What is a Contest?

There is now a rush for brands to develop contests that include consumer-generated content: Doritos, Chevrolet and the NFL all developed contests to get consumers to create their Super Bowl 2007 ads. TIME Magazine awarded its coveted 2006 Person of the Year to not one famous person, but to the collective “You”, meaning all of us. Time editors say the new web “Is a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter” resulting in You “seizing the reigns of global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy.” At this time about 100 million videos are viewed every day on YouTube; about 65,000 videos uploaded every day and this continues to grow.

Contests are different from sweepstakes in several ways. They are not just games of chance. The winner of a contest must provide a degree of individual skill or uniqueness in one of the following manners:

• Intellectual – writing a song, creating a video, uploading a photograph, composing a themed essay, whipping up a creative, new recipe, etc., all require a degree of intellectual talent and/or skill.

• Personal/Physical – this may include having the most beautiful smile, the prettiest red hair, even the closest resemblance to a celebrity.

• Physical Ability– this could include kicking a 50 yard field goal, tossing bean bags into the open window of a moving automobile, making a half-court basketbal toss, longest drive or a hole-in-one attempt on a golf course, etc.

All entries must be judged and/or evaluated. Unlike a sweepstakes, in which case winners are randomly selected from among all entries received, and the remaining entries are never opened and are disposed of.

Contests are often used to help reinforce the brand or product/service attributes and their positioning in the marketplace. Many brands today prefer contests because they can require a purchase and they create a database of confirmed users unlike sweepstakes in which “No Purchase Necessary” is a standard mandate. Some caveats and restrictions however do apply.