disagree. While I do agree that listeners ARE our customers and should be treated with respect, in my mind – that respect should go all ways. We frequently deal with “prize hogs” who will do all manner of things to satisfy themselves with no regard for other listeners or the station they listen to.
If a prize is announced as a widget and then the winner comes in and says “I don’t want a widget, I want a whose-in-whats-it” – how is this fair to the other people who really wanted that widget? Giving the winner their whose-in-whats-it only reinforces that they can make a “stink” and get whatever they want, which will undoubtedly set a precedent a station won’t want to deal with down the road.
At my station and many others – there is no “prize closet” anymore. We don’t have generic give-aways like station t-shirts or bumper stickers and prizes are in short supply. In this day and age, all prizes are sales driven. They’re from a client and they expect/have been assured of certain number of mentions, number of prizes to be given away, done with in a certain time period, and given away in a specific fashion (ie: trivia vs a certain caller number). I can’t imagine the conflicts that would arise from substituting prizes. “I thought we gave those away?” “we did but the winner wanted something else” “well, did anyone say anything to the air staff that they have the tix back” “No, I thought you did it” “Well that means we have one less prize in that other contest then…” All that because one person decided to be selfish – call for a prize they didn’t want and then expected to pick something they do want?
It’s funny this topic has come up. Just yesterday I got an email from a listener – she won tickets a few months ago for a huge show coming up in August. She hadn’t picked up their tix yet and wrote to ask if she could exchange those tickets for tickets to a different show AND backstage passes so her friend could meet her childhood heart throb. I was taken aback by her audacity and the assumptions she made (we hadn’t even talked about the other show on the air). And I felt bad for all the people who tried so desperately to win the tickets she was now looking to do away with.
We don’t have to rule with an iron fist….but maybe by trying to satisfy what seems like one small request today – we’re setting ourselves up for one big headache tomorrow.
Yes, I’ve given this a lot of thought, haha…..
Absolutely not! They knew what the prize was when they called/mailed/e-mailed in to win. If it’s not something they wanted, they should not have entered. Additionally, radio stations are given prizes to be given away by sponsors, who are expecting a certain number of mentions in exchange for the prize. So… If I have 10 pairs of concert tickets to give away, but wind up substituting a pair of those for something else… the sponsor loses mentions that they have been promised.
If you don’t want a gift or award you have received, then have the dignity to simply refuse it. Better yet, accept it with gratitude and then use it or give it to someone else.
Since when is winning a prize merely the opening salvo in a negotiation?
I don’t want to turn this thread into a rant against prize winners, but I can’t help but recall something from years ago. We gave away “win ’em before you can buy ’em” tickets to a concert – and because the winner knew they had seats, they didn’t bother lining up (yes, this was a while back) for great seats when they went on sale days later. Fast-forward a week when the winner (a girl in her teens) collected her tickets and found out that they were not in the front row – something we had never guaranteed, just that she would have seats to a show sure to sell out (which it had). She was unhappy and indicated that had she known where the seats were, she would have lined up in the hopes of getting front row tickets, and that the station had been negligent in not letting her know the seat locations. But it’s the manner in which she presented her argument to us that I won’t forget – she came in to the station and plunked down a petition, with almost two hundred signatures, demanding that we give her front row seats to make up for her misfortune. Her parents had apparently decided that this would be a great way to encourage activism, or standing up for your rights, or something, because they were fully behind her and helped her go about writing and circulating the petition. I was shocked to think that so many people considered us to be ‘the bad guy’ simply because we had given away a prize – and worse – we had no way to present our case to all those who had signed the petition.
Believe me, there was no way this winner was going to get a substitute prize!
I honestly don’t remember any other winners asking for something other than what they had won – in my experience, they either collect it and put it up on Craig’s List (I’ve seen it done) or don’t bother to collect it at all.