About twenty two years ago one of my hobbies was entering competitions. This was in the days when you had to use your "skill and originality" to come up with a catchy slogan as a tie breaker. Today most comps are lucky draws or simply involve texting numbers and require minimal skill but in the 80's those with a way with words were in with a good chance of a prize.
I subscribed to a regular competitors' journal which gave details of all the competitions running as well as recent results. Someone cleverly came up with the "Experts perfect them connoisseurs select them" line and after that it was copied and won plagiarists plenty of prizes until the judges finally cottoned on that it was not "original". I mention all this because the other day I was sent a market research survey through the post and it included a competition for a weekend break in the European city of our choice. Reading the small print I found that only 15,000 surveys were being sent and these were being sent selectively mainly to company directors. Most directors I know don't have any time or inclination to enter competitions (let alone complete surveys) so I felt it was statistically worth a go and spent all weekend but had no real flash of genius.
Oh for the inspiration of my youth when I won quite regularly and enjoyed some great prizes. I came up with "The Link" in winning a BT competition and always wondered if it was a mere coincidence that they used it for their shops soon afterwards. I was pleased with my Bulmers' cider slogan "It's what apples ferment for" but only got second prize and my all time favourite for satsumas "More taste less seed" came nowhere. I have to say that I enjoyed trying and wish that more promoters would bring back these competitions where the best entrants actually stood a good chance of winning.
Today we are wishing a very happy 58th birthday to our store man Tony Lowe.Ex-fireman Tony has the honour of being Instanta's oldest employee. He joined Instanta as a part timer in 2001 and has since been welcomed into the full time crew. Married to Janet, Tony has five children Lisa, Steven, Rick, Rob and Kim who range in age from 32 to 17 plus one granddaughter Lexie and another grandchild on the way. Keen Burnley fan Tony enjoys reading Sci Fi,computers, D.I.Y and loves his new home cinema TV system. Regular spares customers will know him well for his polite and friendly service and I am sure that they will join me in wishing him the very best for today.
We had the bank manager and area director around this morning. I think they were quite impressed. We were extremely impressed. (You never know who might be reading this). And speaking of visitors it is now obvious that we have traumatised Friday's customer for life. We got a follow up email thanking us for our time and ominously headed "Bacon".
We had a good start to February with over 100 boilers ordered yesterday. Now if we could repeat that very day then that really would be the end of the recession. Maybe the six million people who can't get in to work will all start ordering tomorrow. In reality don't you think there was a bit of an over reaction to a bit of snow? When I were a lad you had to climb through snowdrifts to get to school. No mamby pamby closures then. And God help you if you were late. Of course "Snow Halts London" is news. "Snow halts anywhere else" isn't. And if this guy can drive in a foot of snow, how can London be halted by a couple of inches.
I subscribed to a regular competitors' journal which gave details of all the competitions running as well as recent results. Someone cleverly came up with the "Experts perfect them connoisseurs select them" line and after that it was copied and won plagiarists plenty of prizes until the judges finally cottoned on that it was not "original". I mention all this because the other day I was sent a market research survey through the post and it included a competition for a weekend break in the European city of our choice. Reading the small print I found that only 15,000 surveys were being sent and these were being sent selectively mainly to company directors. Most directors I know don't have any time or inclination to enter competitions (let alone complete surveys) so I felt it was statistically worth a go and spent all weekend but had no real flash of genius.
Oh for the inspiration of my youth when I won quite regularly and enjoyed some great prizes. I came up with "The Link" in winning a BT competition and always wondered if it was a mere coincidence that they used it for their shops soon afterwards. I was pleased with my Bulmers' cider slogan "It's what apples ferment for" but only got second prize and my all time favourite for satsumas "More taste less seed" came nowhere. I have to say that I enjoyed trying and wish that more promoters would bring back these competitions where the best entrants actually stood a good chance of winning.
Today we are wishing a very happy 58th birthday to our store man Tony Lowe.Ex-fireman Tony has the honour of being Instanta's oldest employee. He joined Instanta as a part timer in 2001 and has since been welcomed into the full time crew. Married to Janet, Tony has five children Lisa, Steven, Rick, Rob and Kim who range in age from 32 to 17 plus one granddaughter Lexie and another grandchild on the way. Keen Burnley fan Tony enjoys reading Sci Fi,computers, D.I.Y and loves his new home cinema TV system. Regular spares customers will know him well for his polite and friendly service and I am sure that they will join me in wishing him the very best for today.
We had the bank manager and area director around this morning. I think they were quite impressed. We were extremely impressed. (You never know who might be reading this). And speaking of visitors it is now obvious that we have traumatised Friday's customer for life. We got a follow up email thanking us for our time and ominously headed "Bacon".
We had a good start to February with over 100 boilers ordered yesterday. Now if we could repeat that very day then that really would be the end of the recession. Maybe the six million people who can't get in to work will all start ordering tomorrow. In reality don't you think there was a bit of an over reaction to a bit of snow? When I were a lad you had to climb through snowdrifts to get to school. No mamby pamby closures then. And God help you if you were late. Of course "Snow Halts London" is news. "Snow halts anywhere else" isn't. And if this guy can drive in a foot of snow, how can London be halted by a couple of inches.
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