Who: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Blenheim Sales & Lettings Ltd (Blenheim)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 21 June 2023
Law stated as at: 11 July 2023
What happened:
A post on Blenheim’s social media account was seen on 20 November 2022.
The post advertised a giveaway and included text saying “Christmas is coming … To celebrate we are giving away £500 in vouchers!!! … 5 lucky winners can each win £100 in gift vouchers of your choice. For a chance to win simply: Like / follow our page Blenheim Sales and Lettings; Like and share this post; Tag 3 friends you think would also like a chance to win. Please make sure you do all the above to be in with a chance to win“. Underneath this, the post said “The winner will be announced Monday 19th December […] You will be notified by us on this post if you have won“.
A claim was made by a named winner who had not received their £100 prize. Blenheim responded saying the other winners had received their prizes, but because they could not find the entrant on social media and had no other way of contacting them, they had donated their £100 to charity.
When making their ruling, the ASA made the following points:
- The initial post and the terms and conditions should have included all significant information
In this case, Blenheim had required winners to contact them within 7 days of the winners’ announcement to receive their prize. The ASA considered that as this was not included in the terms and conditions or the initial post, entrants did not fully understand how to participate.
- Promotions must be conducted equitably, promptly and efficiently.
Within promotions all participants or potential participants should be dealt with fairly.
- Promoters must follow the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) at all times.
This includes, avoiding unnecessary disappointment, ensuring entrants can retain terms and conditions (or easily access them) and checking all marketing communications clearly state how and when winners will be notified.
Overall, the advert breached the CAP Code rules 8.2, 8.14, 8.17 and 8.17.1 and Blenheim was warned that future promotions must be fair and communicate all significant information.
Why this matters:
This ruling acts as a reminder of the ASA’s strict approach to prize promotions. Throughout all the excitement of releasing a prize promotion, companies must take stock and carefully check their plans against the CAP Code. In cases where this is not done, there is always the risk of an ASA ruling.
