Tahir's Tips: Running a Fashion Competition

Today’s top tips give you pointers on how to promote competitions so that you stay in line with the related legal and regulatory obligations. Competitions are a clever way to promote a brand, accelerate social media activity and generate sales. They are commonplace in the fashion industry and used in a variety of ways.

Currently en vogue are competitions on social media platforms. For example, Next Model Management recently launched a “selfie” Instagram competition to find model talent, Kenneth Cole had a Twitter and Instagram competition for its 30th birthday and Urban Outfitters had a Vine competition named “#YourChucks” where entrants could win Converse trainers.

Another long running trend in fashion competitions is when the promotion is used as a means of attracting hot talent. H&M and Saville Row have well established design competitions for students and graduates and the British Fashion Council is currently working in partnership with Topshop, Nicole Farhi, Adidas and Warehouse on similar competitions.

Whether the promotion has a marketing or human resources goal, it is important to have some understanding of how the law views competitions. If you promote an illegal competition, you could face legal action, investigation by regulators and damage to your brand’s reputation and also confuse/receive complaints from your audience.

Competition Law:

In the UK a distinction is drawn between competitions, lotteries and prize draws. Lotteries are paid for and involve chance, whereas a competition requires a significant element of skill to remain within the law. Lotteries are classed as gambling and are governed by statute but competitions and free prize draws are not regarded as gambling.

The Skills Test:

To qualify as a competition (rather than a lottery) skill, judgment or knowledge is required from the entrant. A competition cannot rely wholly on chance or it will be seen as being a lottery. The Act requires that, to be considered sufficiently ‘skilful’ the question asked or task required to be completed will put some people off from entering the competition (i.e. not totally obvious to everyone).

The CAP Code:

The Committee of Advertising Practice also has a code which regulates promotions and prize promotions (although it is not codified by law). Under the code, a promoter (i.e. the brand offering the competition) must ensure that the terms and conditions are clear.

Below are some tips for key areas to clarify when writing completion terms:

1. The competition start and close times and dates.

2. Any rights to cancel the competition. 

3. Who the competition promoter is – this will normally be the brand involved.

4. Any restrictions on entering the competition (e.g. aged 18 and over, or resident in the UK only, or one entry per person, or not open to employees of the brand or a student of a fashion college).

5. How the winner will be selected. If this involves judges they should be identified and also must be independent.

6. A detailed description of the prize(s) and any limitations or restrictions on the prizes.

7. How/when the winner(s) will be contacted.

8. Information required from entrants and any company use of the winners name, photo etc.

9. To ensure as far as possible the ‘free to enter’ nature of the competition, a statement that ‘no purchase is necessary’ should be included, flagging that entrants may be subject to local call charges depending on their own individual arrangements for internet access.

10. Entry to the competition being conditional on acceptance of the competition terms and conditions. 

11. Information on who will own intellectual property in the entries. For example, you may want to use and own the rights in the entries if it is a design competition.

12. A data protection statement setting out how you will use entrant’s personal details and pointing to any privacy policy.  

For more information on Industry member, Tahir visit his personal partner page on the Sheridans website. To contact him directly, visit The Industry Directory, email [email protected] or telephone 020 7079 0103.