did anyone else who bought tickets online for crufts get a load of rubbish throught he post today from dfs about sofas?  flaming cheek! how did they get my address?

yes i did wow i got £400 worth of vouchers to spend at a champagne reception , will i be going i dont think so ,i suppose they have increased their mailing list with the show catalogues  and we will continue to get more felled trees through the letter box  !!

If you sign up for mail preference service companies are not able to send you junk mail without fear of being fined. This rules out most of the junk. You can also sign up for telephone preference too which stops 99% of the phonecalls. The remaining 1% apologise profusely when they ring and you tell them to check their list

i got the same through the post too

I won my Crufts tickets through an Adtrader competition, and still got all the junk mail!

I got some too :( but I did not go to crufts, But I did register on dfs crufts live streaming????

I wonder how many people complained when Pedigree sent a whole load of rubbish to everyone, did anyone bat an eyelid then, or was it acceptable because it was canine related and not furniture...

I did not attend Crufts, although I have 7 qualified, but personally would have been delighted with a rossette or card, whatever the heck was on it...

I suppose in light of recent events, that we should maybe be grateful that we actually had a sponsor at all, maybe no cards or rosettes would have been given, or maybe not a Crufts Show at all... 

Why does everyone moan because of someones good gesture at sponsoring and promoting..just because they take the initiative and use it as a business opportunity.. I would If I sponsored something :-)

recycle your rubbish, and stop giving yourself high blood pressure over it.. ;-)

I'm with you Kay. I got it too, just had a quick look (would love a new sofa but can't afford it!) and recycled it. I think overall we should all be very grateful Crufts got a big sponsor and one who is a dog lover too. Did anyone notice after BIS judging it was Lord Kirkham himself who went and fetched a bowl of water for Yogi? (Well my OH says it was him anyway, so I take his word for it LOL.)  :)

LOL Marianne and Kay I sat with the vouchers in my hand and the brochure and looked hopefully at my OH who looked at all the dogs lying on the couches while I sat on a cushion on the floor.  He only had to shake is head and everything went in the blue bin.  :-) Maybe next time.  

Though if it had been from a food manufacturer I would have been straight on the internet placing and order LOL
without saying a word to him.

I didn't go to crufts or register for the live streaming but still got the vouchers.  I don't think it is a crufts spin off marketing ploy, more likely the electoral register or something and was just coinciding with the mass publicity they had from promoting crufts.

I have been getting mail from DFS for several years (bin fodder ;-) so wouldn't have noticed if I got more :-p

I agree with Kay with all the rubbish spouted about by THAT programme we are lucky to have any sponsors for  dog shows.
I thought is was awful when Pedigree had to stop sponsoring I used to love the show bags,food  and stuff we got when winning CC or best of breed luckily I had a brand new show bag  saved :)

I wondered if this year  Best of Breed may get a chair or something ((ducking))

I remember  years ago when if you qualified for Crufts and entered you could take your  ring number to many a trade stand and get a free gift  or some food ( yes its a long time ago)

Yes, a colleague at work got the same mailing without their having anything at all to do with Crufts or dog shows.  I also think that they are just capitalising on the publicity.

we got the letter but didn't realise it was addressed to the previous occupants - so don't think it was necessary Crufts related.  Just timing in relation to Crufts not as a result of sponsorship Crufts mailing list.

I would have loved a rosette or card - whatever was on it - although my daughters YKC rosette doesn't have a sofa on it at all - so guess the YKC did their own thing?

Having been involved with getting sponsorship for a show I can confirm it isn't an easy task!!!

> I would have loved a rosette or card - whatever was on it - although my daughters YKC rosette doesn't have a sofa on it at all - so guess the YKC did their own thing?

Being a tad cynical, sofa-buying isn't probably a priority among the under-24's... lol ;)

> Being a tad cynical, sofa-buying isn't probably a priority among the under-24's... lol

Ah but sofa slumping sure is - a missed opportunity methinks :)

I for one would have loved a few more sofa's dotted around the NEC.  If DFS and Samsung had combined forces they'd get my grateful vote for most creative marketing.  Those of us that had dogs to look after did our best to support our breed winners whilst huddled round dodgy screens with poor colour and even worse sound.  Imagine watching the group judging and BIS on a comfy sofa with a large screen TV, with a good picture and great sound.  Add a cup of tea amd they could have won my business for life...

> Ah but sofa slumping sure is - a missed opportunity methinks :-)

Slumping yes.... buying, no!!! How many under 24's do you know who have a spare £1000 quid to buy a sofa? LOL They make do with whatever their parents buy, or something from the second-hand shop!

> Imagine watching the group judging and BIS on a comfy sofa with a large screen TV, with a good picture and great sound.  Add a cup of tea amd they could have won my business for life...

I did that. Not on a sofa but all the rest... at home watching the live streaming ;)

I wondered if this year  Best of Breed may get a chair or something ((ducking))

LOL I wish. I got the £25 prize money, a fleece and a rucksack from eh I can't even remember now, food company, and a 15 kg bag of food to be delivered to home. Not even a car sticker, and the rucksack and fleece doesn't mention anything about wins on it. I do miss the Pedigree prizes, but never mind.

Just been to DFS and brought a sofa (whoop whoop) and can assure you it was not Crufts related - 50% of uk residents (or something similar) got them!

that's exactly what I thought, I bought my ticket online. Lord dfs and his board must be rubbing their hands at the all the advertising they got for cheap thanks to the KC's naivety. There may be a data protection issue, because they are supposed to ask if you object to receiving other guff through the mail--I don't recall seeing a box to opt out of all this crap.

Lets think about this the KC are rich beyond our wildest dreams they really should put Crufts on without sponsors  they can afford it ...they make millions from registrations its ... their show we had a small stand on the breed ring for our rescue £330 for one day ok we chose to have  to promote the work of rescue but it really was a waste of time lucky we were sponsored ....but really you cannot blame DFS for a bit of marketing  they will be rubbing their hands they are a business just like the kennel Club !

Lets think about this the KC are rich beyond our wildest dreams they really should put Crufts on without sponsors  they can afford it ...

Want to bet on how much they'd charge for entries if they didn't have sponsorship? The Supreme cat show charges £36 per cat, so the £21 for Crufts is very, very cheap indeed.

> Lord dfs and his board must be rubbing their hands at the all the advertising they got for cheap

Jay15 I've replied to your post simply as one of the most recent so this isn't directed wholly at you BUT why the condemnation of DFS?

Sponsorship isn't cheap by any means but it is a viable method of advertising, reaching groups of people that may not get the message via the more traditional methods.  Advertising is everywhere and DFS have certainly been all over the TV, magazines and direct marketing for years.  Why is it not OK for them to sponsor Crufts and why do you think the KC naive for soliciting sponsorship? 

Truth is - just as I fast forward the adverts at home I was well able to 'tune out' the DFS message.  If their products don't meet my standards I wouldn't buy from them so it's not as I'm being forced into anything.  Dog companies may have been the preferred sponsor but in todays financial climate very few would have the money to be able to afford it.  Thank goodness someone stepped up :)

Hmm...this thread is bringing out some sad qualities in me :-)

So with nearly 28,000 dogs there, at £21 a head we're talking a minimum £588,000. Then there are all the punters who come to watch (150,000 according to The Telegraph), which includes the lucky 6,000 able to pay £17-25 a shot to watch Best in Show, the income from at least 350 trade exhibitors, television rights etc...£1-1.5m?

Does anyone know what Crufts costs to put on?

hi dogs a babe--I don't have any problem with sponsorship at all, but I am put out when I see more sofa advertising than dogs, which was the case with the live streaming. The dfs ads were constantly in shot, which is more than I can say for the dogs. Its fine for dfs to sponsor Crufts, but then let's see the dogs given proper  prominence.

Crufts itself is a very valuable product and I think the KC is naive to allow its event to be sold to a company more interested in a commercial deal. Yes, it's great that someone stepped forward to sponsor the event, but let's not kid ourselves that this is philanthropy, it's a great advertising deal. How many minutes of prime time advertising would dfs have been able to buy for the same money?

Just imagine the All England Club selling Wimbledon to McDonalds and seeing a giant burger floating across your TV screen during the finals--it just wouldn't happen, would it? I don't see why we should accept it either.

> which was the case with the live streaming.

Ah!  I didn't watch any of the live streaming so don't know about that aspect.  I also fast forwarded so much of the More4 programme (complete twaddle) that I didn't get over exposed to DFS imaging on there either!

When I was there on Sunday I was filling my eyes with dogs and my bags with shopping, the rest of the time I was looking after my dog and/or showing.  Overall I thought the DFS element was much less prominent than Pedigree used to be.

>Just imagine the All England Club selling Wimbledon to McDonalds and seeing a giant burger floating across your TV screen during the finals--it just wouldn't happen, would it? I don't see why we should accept it either.

This didn't happen on TV though did it and presumably online internet streaming is different?  Luckily we're not yet subjected to Superbowl style of advertising in the UK but more explicit product placement comes next.  Imagine Yogi and John sitting on a sofa to receive their award!!

>I don't see why we should accept it either.

I'd urge anyone to complain if they do not like what they see.  I'm definitely writing to More4!  I dodn't know what it is about dogs but only on this subject do I get the urge to complain about programming... :)

Completely agree with you, dogs a babe--I went down on Sunday and in amongst the trade stands and all the other advertising dfs was nowhere near as noxious as it was on the live streaming. I'll be sending my views to the KC about the live streaming...let's see what they say about it.

Does anyone know what Crufts costs to put on?

No, but just to hire the 5 main halls for 4 days (well it is probably 5 days) will cost an awful lot for sure. The Supreme teds to hire one of the smaller halls for one day only, get around 2000 cats plus various trade stands, visitors, charge £36 per cat, and still end up making a loss.

I'll be sending my views to the KC about the live streaming...let's see what they say about it.

Would you rather do without it? The KC will of course have paid for this as well!
I honestly cannot believe people can be so petty. If you were to watch football on TV, do you e-mail and complain about adverts around the pitch? Will you also e-mail the NEC and complain about the adverts for Leona Lewis, JLS etc that were around the car parks? Do you only ever watch BBC to avoid adverts? What harm does it do?

I think that any sponsor is better than none - I'm sure the NEC doesn't come cheap what with all the security, hiring of benches etc the Kennel club probably broke even at best even with the sponsors.

Marianne your rucksack was probably Eukanuba as they were the main dog related sponsor I think - hence all the bright pink everywhere!

I watched the live strreaming of the groups and thought the coverage was very good when compared with what we saw on TV later, at least we saw all of the dogs (including Marianne's gorgeous Ripley, which we would have missed!), can't say I was particularly bothered by ads for DFS on it.

I do wonder if BIS got a 3 piece suite though :-D

> did anyone else who bought tickets online for crufts get a load of rubbish throught he post today from dfs about sofas?  flaming cheek! how did they get my address?

My mother had this very same load of rubbish yesterday & we didn't even enter Crufts or buy tickets online!!!

Ive just bought a sofa from DFS and I went to Crufts...I didnt get anything through the post..thats not fair, feel left out now! ;)

Hi MarianneB, this is one event in the year that all of us look forward to, and from the other posts on this site there are many of us who looked forward to the live streaming only to give up on the truly dreadful quality of filming--the only thing in shot was the advertising! I think you have completely missed the point I was making, but we are all entitled to our views. I'd prefer to write to the KC to say how disappointing it was and hope for better next year.

you can have mine :)!

> Hi MarianneB, this is one event in the year that all of us look forward to, and from the other posts on this site there are many of us who looked forward to the live streaming only to give up on the truly dreadful quality of filming--the only thing in shot was the advertising!

Were you watching the same live streaming as me? I barely noticed the ads (what ads?) I was far too involved in watching the dogs! How can we complain when the live streaming was so good, and far better than the TV coverage?

Like I said - what ads? It wasn't anything like watching TV on the commercial channels when they go to an ad break. I had 4 days of uninterrupted doggy stuff FOR FREE and barely noticed any advertising. Couldn't have wished for better, in view of the fact I wasn't able to go.

<<I thought my computer settings were wrong when you could only see the handler and top of the dogs heads etc in the live streaming.

Did the cameraman not realise that the camera should have been at waist height to catch the  dogs and sod the handlers.
Barbara and the Grey Curly Tails>>

Looks like at least two of us were watching the same thing.

I got that DFS junk mail, but didn't buy Crufts tickets, so have no idea how they got my details.  I am signed up to the mail preference service  as well. 

With you all the way Kay. After last years hammering the dog world got I think we should be grateful that they stepped in and supported the show and yes there was a tad of marketing going on BUT if it was my business it would be the exact same.  What is the point otherwise.  If 10% people buy from the postal mail they will be happy.

We are trying to get the public on our side and I think DFS has done a good job of it. It is maybe a bit boring for us BUT if we love the sport we are in well !!!!!!!.................................