Fair and unbiased drawing of winners is an important component of any prize draw. The process must be transparent and conducted by random selection. Here is a detailed guide to a successful draw.
The rules of the prize game must ensure the equality of all participants and the equal opportunity to win after fulfilling the conditions prescribed by the rules of the organizer of the prize game.
Rulebook on organizing prize games (Narodne novine 87/2009): The organizer is responsible for the rules being applied and enforced. When drawing the winners, we have to make sure that all the provisions of the rules are respected - from the right to participate to checking the validity of the applications drawn.

Before the drawing, it is necessary to prepare a database of applications. We must remove incorrect, incomplete and inaccurate data. There are many examples like: invalid entries: late entries, generally entries received outside of the sweepstakes period
incomplete registrations: registrations without mandatory information, for example, entered account number without any contact information
incorrect applications: applications where the data is clearly incorrect, and so on. It is important to do all actions responsibly and professionally. If there is even the slightest possibility that the application is valid, it should be left in the drawing and an additional check should be made when verifying the winner.

We have an additional challenge in the national prize games that are held at all points of sale, so we have different invoice formats. One (same) account number should enter the winner's draw only once, unless otherwise specified by the rules. That's why we have to remove multiple copies of the same data. This technique is called deduplication in computing. 

During the draw, there must be at least three people in the commission who will confirm the accuracy of the facts stated in the minutes by signature. A notary public must be present if an individual prize with a value greater than EUR 6,636.14 is drawn. This provision applies to the value of an individual prize and not to the total value of the prize pool. For every drawing of a higher value prize such as a car, consumer cards with higher amounts and the like, a notary public must be present to establish the facts. Organizers can also invite a notary public for "smaller" draws, where this is not mandatory. 

The drawing record must contain:

- Place and time of drawing,
- Class and order number, date of approval of the prize draw,
- The date and name of the electronic or other public media in which the rules of the prize game were published,
- Names and surnames and addresses of commission members,
- Method of drawing winners,
- Name and surname and address of the winner,
- The name and value of the prize of the individual winner.

 
There are also other obligations of the prize game organizer. Inform the winners in writing about the received prize within 8 days from the day of drawing the prize winners. Ensure that the prize is collected or sent to the winner within 30 days from the day of receipt of the written notification about the prize received. If the winner does not claim the prize within the specified period, he must be notified again within 8 days (from the expiry of the deadline from the previous point) and set an additional deadline for claiming the prize, which cannot be shorter than 8 nor longer than 15 days from the receipt of the new notification. Within 8 days after the expiration of the deadline for claiming prizes, submit to the Ministry of Finance information about the winners of prizes worth more than EUR 663.61, the name and value of the prize, and proof of receiving the prize.

The drawing of the winner of the prize game is the moment when we randomly selected an application. However, the drawing process starts much earlier, because it is necessary to conscientiously and thoroughly carry out preparatory actions so that everything is transparent and in accordance with the rules.

Every participant in the prize draw hopes to win, and the organizer's obligation is to draw prize winners in a fair and transparent manner. We can make the implementation of the draw simpler by putting in the rules those provisions that we will be able to responsibly implement when choosing the prize game mechanism. After the draw is over, the most beautiful moment for the winners follows - the notification of the prize won.

We started to work in this industry when, in order to enter a contest, customers had to buy newspapers, make clippings and send them to companies - hoping that the mail would even get through. But we abruptly stopped that with the SMS revolution in prize games. Since then, until today, people enter the sweepstakes using SMS registration. 

AGAIN, we have a technological advantage in that we are the only ones in Croatia to enable entry into the prize draw using the WhatsApp application. And all this without additional, hidden costs! Contest can pop up on your news feed or on your phone, and the process you have to go through is literally just a few clicks. The easier it is to participate, the higher the turnout—as well as the number of registrants.

Now all these technologies can finally help us to find out directly from the users what they want, how they think and everything else that interests us. And all this on a scale that was unimaginable until now.

The reason research is so valuable is that customers who buy your exact product or a competitor's but within the same class. We do not have to look for these people among the population of the Republic of Croatia (a very expensive process that usually has a very small sample), but they come to us by themselves.

How many people bought a competitor's product because of our influence? How many didn't? Due to the mechanics of this raffle, participants can buy, for example, competitors' product within a certain group of products and participate in the raffle with it. All participants will be offered double participation if they buy product of our sponsor. How many will cross to our sponsor? How much will they stay true to their brand? How many of them will "bring" the whole society to the sponsor camp? How many participants will participate in multiple classes and will switch from morning coffee to evening beer?

We have the option of comparing data when we are going to promote another brand. In this way (longitudinal approach), the most valuable information is obtained and trends and seasonality can be measured.

When conducting a prize game or contest, companies must ensure that the processing of personal data is done in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). What are the obligations of the organizer and what are the rights of the participants?

The principles of data protection determined by the GDPR apply to all companies and organizations that store or process personal data of European Union citizens. The law regulating the implementation of the GDPR in Croatia is the Law on the Implementation of the General Regulation on Data Protection (OG 42/18). Given that the GDPR is a binding legislative act, we must apply the principles of personal data protection from the very beginning of the realization of the prize game or competition.

In sweepstakes, the controller is most often the organizer of the sweepstakes, and the categories of data processed are: first and last name, residential address, mobile number, e-mail address.

Considering that prize games are regulated by a special Law and Regulations, it is important to note that the organizer also has a legal basis for processing personal data after obtaining the consent of the participants. For example, the winner's name, surname and address are entered in the Winner's Drawing Record submitted to the Ministry of Finance.

If the value of the prize is greater than EUR 663.61, the organizer must submit to the Ministry of Finance proof of receipt of the prize and the OIB of the winner. This means that the organizer has a legal obligation to collect an additional category of personal data (OIB), but not from all participants, but only from those who have become winners of a valuable prize.

Participants have all the rights prescribed by the General Regulation: information, access, correction, withdrawal of consent, right to data portability and right to deletion. Withdrawal of consent to participate in the prize draw entails the loss of the right to participate, as the participant's personal data is then deleted from the database.

It is not allowed to use the personal data of the prize game participants for the purpose of direct marketing, for example sending a newsletter, but for this purpose it is necessary to ask for additional consent.

Although the Rulebook on organizing prize games does not specify the obligation to announce the winners, it is customary to publish the personal data of the winners in order to familiarize all participants with the results of the prize game.

The Personal Data Protection Agency (AZOP) is the body that oversees the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation. The Agency has already issued several opinions and solutions related to the processing of personal data in prize games.

What should definitely be avoided is the publication of data to an excessive extent. In one of the decisions published by AZOP in 2022, it can be read that an official warning was issued to a bank. After the end of the prize draw, the bank published the full address and OIB of the winner, in addition to the name and surname. Our recommendation is that, in accordance with the opinion of AZOP, after the end of the prize draw, the name and surname, place of residence, will be published. In addition, information on the extracted account number, which does not belong to the category of personal data, can be published.

The current Rulebook on the organization of prize games was adopted in 2009. In the meantime, there has been a great development of social networks and an increase in the amount of information on the Internet. 

The organizers of prize games and contests are obliged to process personal data of participants in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Law on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation in Croatia.

The general regulation did not significantly change the way prize games are conducted, but it additionally emphasized the obligation of transparency and information of participants. The main document with which we achieve this are the quality rules of the prize game.

In every step of the prize draw implementation, we must be aware that consent only applies to the prize draw; limit the amount of data we process to the necessary data, and take care of technical and organizational measures for secure data storage and processing.

Another important factor is the value of the prize. As for determining the prize fund, many companies work according to a pre-determined gap or according to the established rule "because that's how it used to be done". Of course, if the reward is something that participants can greatly benefit from, they are more likely to be motivated to participate. However, before deciding on values, campaign objectives should be clearly defined. Unfortunately, many miss the opportunity to be more attractive to their customers by setting a smarter, more appropriate reward.

Either the prize will be a new car, a celebrity meeting or a gift certificate, it will depend on the desired goals and target audience of each campaign. In any case, the key is to offer a desirable item relevant to the brand's product or service - as well as strike the right balance between price and the highest possible reward value.

The way to participate in the prize contest can be: writing comments on posts, tagging friends, writing a story or recipe, taking a photo or video. One of the pitfalls of organizing a prize contest is that the expectations of the participants grow with the effort invested. For example, if it's a contest where you have to submit a photo of a dish, the contestant will put in a lot of effort and will be disappointed if they don't win the prize.

Given that the rules of prize competitions are not under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, they are often written in a free form, so there is a greater possibility of mistakes. Some of them are listed below.

There is no transparency – a common case with contests on social networks. The selection or evaluation process is not transparent or is done independently by one person, which opens up room for irregularities.

The selection criteria are vague or abstract – For example, it is not enough to write "we will choose the best three". What is the exact criterion by which the "best" are chosen?

Unfair Competition - Any mechanism in which individuals or groups of individuals can have a large advantage over others. A good example are contests for the best recipe or photo of a dish, in which food bloggers win. Although probably such a dish was really among the best, the question arises whether the competition is fair.

Cheating - Almost every online contest that is conducted with a game, such as a memory, a speed quiz or a simple game, brings with it individuals who try to cheat in various ways - from ingenuity to cheating using special programs. Then unrealistic and impossible results appear, resulting in negative publicity and complaints. Sometimes this can no longer be unraveled, because it is impossible for the organizer to discern which participants are cheating. Because of the above, we do not recommend this type of competition.

Fake Profiles – there are people with hundreds of fake profiles that increase their chances of winning a prize. An uninformed organizer will be satisfied with a good turnout, when in reality most applications will be from fake profiles to gain an unfair advantage.

For any kind of cheating and manipulation attempts with fake profiles, the rule applies - the higher the reward value, the more likely individuals will try to cheat. This stems from the nature of the mechanism where without purchasing a product and with little effort, one can win valuable prizes.

Frivolity and carelessness in implementation - It happens with tenders on social networks, especially with smaller companies. For example: not following the rules, forgetting to choose a winner, not following deadlines and the like.

Concealed raffle – The organizer calls something a contest, advertises it as a contest, receives applications for the contest, and at the end draws the winners by random selection. As soon as there is a random selection, it is a prize game and must be reported to the Ministry of Finance.

The same is true for promotions of the "every application wins" type, in which everyone is given some small promotional product, and several valuable prizes are distributed by random selection (or worse, it is not described according to which criteria they are distributed). This is also a hidden raffle without reporting to the competent Ministry.

Even when the organizer pays attention to the details in the implementation of the competition, the mechanism should be taken into account.

One of the mistakes when choosing a mechanism is combining the elements of a prize game and a contest. For example, in the absence of time to organize a raffle, and with the goal of increasing sales, the company instead of a raffle makes a contest that combines two conditions - the purchase of a product and an additional creative task. A relatively small number of customers are ready for this kind of engagement. If customers are expected to buy a product to participate, it's better to make a raffle and give everyone a chance to win.

When to choose a prize game, and when to choose a competition?
In most cases, a prize game is a better mechanism for a simple reason – it is a transparent type of promotion that provides an equal opportunity to win prizes to all participants who meet the conditions set out in the rules.

Raffles are used to increase sales, brand awareness and attract new customers or users.

One of the goals may be to reward existing, loyal customers. We often receive an email from the winners thanking them for the award they received, in which they write how happy they are to have been awarded because they "love our biscuits" or "have only bought our coffee all their lives".

Contests are good for increasing interaction on social networks, and for this purpose they are used by larger companies aware of all the challenges in implementation.

There are 7 factors that have a compounding effect on a campaign’s success rate:

1 The concept of the contest
The concept of the contest is the key to its campaign’s success. Before realizing any aspects of the contest’s concept, it’s important to define the desired goals and expected outcomes. A campaign focused on rewarding current customers with special offers and discounts will be entirely different from a campaign aimed at promoting a new product. The general rule: the simpler the concept for the end user, the more successful the contest will be.

The two most commonly used types of contests are competitions and giveaways.

A) Competitions
Contest competitions are based on a basic concept—participants compete against one another in order to win a prize. A winner is decided based on specific winning criteria: who is the fastest, skilled, creative, or all at once. There are countless ways for implementing contests, and it’s right here when a brand’s creative gets the opportunity to shine.

B) Giveaways
A giveaway is a type of contests where every participant gets the same chance to win a prize, and the winner is often chosen randomly. For example, a participant is required to answer a simple question via SMS. However, the entry requirements may vary drastically. In some campaigns it’s required to pay a certain amount for participation, while in others it’s necessary just to enter an email.

2 Target audience
Who would be the ideal customer? Building a contest marketing strategy without knowing your audience is like fighting a losing battle—defining buyer personas is a crucial factor in any modern marketing strategy. Establishing the audiences’ demographics, such as age, education, location, career, and lifestyle provides a solid foundation for building upon the following elements.

3 Participation channels
Once the target audience is specified, the next step is to decide on the most effective channels to use for participation. Today there truly is no shortage of communication channels. Let’s name a few: SMS, Chatbots, Web forms, WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Push notification. Each of them comes with its pros and cons. For instance, SMS is an effective channel when it comes to general channel applicability, reach, and open rate. But, compared to WhatsApp, is more costly and comes with less content possibilities. Choosing the most suitable channel entirely depends on the target audience and the campaign’s business goals, so it’s best to work over all the options during the contest concept definition phase. For achieving a greater reach it’s desirable to include additional channels. An example of that would be adding a voice channel, which is a suitable way for engaging an older audience who has difficulties with typing. Another example is adding web push, in case the brand has its own website.

4 Creative direction
A staple of a successful modern market strategy, creative direction is a make-or-break factor for brands today. It’s a powerful, often overlooked tool which allows connecting with an audience on a deeper level. Successfully transforming a campaign’s concepts into finished visuals and copies, aligned with the target audiences’ preferences, will positively impact the number of participants—as well as attract new users to a brand.

5 Contest promotion
Half of marketing is creativity, half is promotion. Once a contest is set up, it’s time to attract participants to enter with mobile and instant messaging online ad campaigns. Social media ad campaigns are the go-to promotional tool, although there are other effective methods. Here are some ideas: email campaigns, sharing on social media, and adding a CTA banner to a brand’s homepage. When it comes to contests, building urgency among participants is an especially effective method. To them, a special limited-time offer comes across as motivation to act fast, in the sense that if they don’t take the offer right away, they will miss out on something valuable.

6 Campaign management and result tracking
Putting all the efforts into a campaign is counter intuitive if you’re clueless about if it’s working at all. To make the most sense of any campaign—and identify the best options for future campaigns, it’s key to implement live campaign monitoring and keep track of conversion data in real-time. By doing so, you are able to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns. This allows you to determine the cost-effectiveness of your efforts and make informed decisions about future investments in this area.

7 Legal and regulatory frameworks
Organizing contests can be legally demanding, and it comes with certain risks. In most countries it requires writing the Terms and conditions of a contest, and the approval from the body of authority (e.g. Ministry of Finance). In some countries lottery is considered a form of gambling and requires paying a fee in order to participate, even a license to run a campaign.

Sweepstakes, raffles, free prize draws, giveaways…the definition of each of these varies from country to country. Robust terms and conditions are a must-have, and navigating the legal landscape can cause many headaches—especially in cases when prizes are of high-value, such as cars. However, when carried out properly, international contest campaigns can have a highly rewarding impact on a brand.

What is the best way to enter the prize game?
Each method of registration has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of mechanism mostly depends on the specifics of the brand - who are the customers or users, whether there is a risk of fraud, how often they use the product or service.

In addition to these four types, there are other similar methods of application - for example, some clients even today chose ancient ways of prize games like coupon raffles. Participation in coupon sweepstakes is achieved by filling out a coupon and inserting it into a box or sending it by mail. Given that these are two different subspecies, we will explain who uses this mechanism and why.

Raffles in which you have to fill in a coupon and insert it into a box are most often conducted by companies that have their own sales network, for example chain stores. This sweepstakes mechanism will typically result in the highest number of entries, but it has many drawbacks. It is logistically challenging because each point of sale must have a box, the boxes must be in a visible place, and each box represents a database. This means that records should be kept on how each box is handled and who is responsible for it, and care should be taken to ensure the security of this data.

After the boxes have arrived at the central draw location, it is necessary to check whether all the boxes have arrived before the draw. Entries must be well shuffled for manual random drawing. Given the specifics of the retail sector, it is very challenging to conduct this type of prize game in a transparent manner, and the complexity is greater with a larger number of sales points. This mechanism is therefore recommended for local prize games - for example, when opening a new store.

Raffles in which you have to fill out a coupon and send it by mail are most often conducted by print media with the aim of increasing sales. Customers must collect a certain number of coupons, which means some dailies will be purchased multiple times a week, sometimes even every day. Although there are fewer and fewer such prize games, it is relatively easy for the media to obtain prizes that can compensate for advertising space.

We often use a combination of several different entry methods to allow a wide range of people to participate, and the draw is conducted from a unified, central entry database.