When offering prizes in a sweeps, you have to offer what people want. We generally tell clients to keep prizing simple: offer cash, electronics, trips or cars, depending on your prize budget. People want those the most.

But we wanted to put this to the test! So we polled people on a short nine item list of potential sweepstakes prizes to see if they would keep or regift the item if they won it. Here are the prizes people were asked to weigh in on:

• $10 gift card
• Drone helicopter with camera
• Tablet computer
• GoPro
• Golf clubs
• Fitbit
• New phone
• Trip for 4 to Disney
• A new car

In this completely unscientific survey of friends, family and acquaintances that spanned three countries and at least six states here are the results:

• The biggest losers were the golf clubs and the drone. Almost 75% of people would say no or regift a prize of golf clubs, while 70% said no to the drone. (“Can I have cash instead?”)
• The next least coveted item was a Fitbit – close to 45% said they would regift that. BUT a third of the regifters did say the reason they would regift was because they already had one!
• The last of the top regifted items was the lowly $10 gift card. 37% of respondents said they would be likely to regift it because the value was low. And because it was generic – if the card was branded for a brand they liked they said they were more likely to keep it.
• Of the items people would be more likely to keep, the most coveted items is the car. Only 10% said they would regift a car – although another 10% said they would take it and sell it for cash!
• Other items people had more of an inclination to keep were the phone (only 30% would regift), the tablet (25% would give that away) and the trip to Disney (25% would want to give that to someone else). As with the gift cards, the answers were all over the board depending on the brand or specifics of the trip (can I add people?, which resort?, etc.). And if the prize wasn’t for their brand of choice, or included all the bells and whistles, then the regift rate went as high as 50% for each of those items.
• The biggest surprise to us was that the GoPro were so popular. It only had a regift rate of 20% from the people we polled. (Maybe it’s time to give away some GoPros?)

Where do you weigh in? What would you keep? And does any of this surprise you?

Keep this list in mind the next time you plan a promotion (or buy a gift this holiday season!)

Need help figuring out what prizes are right for your brand’s next sweepstakes? Contact us!

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