In March we published a post about YouTube’s changing contest policies. The changes at that time outlined specific age and platform guidelines. These changes have since been revised again, but no official date that the changes went into effect was published by YouTube.
As of 8/7/15 these are the new guidelines:
They can also be found here.
Basically they have done away with three of the requirement we last warned you about:
1. The age 18+ requirement for your entrants is gone.
2. The restriction on not using video views or thumbs up/down for voting is gone.
3. The restriction on using an embedded link or YouTube API on your own site has disappeared from the guidelines.
Still intact are our 2 warnings about using the YouTube platform for your next contest:
- YouTube can shut you down — at any time and at their discretion – even if your contest is in full swing. If you are not in compliance, YouTube can turn off your account or your brand channel without any warning. They have removed the language from the guidelines specifying that they will take no responsibility for the financial or legal or PR costs if this happens, but as a brand you should take into account the risk of using a platform that can change without notice and could shut you down at their discretion.
- Videos can stay up after your contest is over (and even if you don’t approve them). Remember, videos on YouTube can stay up forever. And the user controls the content – not you. If you are a highly regulated brand, or want to control the content for a contest, YouTube is not the place for your contest.
Some new additions to these new guidelines:
1. Similar to the Twitter and Facebook guidelines, YouTube now requires you to: “have a set of “Official Rules” which: a. include links to the YouTube Community Guidelines and indicate entries which don’t comply will be disqualified. b. state all disclosures required by all applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations, including U.S. sanctions. c. are wholly compliant and consistent with the YouTube Terms of Service.” They also, like other social channels, ask that you put in the rules that YouTube is not a sponsor of your contest and that you require users to release YouTube from any and all liability related to your contest.
2. They added a section regarding fraud which states: “You may not pay a third party or parties to manipulate metrics on the YouTube Service, including numbers of views, likes, dislikes, or subscribers such that those metrics fail to reflect genuine user engagement with the YouTube Service.” This means don’t use a service that pays for views or likes or dislikes or allow your entrants to do it either.
3. And finally, and this might be the most important change, they say that “You cannot ask the user to give all rights for, or transfer the ownership of, their entry to you.” This could be problematic if the goal of your contest is to solicit content that you can use freely for your brand. Negotiation of rights to videos for their use after a contest is completed may be in order if this is your goal.
Confused yet? Contact us! We can take the guesswork out of planning a social video contest that works for your brand — and is in compliance with YouTube guidelines.
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thank you for this update; was curious. can you now do a sweepstakes on youtube? i think the old rules said that you could only do a game of skill, but i don’t see anything about that now
Hi Anne,
The new policies don’t seem to address Sweepstakes at all. The old guidelines used to specifically prohibit Sweepstakes. I would proceed with caution, however, as any sweepstakes you run on a third party platform like this could be subject to unannounced policy changes. At the very least, cover your bases by abiding by all local, state and federal sweepstakes laws — and maybe provide a way to enter off of the YouTube platform as well!
needed to know whether is it possible to MONETIZE a “Contest Video” asking Questions and uploading it in You Tube. I am keeping in mind all the Community Guidelines, Terms of Service and Privacy Agreement.
The reason i am asking this question is that in the Youtube Contest Guidelines: it is mentioned
“YouTube does not allow contests to be run through ad units, but you can engage users in contests through your content on the platform, provided that the contest conforms with the below rules.”
What is the meaning of this: “You Tube Doesn’t allow Contest to be run through Ad Units???” Is it referring to Ad sense in particular??? Is it illegal to Activate the Monetize Feature for a Contest Videos Asking Questions???
Thanks for your time! God Bless!
Hi Santhosh,
When they say “You Tube Doesn’t allow Contest to be run through Ad Units” they mean that if you are paying for YouTube ads in any shape or form, you can’t make the ads part of your contest entry process. Hope that helps!
Jenn
So does that effectively mean you can’t create a video ad in YouTube and have it show up in other people’s videos on YouTube before their user generated video shows asking them to click here to go to our new contest?
Contest traffic must therefore be organically driven by user engagement?
“You Tube Doesn’t allow Contest to be run through Ad Units” refers to a previous set of YouTube contest guidelines which are now defunct. At one time contests were only allowed as a specific ad buy/ad unit on YouTube. With the current guidelines, an ad asking for votes in a contest through paid ads, or something of that nature, would not be allowed in an ad. However, we have never seen an issue with a YouTube contest call for entry ad that was part of a brand ad buy, but you would need to clarify your specific case with the YouTube ad department, or contact us through our contact us form and we can try to help with your specific case.