From The Contest Queen

Yesterday I read a great blog post by Jayson Ambrose (@jaysonambrose) 6 Tips for Attracting Great UGC which prompted me to write about User Generated Content contests today.  I took offence to his comment: “Professional contesters scour the net for fast, easy contests and know every trick in the book to stuff the ballot box. A large cash prize is sufficient motivation for a good developer to build software to exploit your user-friendly entry process.”, so I commented on his blog post.  (I won’t re-post what I wrote here. You can read his whole post and comments from the link above.)  He commented back.  It turns out we see eye-to-eye on many points when it comes to creating and executing promotions to maximize the contest sponsor’s marketing ROI.

Let’s start with what UGC is.  UGC is an acronym for User Generated Content aka UGM, User Generated Media.  It means that the entrant is creating the contest content such as submitting an essay, picture, video, unique recipe, etc.

Why would you want to enter a UGC contest in the first place?  The odds could be very good, for example with the current Try The Sauce promotion sponsored by Aylmer,  there are only 30 entries since the contest opened back in October!  Also, the rewards could be great, such as with the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off.  Their grand prize is $1,000,000! You can bet they get tens of thousands of entries.

UGC contests require more “work” to enter.  Many people are intimidated by the process or the daunting task of being creative so they just don’t bother.  Still others feel their odds of winning a simple entry sweepstakes is much greater since they will be relying on luck rather then skill, originality or the votes of strangers.  It is especially important to read the rules when it comes to UGC contests.  There will be specific points you will have to follow to ensure you do not get disqualified.

For example, from the Aylmer Try The Sauce Official Rules:

How to Enter:  To enter, create and submit an original Video that must feature “TRY THE SAUCE!” in some capacity. Videos should have a maximum running time of :30 seconds. Visit www.YouTube.com and upload your video. Then visit www.trythesauce.ca or www.essayelasauce.ca and follow the links and instructions to complete and submit the registration form, including the URL and title of your video, as well as a valid home mailing address and email address. By uploading your Submission, you agree that it conforms to the Submission Guidelines and Content Restrictions as defined below and that Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may remove your Submission and disqualify you from the Contest if it believes, in its sole discretion, that your Submission fails to conform to the Guidelines and Restrictions. Entrants’ Video Submission(s) may be submitted any time during the Contest Period at the TRY THE SAUCE ContestMicrosite . Entrants may submit more than one unique video submission in the Contest, but each Video must be unique and original to the entrant. All required information must be supplied for the entry to be eligible. By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees and consents to abide by the Contest Rules. In order to be eligible, Video Submissions must be submitted online via the Contest Entry Page of theMicrosite . Any Video(s) submitted to the Sponsor and/or its representatives by any other means, including but not limited to mail, courier, or hand delivery will not be accepted or entered into this Contest.

Technical/Creative/Legal Requirements for the Video Submissions (“Video Submissions”):

• Running Time: 30 seconds maximum, including any credits. If entry is longer than: 30 seconds, only the first 30 seconds will be posted on theMicrosite and judged. Any video submissions longer than 30 seconds may be disqualified at the sole discretion of Sponsor.
• Language: English or French only (Videos submitted in any other language will be
  disqualified).
• Creative Requirements: In addition to the technical requirements, each video submission must feature a delivery of the tagline “TRY THE SAUCE!” presented in an original, creative and unique way. Entrants may use the Aylmer TRY THE SAUCE video shorts for inspiration, or provide their own style of video, provided that the TRY THE SAUCE line is delivered in each video.

Those are only 2 paragraphs from the entire 8 page set of rules.  No wonder there are only 30 entries. (BTW, my favourite is titled Spagetti Pinball.)

So, take a look at all the contests that are out there for you to enter.  You may wish to set aside a couple of hours a week to devote to UGC contests.  Who knows, you may just be the next person to name the new Doritos flavour (@DoritosCanada).

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

What happens when a contest goes awry?  Sometimes nothing, legally.  That is precisely why companies pay promotional lawyers to write air tight rules.

Recently M&Ms launched their annual Join The Hunt Easter contest.  The contest had a technical glitch the first day and almost every PIN code entered won an instant prize.  Oops!  The people at M&Ms figured it out pretty quickly and fixed the problem.  Now, legally they were not obligated to award any of those prizes.  Why?

Because, the rules stated:
If any electronic or other error occurs, such as, but not limited to more prizes are claimed/designated than are to be awarded, the prizes remaining after the error is discovered will be awarded in a random drawing from among all eligible Instant Winner registrations received by the Instant Win Game Closing Date.  In no event will the Sponsor be liable for more than the Two Thousand and sixty (2060) Instant Win Game Prizes as disclosed in the Official Rules.

Now, from a marketing perspective, angering your customers, especially in this age of social networking, is not smart.  So, M&Ms apologized for not being able to award the instant prize and instead gave each winner a $20 gift, however, not until some damage had already been done.  (Discussions regarding the “M&Ms Fiasco of 2010″ can be read on Red Flag Deals and on Quebec Concours.)  Some people agree with how M&Ms handled the contest glitch and others did not.  I think M&Ms did their best to handle the glitch.  I believe it took them so long to respond to the entrants because they did not have a plan in place to resolve such a problem, and the marketing department had to scramble to come up with a damage control plan.

I think contest sponsors also need to be more careful when hiring an agency to run their promotions for them.  When there is a contest glitch, it’s not the contest management company who’s reputation get sullied, it’s the sponsor’s.  (Remember, last summer when the IC Group didn’t buy a security certificate longer than the duration of the Pepsi A Flip An Hour promotion?  How in the world could you screw that up?!  Read Craig Borysowich’s blog on that fiasco here.)  I think M&Ms reputation was not helped when the error occurred.  Their company is so large, I don’t think the damage was great, but there was still damage.

What do you think should have happened when the proverbial ball was dropped?  What is your perception of M&Ms now?

When you enter a contest or sweepstakes, and read the rules, you will usually see the statement approximate retail value (”ARV”) of or estimated Retail Value (“ERV”) of.  So, what is ARV and ERV?  The sponsors may not know the exact price of the prize when they will be awarding it, when they write the rules weeks or months in advance.  To protect themselves, legally, they use the ARV or ERV statement within The Official Rules.  This allows for example; fluctuations in airline tickets or sales on electronics, etc.

Let’s look at the ARV from the the Olympic contest we won.  The rules stated: The approximate retail value of each Grand Prize Package is $40,000 (plus all applicable taxes) based on departure from St. John’s, Newfoundland.  The approximate retail value will vary depending on the departure location.

What was our trip really worth $40,000?  Well, let’s begin with the fact we were going to the Olympics.  You can bet the airfare, hotel stay and event tickets were not going be discounted in any way, and probably even inflated.  We estimated; the airfare was $1,000 per person as we departed from Toronto, the rooms were $250 per night, including a breakfast buffet along with a $75 VISA gift card per person to cover the balance of the meals, 4 tickets to 5 events worth $2580, plus 4 bags full of Wonder branded swag worth about $500.  Adding all our ERVs up we get $10,880.  That is a far cry from the sponsor’s ARV of $40,000.

Am I disappointed?  A wee bit, 1) because the rules stated that all meals would be covered; meals for four (4) people provided throughout duration of Grand Prize, (may include buffet; catered; event location meals; sit down; and/or meal vouchers) including location of each meal, will be selected at the sole discretion of Sponsor. I am not sure how the sponsor calculated we could eat out for 5 meals for $75, when each meal out averaged $25 per person.  Heck, 2 hot dogs and 1 soda pop at a hockey game was $14!

Plus, 2) the rules stated it was a 4-day trip for four.  We flew out mid-morning on Day 1, so we “lost” half-a-day, and we flew out very early on Day 4, “losing” another day.  Therefore , we only had 2½ days in sunny Vancouver.

So, is it important to track the ARV or ERV?  Not for Canadians, as we do not pay income tax on our winnings of any kind.  It is especially important for American sweepers to track the true values and costs of their prizes (aka Fair Market Value “FMV”) because income tax is due on all sweepstakes wins.  (NOTE: Tax is only payable on FMV, not ARV or ERV.)  Had I been an American, you bet I would be showing the FMV was closer to $10,000 than $40,000!

I was lucky enough to be invited to The TASSIMO Smart Talk Event last Saturday downtown Toronto hosted by Sarah Richardson and Nik Manojlovich.  The incentive to attend was, every invitee received a FREE T45 TASSIMO On-Demand Coffee System and a chance to win a $10,000 6-piece BOSCH kitchen.  So, why would a company give away hundreds of coffee makers valued at $189?!  The same reason King Gillette gave away millions of razor blade handles.  (Read FREE! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business)  The real money is in the razor blades.  In this case, it’s the coffee, latte, tea and hot chocolate pods, along with the fact if someone has a TASSIMO, they are very unlikely to buy their competitor’s product.

The event was really well organized.  As people arrived, we were ushered into a big hall where there were over a dozen coffee stations.  Baristas made you the hot drink of your choice while demonstrating the TASSIMO.  They also had tables of sweets setup for us to enjoy with our drinks.  (I had the chai latte and ate the mini scones with cream. YUM!)  After everyone was “watered and fed” we went into the main hall where Nik and Sarah spoke about entertaining and home decorating.  They gave out coffee mugs and pod packs as door prizes during the talk.  Afterwards I had to go up and meet Nik as I used to watch his show Savoir Faire with my mom.  (Yes, he is even cuter in person!)

It’s been an interesting week to see how the new appliance has fit into our lives.  I used it for tea when I am not patient enough to wait for the kettle to boil.  My husband uses it to make his Starbucks on days he is working from home.  Our daughter likes the fact she can make her own hot chocolate.  I think the biggest benefit is yet to come.  It will be wonderful over the Christmas holidays as people pop in and out.  We can serve them any hot beverage they wish in a moments notice.  How convenient!

Twitter has finally posted their guidelines for running a contest on their service.  This will allow you to promote your giveaway without breaking any of Twitter’s posting rules.

Businesses, organizations, and even some swanky individuals have hosted contests through their Twitter profile. Contests on Twitter may offer prizes for tweeting a particular update, for following a particular user, or for posting updates with a specific hashtag.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about hosting a contest using your Twitter profile? You probably also want to make sure your contest doesn’t ask anyone to violate any of Twitter’s rules or guidelines.

Great! Here are some simple guidelines for running contests on Twitter:

• Discourage the creation of multiple accounts: If users make lots of accounts in order to enter a contest more than once, they’re liable to get all of their accounts suspended. Please be sure to include a rule stating that anyone found to use multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible.

• Discourage posting the same tweet over and over (and over) again: Posting duplicate, or near duplicate, updates or links is a violation of the Twitter Rules and jeopardizes search quality. Please don’t set rules to encourage lots of duplicate updates (like saying, “whoever retweets this the most wins”). Your contest could cause users to be automatically filtered out of Twitter search. Plus, instead of their followers seeing your cool contest, their followers might start getting annoyed by your contest. You might want to set a clear contest rule stating that multiple entries in a single day will not be accepted.

• Ask users to include an @reply to you in their update so you can see all the entries: When it comes to picking a winner, you’ll want to see all the contestants. If the updates include @username mention to you, you’ll be able to see all the updates in your Mentions timeline (see here for more information on replies and mentions). Just doing a public search may not show every single update, and some contestants may be filtered from search for quality.

• Encourage the use of topics relevant to the contest: You might decide to have users include relevant hashtag topics along with the updates (like #contest or #yourcompanyname). Keep in mind that hashtag topics need to be relevant to the update; encouraging users to add your hashtag to totally unrelated updates might cause them to violate the Twitter Rules.

These guidelines should help keep your contest entrants in good standing. In general, make sure you review both the Twitter Rules and our search best practices before starting your contest. If you’re a business on Twitter, you might also want to check out the Twitter 101 for Business guide for more information and tips.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

I want to give you an example of a sweepstakes that could have gone off the rails, but because the sponsor understood the value of customer service, even in situation that was unprofitable (from a financial perspective) they went above and beyond the call-of-duty resulting in a customer for life and a very vocal advocate.

So what happened?

Well, I entered a contest to win an organic top donated to Feisty, Frugal & Fabulous (@FeistyFrugal) by Green is Black (@thegreenisblack) and I was the lucky winner.  I was very excited.  The top was gorgeous and was happy to now own more than one piece of organic clothing.  My contact information was then forwarded to Green is Black by Feisty, Frugal & Fabulous for prize fulfillment.

The next day I received an email from Green is Black outlining their sizing chart, requesting my sizing so they could send me the best fitting top.  As it turns out they only had an extra small or large in stock and for the best fit I would have needed a small.  So, instead of just sending me a large, that I would either wear big or give to a friend, they suggested I perusse their website and select anything I wished at the same price point.  WOW!  What a wonderful offer!

I had a hard time picking as they have so many beautiful items.  I managed to narrow it doen to two items.  I sent the following request to Green is Black:

All is well.  I was not meant to have the Hope top…
Here are my two choices… I like both, so you pick.
The Awnee jacket is $248 regular price, but it’s on sale, so I am not sure if that counts…
The Nyan jacket is regular $98 regular price, and it’s on sale too…
Let me know if either item works for you.  If not, I will select again.
Thank you so much.

To my surprise they picked the Awnee jacket.  My win turned into a windfall!

If more companies did such outstanding back-end marketing, all their promotional efforts would return far greater results than they are receiving now.  So, check out  Green is Black and experience their extraordinary customer service today.

The reason you never hear about sweepstakes success stories is because companies don’t do back-end marketing.  Interesting that it’s that same reason some sweepstakes fall apart.

One of the reasons people tell me the don’t enter sweepstakes is, “No one every really wins those things, do they?”  If companies followed through on the clause usually found in the rules;

Participation in the contest constitutes permission to XYZ COMPANY and the sponsors and their agencies to use the name, photograph and/or likeness of the winner (and his/her guest) purposes of promotion, advertising, and trade without further compensation.

then more people would see real people win the thousands of promotions, sweepstakes and giveaway prizes awarded every day.

It’s a wonderful marketing cycle when done right.  When companies begin to showcase their happy winners, more people will begin to enter their sweepstakes, therefore increasing their marketing ROI (return-on-investment).  The sponsors become happier as they see their marketing dollars making a larger impact and engage in an exciting manner with their prospects and customers.  The entrants become happier when they have more opportunities to win and engage in exciting manner with the sponsors.

It’s a win-win when companies do back-end marketing, especially when their sweepstakes goes well.

I get asked to help people with “sweepstakes that have gone bad”.  The sponsor or the contest management company has not done the back-end marketing for the promotion and dropped the ball.  More often than not, it non-delivery of prizes within a timely manner.  (The rule of thumb for prize delivery is; 4-8 weeks after you submit your release forms and affidavits.)  My advice is always the same.  Start at the top, as poop rolls downhill and and be very nice, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar.

So, who should you contact?  I recommend the President of the sponsoring company and/or the Vice President of Marketing.  How do you find the name and contact information for these executives?  Google, of course.  Every major corporation has all their executive bios and corporate information online. Remember, you are looking for the corporate website, not the one for the sweepstakes or their products/services.

In Google, type in the title, president, and the company name, XYZ Company.  You may have to poke around a bit on various corporate links to get the full contact name and job title.  Once you have that, click on Contact Us.  They will usually list the company address.  You want the head office location.  If it’s not there, try the media or press contact to find a mailing address and/or phone number.  At that point you can either write a letter or call.  I do not recommend emailing the company.  Emails are too easy to delete or ignore.  It’s much harder to ignore a paper letter or someone on the phone.

If you call, you will not get the Vice President or President directly.  You will get their assistant.  Make sure to have pen and paper handy to jot down their name and number.  Explain your problem in a clear friendly manner and ask for help getting the situation resolved.  You will be amazed at how quickly problems will be resolved.

If you are dealing with a contest management company that has dropped the ball, you will notice I suggested you contact the sponsor.  I recommend that course of action because the sponsor has paid the management company to execute the promotion.  They will not be very impressed with the complacency of the firm they have hired.  They will usually be swift to get the problem resolved.

If the problem has not been resolved to your satisfaction, at that point, your next step is to file a formal complaint with the Competition Bureau.  However, it is a government agency and you will not be informed of the result.  The other option is to contact the media, someone such as Dale Goldhawk (@dalegoldhawk) to bring attention to the issue.

Thankfully, the majority of promotions are handled in professional manner.  (That’s why we don’t hear about them.  They went smoothly from beginning to end.)

Nicole of Clemsford ON recently called me.  (Do you remember Nicole? I helped her win a car.)  She was very excited.  Her husband was selected to Boot For Loot.  It was a contest sponsored by the OLG (@olglotteries) to garner attention and sales for it’s Daily KENO lottery game.  The selected contestant would be flown to Toronto and during half-time during a Toronto FC game, they would get the opportunity to kick soccer balls to try to win up to $250,000.  I wasn’t able to watch the half-time show to see how they made out.  Then I got this email from Nicole:

Hi Carolyn,
I had to tell you what happened last Saturday at the “Boot for Loot” contest at the Toronto FC game.  My husband only got the 1st ball in and won $1,000.  He was rushed by the announcer plus he could not see the clock behind him while he was kicking – only had 30 seconds for 4 balls.  Oh well … at least we got to see part of the game and won $1,000.

This contest was not arranged properly at all!  The promoter from MLS (@MLS_Insider) wanted us to stay in a locker room for 3 hours and not even let us see the first half of the game.  Thanks to the OLG representative, she convinced him to let us have a tour of the stadium and see the first 20 minutes of the game.  They didn’t even arrange for us to have designated seats.  They sent two taxis, non-air conditioned, to come and get us at 12:30 from our hotel where the OLG representative met us.  Taxi drivers did not even know quite where they were going.

To get us to Toronto, they were cheap about it as well.  We were suppose to fly over 150 km and we’re in Sudbury almost 450 km, they didn’t really want us to fly, so they gave us $500 in lieu. Airline tickets would have been almost $3,000.  Then they didn’t want to pay for parking our vehicle at the hotel, we also had to pay.

What an experience, with OLG promoting this, well they made it really difficult for anybody to get a soccer ball in a hockey net with a board at the bottom.  We have to say the Boot for Loot promotion really sucked!   I will send a letter out to OLG and MLS next week.
Nicole

I was flabbergasted.  Thankfully Nicole is an experienced contestor and would not let a poorly run promotion stop her from becoming a winner again.  However, this is a classic example of two companies that did no back-end promotional marketing.  The front-end marketing to get entrant and exposure and sales is run flawlessly, then it comes time to execute the prizing component and the ball is dropped.  Had Nicole been a first time entrant, I bet she would either stop entering all together or be very gun-shy when she did enter.

Marketers ask me all the time how do they get “regular” people (not contestors) to enter their contests.  One big myth marketers have to overcome is; the perception by the general public that contests are scams.  When they do not do back-end marketing and treat the winners poorly, they are only perpetuating their own myth, making it 1) harder to attract entrants to their next promotion and 2) harder for all their fellow marketers (who may be doing it right!).

Sadly, the MLS and the OLG are not the only companies dropping the ball:

Contest Glitch Puts Future Shop on Hot Seat

On Give-aways and Sponsors and Winners…

It turns out the fact I am “invisible” on Twitter, has nothing to do with what I tweet.  It appears to be a much larger problem also experienced by many other people.  Twitter has created a support issue called Missing From Find People Search.  To see if you are invisible, go to Find People on Twitter and try searching for both your real name and Twitter name.  If you are not found in either search, leave a comment on the support page.  Now, let’s see how long it takes for this issue to be resolved.

Twitter recently announced new Terms of Service.  In their blog post, Twitter’s New Terms of Service (September 10, 2009) they address four key areas: advertising, ownership, APIs, and SPAM.  The one that interested me the most, of course, was SPAM.

SPAM—Abusive behavior and spam is also outlined in these terms according to the rules we’ve been operating under for some time.

Twitter talks about many points, but here is what they have to say about SPAM:

*Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:

• If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
• If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);
• If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
• If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following;
• If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
• If a large number of people are blocking you;
• The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;
• If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic
• If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
• If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
• If you repost other user’s content without attribution.
• If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.

Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true; accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.

As I stated in my first post, Twitter Thinks Contests Are Spam, most of my tweets have links, and so do most of the people I follow.  Will all of our accounts be suspended because we are breaking the 5th point?

I took the time and wrote Biz Stone (@biz) a letter, yes a real on paper, addressed, stamped letter addressing my concerns and how Twitter must find a balance between people marketing their business, having fun on Twitter entering contests and weeding out the rotten apples.  (I felt a real letter would get more attention in this electronic world than an email or a tweet.)  I am waiting to here how my letter and points will be addressed.  I will post any news or updates I receive.

I found a great blog post by Jonathan Ezor (@ProfJonathan) titled, Twitter-based Prize Promotions: Tweeting For Trouble that I thought you may enjoy, since it ties in so well with this topic.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!