Associate Announcement: Bentley car promotion – they're literally givin' em away

The advertising budget of many big firms would make your hair stand on end, and often companies are willing to spend thousands in order to beat the competition. One of the ways they do this is by offering enticing prize giveaways to new customers, or even cash rewards. For example, there's the reward scheme on offer from Halifax, in which new customers are paid £125 just for opening a bank account.

Insurers have been giving away free pens for years, and companies from many industries use free gifts to reward their customers for using them. Those offering more exclusive services frequently give away holidays, and even luxury cars to their clientele - corporations often gift cars to high performing employees, and it is also common for a vehicle to be the top prize at high level sporting events.

But how about a car being the incentive for buying a house? Ok, not just a car, but a top spec Bentley with a six litre engine and only 19,500 miles on the clock. The house in question is a six bedroom mansion named, funnily enough, 'The Bentley', and is located on Bentley Way in an up market area of North London, on the back of a nature reserve. The home costs £1.87 million, and as well as the car, which Motors.co.uk reports would cost somewhere in the region of £140,000, you also get a home cinema and a swimming pool.

Paying nearly £2 million for a mansion is out of reach for most people, but there are still free cars to be had for ordinary folk. In October, radio station Jack.fm invited listeners to track down the location of a brand new Peugeot 108 and take a selfie with the car before posting it online. The winner got to keep the car, which was worth £8,000.

Amateur golfer Andrew Narik drove away in a brand new Nissan Micra after winning a four-week long tournament. The dairy maintenance supervisor revealed that he would only keep the car for a few weeks, but then why keep a free car when you can sell it?

The internet combined with the falling price of technology has also contributed to the tradition of prize giveaways, with many websites offering prizes in return for filling out surveys or signing up for a service. There are plenty of free goodies to be had if you know where to look.