Appliances Direct are running a great creative competition on Facebook to win an appliance of your choice - to enter, you need to tell them all about your oldest appliance and send a photo! You could win a shiny new replacement for your ancient washing machine, or vintage cooker!
You can read all the details on the Appliances Direct Facebook page - you need to email your entry to sarah@appliancesdirect.co.uk - you will also need to post your story and photo on their Facebook Wall at www.facebook.com/AppliancesDirectUK. The closing date is 15th October 2012!
This type of creative tiebreaker competition is one of my favourites, and here are a few tips on creating a winning entry:
Upload your entry at the very last minute!
If you enter right away, someone might pinch your idea and do something better! This is the danger with competitions where all entries are in a public 'gallery' (in this case, on the Timeline) - clever compers will wait until the end of the entry period then survey all the entries to see what will stand out as unique and original, and lazy compers might 'borrow' someone else's idea! If you have a fabulous idea then write/photograph it early - if you don't have an idea then wait a while, and check the other entries and see if they give you any inspiration (but DON'T rip off anyone else's idea - they won't appreciate it and it's likely that neither of you will win!) Set a reminder on your phone or calendar to upload your photo in the last few days of the competition - don't leave it till the final day because something might go wrong...
Make it funny
With a competition like this, the natural instinct is to tell a sob story. These rarely win - unless they've been injected with some humour! Can you tell a funny story about your old appliance, or can you stage a silly photo with it that tells the story? In our old house we had a milk bottle cap sellotaped to the cooker to replace the broken knob. If you have kids or pets they always make a photo automatically much more appealing!
Write it. Then rewrite it!
Write your story then read through it and see what you can edit out to make it short and snappy. This is what I do with my video entries - you don't want the judge or promoter's attention to wander halfway through!
Good luck - I look forward to seeing your entries!
