Category Archives: contest

Contest, competitions, things to enter and travel for free.

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My moral dilemma

I’ve been doing some freelance work that relates to ethics. As an outsider, a provider of service, the ethical aspect of this job is an intellectual exercise. I am not put in a position that requires of me an ethical action.

I am inclined, however, to ponder the issue as I process the material. Smugly I patted myself on the back because I would not be tempted to choose the unethical path.

Like most things that are right but challenging to execute, my smug presumption was easy due to the circumstance. Fast forward to this evening. I installed Words with Friends on my tablet. My first opponent was myself. It seemed a simple way to become familiar with the game before inviting real people to play. What I least expected was to confront myself with a moral dilemma.

My self-inflicted moral dilemma may be the hind end of an equine subspecies. It certainly could be described as petty. Nonetheless the situation in which I found myself required a moral choice. I was tempted to cheat while playing against myself.

I did not want fictional player 2 – me – to beat…well…me. For one moment I was tempted to throw the game so I could win. I could manipulate the letter tiles to ensure that player 2 lost her lead.

What did it matter who won? Because the winner would have been me…regardless. Yet, inexplicably, I considered being my own Trojan horse. I didn’t. But I wanted to!

Not my shining hour.

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Online Contest Development Dos and Don’ts

One of the highlights of my resume is that I devised an evergreen online contest that delivered 70,000 names to a database. Then my team and I tweaked it, and ran it again and again. I mention this because I want you to believe me when I say that there are two online contests running now that are prime examples of how not to run an online contest. [I won't mention them by name, but you can email me and I'll tell you what they are.]

The first relies on contestants posting videos of their vacation stays in the destination. Sounds good right? User Generated Content that builds a tipping point of video underscoring the fact that you can get to the place and that is worth visiting. The catch, however, is that the only people eligible to win the trip to the destination are people who have already been there. There is absolutely no incentive for the uncaptured traveler to visit the contest site and explore the videos. These folk lost of sight of rule number one in online contest development – your marketing goals should take second place to the self-interest of the entrant.

There will be folk who argue that you don’t want to build a list that is comprised of folk who don’t really care about your product. That’s the nature of contests – a percentage of participants are just people who like to win free things. Rule number two for online contests – is have a plan to qualify the list after the contest happens. Build that plan into the contest.

The other contest requires entrants to like a page on Facebook. The traffic driving invitation was sent announcing the contest would open on the date that the invitation arrived. I clicked through – nada, zip, rien, nothing. The contest had not been deployed or it wasn’t working. Either reason means you scuttled contest enthusiasm before you started. Rule Number Three – the technology has to be in place and working before you drive traffic to the contest entry page. Maybe that should be rule number1A.

That second contest also made the mistake of describing the prize as the first 10 to answer the day’s question.  The Internet is 24/7. If your contest is designed for North America you have 5 time zones to consider. If the contest is deployed on Eastern time, those first 10 entrants will always be East Coasters. If you use Pacific Time for daily deployment, you just lose the interest of the East Coasters. That contest rule should have been the first two per time zone, with a total of 10 prizes – or something similar. Rule Number Four – design your contest to take advantage of a 24 hour clock. Do not let your 9-5 existence dictate how the contest runs.

Need my help developing your next online contest? I’m not cheap, but I am really, really good.

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#Changingtherules – The Glee Project Winners

In my professional life, I have managed a contest or two. Lawyers deflated the creative bubble every time. Compromises had to be made for the contests to meet rules and regulations for most of the world. Announcing the winners should have been a career high. The first death threat I received turned it into a career low. Where had all the gracious losers gone?

So I watched The Glee Project with fascination as competition rules were arbitrarily changed. I followed the online comments and held my breath waiting for the competition to implode. The worst never happened, the rules changed and the creators of Glee drew upon the wisdom of Solomon and the juggernaut that is Glee to award the grand prize to not one, but two, contestants.

Adding two additional, unadvertised, and totally surprising runner-up prizes delighted me. I can’t wait to see the 2-parter written for Alex. I am not anticipating Lindsay’s 2 story arc – she was the least likeable of the final four – and not in an amusing Rachel Berry way either.

Damian McGinty epitomized gracious loser. What aplomb from an 18-year-old, as he congratulated Samuel, acknowledging his own disappointment. Then Ryan Murphy announced Damian, too, had won, and boom – teenage delight. Congratulations, Mr and Mrs McGinty – you raised a fine young man.

My faith has been restored.

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Tickets for Pub Night and WestJet Raffle

I’m womanning the Community Booth at Markville Centre later today on behalf of the MLH Youth Fund. Tickets for the Pub Night and the WestJet Raffle will be on sale. The raffle is limited to 500 tickets, so the odds of winning two tickets from Toronto to anywhere WestJet flies are excellent.

On behalf of the Board I thank WestJet for donating the tickets. All proceeds go to the Fund which provides travel scholarships for youngsters who would otherwise be unable to participate in their class trip.

Drop by the booth, if you are in the Markham area, and say hi. {And buy a ticket, please!}

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January 17, 2011 – Big Day in Polar History

"Capt. Roald Amundsen at wheel leaving ho...

Image via Wikipedia

Captain James Cook became the first man to cross the Antarctic Circle 238 years ago today. The fact he did with a ship’s crew and a slew of officers…well that counts for naught.

Twenty-two years ago today, Victoria E Murden and Shirley Metz, became the first women to reach the South Pole by land. I wonder if they timed it to arrive on the 17th of January?

Why, you ask? 99 years ago today, Robert Falcon Scott became the SECOND man to reach the South Pole. He too was accompanied – Wilson, Bowers, Evans and Oates to name his companions. Roald Amundsen was the first, and he didn’t do it alone, but his companions didn’t earn the honor of second, third and fourth. Polar Exploration has always been about social order. There was nothing egalatarian about it.

Quark Expeditions is changing that. They are having a draw for autographed, first editions. There are 9 to be given away. To win you just enter the contest. The winners will chosen by random draw – so it doesn’t matter who you know, or what social class you come from – you have a chance to win.