Friday, October 30, 2015
Yesterday was London Poppy Day, when the Royal British Legion strikes out across the capital in attempt to raise £1m for its annual appeal. Thousands of uniformed personnel collected at stations, and some well known voices appeared over the tannoy urging passengers to dig deep. TfL takes Remembrance season very seriously, increasingly so each year, with poppies proudly emblazoned across buses, trains and stations.
Even the logo on TfL's Twitter feed has adopted a halo of poppies. That feed functioned pretty much as normal yesterday morning, with the first mention of London Poppy Day not appearing until 2.09pm.
Today is London Poppy Day and some famous people are making some special announcements on the Tube & Trams today http://ow.ly/TZMt7And then six minutes later this happened.
All that money in buckets had seemingly encouraged TfL to organise a prize raffle for their followers. An unusual idea, but also a carefully planned campaign, as subsequent tweets made clear.
Win with our Poppy Day raffle. Send a pic of anything poppy-related on our network using #TfLPoppy more info here http://ow.ly/TZMVAYes, this was a Twitter-based raffle, inviting Londoners to take photographs of poppies and poppy branding on TfL property and share it on social media using the hashtag #TfLPoppy. The link at the end of the tweet was to the terms and conditions, a document 17 paragraphs long, and a necessity when organising a prize competition. But what would the prize be? At 2.30pm we found out.
Win an @AspinalofLondon bag via our Poppy Day raffle by posting a pic of anything poppy-related on TfL’s network until 7pm, adding #TfLpoppyI bet nobody was expecting that. The prize for snapping a symbol of remembrance was a luxury leather handbag. I'm struggling to think of any logical reason why.
We’re supporting @PoppyLegion’s appeal in honour of the 4,500 transport workers who died in WWI & WWIIAt 4.45pm, with the evening rush about to begin, TfL reminded everyone about their competition.
Win with our Poppy Day raffle. Send a pic of anything poppy-related on our network using #TfLPoppy more info here http://ow.ly/TXCeWThey're interesting terms and conditions.
In order to enter you must: a) use the following hashtag on Twitter: #TfLPoppy; and b) reply to a Competition Tweet with an image of one of the following:I dare say the people who entered photos of Waterloo station concourse, last year's Tower of London moat or a bus in Reading hadn't read that one.
i. a TfL poppy wrapped vehicle, for example, a London Underground train, a DLR Train or a London Overground or
a bus;
ii. a poppy branded London Underground or DLR station; or
iii. a London Underground, DLR or London Overground train with a poppy.
The Competition period runs from 29 October 2015 (“the Opening Date”) and ends on 13 November 2015 (“the Closing Date”) (inclusive). There will be two separate free prize draws each working day (not including the weekend) during this period. The first prize draw will run from 07:00 GMT to 13:00 GMT, and the second prize draw will run from 13:00 to 19:00 GMT.This isn't a one-off, oh no. TfL plan to repeat their prize draw twice each weekday from now until mid-November, that's twelve days in total, presumably with a different prize each time. Intriguingly Remembrance Sunday this year is on 8th November, so the promotion is scheduled to run one full week after our national commemoration, and two days beyond the two minute silence.
The winner of each prize draw will be selected at random each day by the Promoter and the decision is final.I hope you saw that coming. This isn't a competition, it's a raffle, so the winner won't be selected on creative merit. It's just as likely to be Maggie's opportunistic DLR poppy grab as Sophia's clever combination of old and new buses.
Tweet a pic of a poppy branded Tube train, Overground train, bus or poppy branded station using #TfLPoppy to win an @AspinalofLondon bagBy my calculations, once you weed out all yesterday's participants who posted the wrong thing or missed the deadline, each had a one in six chance of walking off with a top quality leather handbag. Because this apparently is what the Poppy Appeal is all about.
Win an @AspinalofLondon bag via our Poppy Day raffle by posting a pic of anything poppy-related on our network until 7pm, adding #TfLPoppyA digital tombola to win luxury branded goods by sharing a photo of a symbol that commemorates our nation's fallen. It's either a inspired campaign to boost awareness of remembrance, or exploiting our war dead to flog handbags.
TfL Poppy raffle prizes morning prize afternoon prize Thu 29 (no prize) an @AspinalofLondon bag Fri 30 a @TimeOutLondon Card tickets to @WinterWonderLDN Sat 31 an afternoon tea @hotelcaferoyal tickets to @WarHorseOnStage Sun 1 tickets to @TheLondonEye tickets for @ThamesRIBExp Mon 2 tickets to Sea Life @london_aquarium an experience on the flight simulator & a ride on @EmiratesAirLDN Tue 3 a meal-for-two @HardRockLondon a chocolate-making class @paxtonchocolate Wed 4 tickets to Bond in Motion@ldnfilmmuseum one of @PenhaligonsLtd fragrances for ladies or gents Thu 5 go climbing with @archclimbing tickets to Vogue 100: A Century of Style @NPGLondon Fri 6 a dinner cruise @citycruises – a brilliant river experience a Sushi-making class @YOSushi Sat 7 (no prize draw) Sun 8 Mon 9 a night’s stay & breakfast for 2 at the InterContinental @ICParkLane a chance to race for free with @RevolutionKarti Tue 10 an amazing prize from @goodlifeeatery a Street Art Tour with @AlternativeLdn Wed 11 tickets for @rooftopfilmclub Underground Film Club dinner or lunch for two worth £100 @Galvin_brothers Thu 12 a snowboard/ski beginner’s lesson for two thanks to @SnozoneMK a mixology class with @ZebranoBars Thu 12 it’s all fun and games @clueQuestLondon a star quality bowling experience with a £150 voucher from @allstarlanes
