How did the concept of a competition prize come about?
It’s probably pretty obvious by now, but at Winzum we are completely and utterly bonkers about competitions and prizes, as proven by some of our fantastic giveaways. You lot have been given the chance to get your paws on a number of things, from a super-limited exclusive USB of tunes from the legendary Drum & Bass producer Break, all the way through to a £50 off Asda voucher.
If you’ve read our Winzum primary brand objectives article [Winzum primary brand objectives] this shouldn’t really be all that surprising, because we’ve loved online competitions from the start.
Aside from this, however, we’re also big thinkers at Winzum, and like to explore some of the subjects around online competitions too. You know something that most people don’t really ever tend to think about? How, when, and why did the concept of competition prizes ever come about in the first place? Read on for our thoughts on the matter!
First examples of competition prizes
The Winzum article on the history of competitions [a history of competitions] was an interesting one, mainly because it turns out that the first examples of competitions were usually held in order to decide something by the drawing of lots. Remember the famous Bible story Jonah and the Whale? Well, Jonah was thrown off the boat because he drew the shortest stick, which means that the other sailors effectively won a rudimentary competition prize.
This was several thousands of years ago, however we’re not sure you can really call it a genuine competition prize. Back in 684 BC the Ancient Greeks started running the Ancient Olympics, where victors would receive a crown of olive leaves taken from the sacred tree of Olympia, and this could well be one of the first examples of a competition prize as we know it today.
Political competition prizes
The use of prizes continued to become more popular as the years drew on, with the Ancient Romans holding lottery style competitions for the elite that would often result in some pretty lavish prizes being awarded. The concept of a prize evolved further in the Middle Ages, however, where competition prizes often had a uniquely political flavour to them.
For example, in 14th and 15th century Florence a lottery competition was used to choose the members of the city council, with the winners receiving a seat on the committee, and the power to make executive political decisions.
Popularisation of competition prizes
It is difficult to say with 100% accuracy when competition prizes as we know them today became this popular, however it is definitely something that has massively expanded over the last few hundred years. One crucial reason for this is the emergence of the middle-class, something that meant that competition prizes were no longer restricted to the most affluent members of society.
The rise in consumerism over the last couple of hundred years is also a big factor, as it meant that more and more people actually had things they wanted to win in competitions. These days new technology like the Internet has resulted in things like online competitions, and now competition prizes are quite literally everywhere.