Congratulations: Ballina woman wins €10,000 prize

There was a great sense of joy last week at EZ Living Furniture on Castlebar’s Breaffy Road, when Ballina-woman, Ger Birrane, was presented with a voucher for €10,000 to be used in the store. Ger won the voucher in a promotion run last year, by An Post Insurance.

“My house insurance was up for renewal,” an excited Ger told The Western People. “I priced around, as you do, and An Post was the best value, so I went with them. About a month later I got a phone call to say I had won a consultation with an interior designer. I didn’t bother with that because I had no plans to do anything with the house. Then before Christmas, I got another phone call to say I had won a €10,000 voucher. I thought it was a hoax call; I couldn’t believe it would be true.” 

📽️Watch Ola Jordan of @EZLivingFurn speak about the company pic.twitter.com/B6AK2ex2pz

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Rose McManus, Marketing Manager with An Post Insurance explained that the company had partnered with EZ Living Furniture and that anyone who had taken out a home insurance policy with them was entered into a monthly draw for the interior design consultation. The monthly winners were selected by random draw. Once the winners were notified, they then had to answer a simple question and complete a tie-breaker slogan, to be considered for the overall prize. The slogan's opening line was, ‘I deserve to win the €10,000 EZ Living Furniture voucher because…’ and entrants had to complete that slogan in less than 20 words.

“We had ten monthly draw winners because we ran the competition from January to October of last year,” Rose said. “These then went forward to an adjudication panel who selected the overall winner based on that response. The judges selected Ger as the winner, and that’s why we are here today.” 

Rose said that this was the first year that An Post Insurance had done something like this.

“We have given away cars before – late last year we gave away a Fiat 500 to a winner in Waterford in a car insurance promotion. We have a new insurance underwriter coming on board for our house insurance in April so we will be doing something similar with our house insurance policies around the launch of that.” 

An Post Insurance is a subsidiary of An Post, and is an insurance intermediary based in Athlone The company has 160 staff. They offer car, home, travel and pet insurance policies. The company sells online and over the phone, and initial contact can be made through any of the An Post branches nationwide.

“We were looking around for a company to partner with for the promotion,” Rose said, “and EZ Living seemed a natural fit. They are an Irish company with branches nationwide.” EZ Living Furniture was established in 1998 in Galway. Ola Jordan, the Content Marketing Manager with EZ Living Furniture, said the staff at the branch were all delighted that the winner was someone from Mayo.

“I am from Mayo, so this is a massive plus for us. We have 22 stores nationwide but this is the only shop in Mayo. We have expanded into the UK and we opened seven stores last year, which is a great achievement for us.” 

Ger has been a full-time carer for her son for the last twenty-five years.

“I can’t remember exactly what I put on the competition entry,” Ger said. “It was something along the lines of ‘As a full-time carer at home, having €10,000 to spend on a home makeover is just a dream. Something like that anyway. I didn’t give it much thought at the time and I forgot all about it until I got the call.” 

Ger had a good look around the very impressive shop on her visit, but hasn’t decided what she will select yet.

“I have no idea what I will buy,” Ger said. “I will take up the prize of the interior designer for a start. It’s a fantastic prize. I can’t believe it. I have been in the shop before, browsing, a few times. This is such a fantastic shop. They have beautiful furniture for every room. I am looking forward to working with the interior designer to see what I will pick out.”