Independent out-of-home advertising agency Loud! OOH is calling on UK media owners to introduce voluntary disclosure standards for prize draw and competition advertising, particularly as the company expects outdoor advertising expenditure from the sector to increase substantially.
Loud! OOH has proposed four measures that it believes should become standard practice.
The agency wants the free entry route to be clearly legible on the advertisement itself, rather than hidden away in terms and conditions. It also wants either the odds of winning or the total number of permitted entries displayed alongside the advertised prize.
Where an expensive physical prize such as a house or car is promoted, any available cash alternative should also be disclosed.
Finally, Loud! OOH wants advertising sites to be screened for their proximity to schools and colleges, effectively applying similar precautions to those governing gambling advertising.
The debate comes as the rapidly expanding prize draw industry begins to formalise.
The Government's Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators came into force on 20 May 2026, while around 50 operators subsequently formed the Prize Competition Council in July.
Research commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found that approximately 7.4 million UK adults had entered a prize draw or competition during the preceding year, collectively spending an estimated £1.3 billion.
Loud! OOH founder Jamie Roberts believes outdoor advertising could be particularly valuable to operators because one of the industry's biggest challenges is consumer trust.
Unlike an advertisement appearing privately on someone's phone, a billboard exists conspicuously in public. It is sold through an identifiable media owner, can be seen by thousands of people and can be independently checked.
However, Roberts argues that this visibility brings responsibilities.
“If the free entry route is the only reason a prize draw poster is legal, it should be readable from the top deck of a bus, not buried three clicks into a terms page,” he told That's Business.
Perhaps significantly, Roberts acknowledges that the proposed restrictions could potentially limit business available to his own agency.
His argument is that the out-of-home industry has an opportunity to establish sensible standards before regulation is imposed upon it.
For media owners, advertising agencies and competition operators, that could prove an important point.
The prize draw industry represents a potentially valuable new advertising category. But if greater transparency helps strengthen consumer confidence, responsible advertising standards could ultimately be good for the businesses involved as well as their customers.
For an industry built around the tantalising possibility of winning something extraordinary, trust may turn out to be the most valuable prize of all.
