As the premier company for managing all aspects of promotional campaigns, from contests to sweepstakes and more, Marden Kane can accelerate the development of your promotional campaign through the use of a planning template.

One of the most essential elements in creating a viable and successful contest is making sure your promotion’s rules and regulations comply with all legal requirements. Many of the questions that arise concern eligibility, geographic boundaries, and the nature of the product or service being promoted and the like. Our years of experience creating campaigns give us the ability to shape your idea into something that is both compelling to your audience and easy to implement. With contests, less is often more if you want to generate the maximum amount of participation.

We are ardent believers in advance planning and recommend you follow a checklist of best practices to increase the probability of maintaining a well-organized campaign. Here is an overall idea of what we mean.

Strong Call to Action

There is no substitute for having a strong call to action where the consumer knows exactly what you are asking them to do.  This is closely associated with naming your contest.  The name is the thing that directly identifies itself with the brand you are promoting.

Eligibility

Who can enter the contest is something necessary for the official rules but also guides the creative process as well.  Eligibility is most often associated with age of entry, as well as the contest’s geographic scope. But you have the ability in a contest to limit eligibility only to your customers, your target audience etc. Depending on your product or service, your contest may be local, national, or even international. Entering a contest and winning a contest are also two different things.  It is not practical in all cases to police eligibility but you can protect against awarding prizes to an individual who is deemed ineligible. We assist with determining the method of enforcing eligibility such as requiring that a potential winner provide proof of citizenship and/or other documents.

Beginning and End Dates

When you launch the contest is a product of your preparation and planning.  Typically contest needs 30 days of planning before you can be certain you will be ready to launch on a date you post in the official rules.  Start and end dates need to coincide with advertising you have planned.  Each phase of the contest must be disclosed accurately.  Once dates are posted there can be no deviation.

Entry Criteria

In general terms, the work must be original, has not won in any previous competition, doesn’t violate the rights of any third party, and the like. The specific criteria for your contest will be driven by the creative idea.  If, for example, it is a contest based on film-making skill, it might have to do with creativity, appropriateness to the contest theme, skill level, or other similar attributes. At this point we will also be deciding if existing “Terms of Use,” such as “User Submissions” and “Privacy Policy” will be applicable to your contest. Do you want to own the submission? Are group entries accepted, such as an entire acting class?

Monitoring the Contest “Live” Period

Marden-Kane monitors entry content daily and reports on the volume and nature of the entries you are receiving.  Judging criteria will be disclosed in official rules but there are often shades of gray that need to be discussed.  Our judging tool includes a comments section where in addition to the score a contest entry received notes can be added.  Entries should be reviewed periodically to see if quality and volume is meeting expectations.  In cases where you the client is participating in final judging the volume must be monitored so that you can add resources if necessary to keep to schedule.

Winner Selection and Notification

It is recommended that finalists and semi-finalists to submit release forms for compliance to your contest rules, as well as for publicity before the entry is posted online for judging.  We constantly try to expedite this administrative and explore electronic signatures, except in the case of high-value prize winners and a means to trim time and expense.

For more information on planning and implementing your contest, feel free to contact us or call us at: 516-365-3999.