Features & Services

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Contests: How Do They Work?

Contests refer to competitions in which a prize is given away by means of selection. Unlike a sweepstakes or instant win game, where winners are selected by chance, contests use subjectivity through either voting or judging to select a winner. Contests drive interaction, boost engagement, and curate content with entry submissions, judging, and voting. 

Like all promotions, contests are bound by official rules which outline: 

  • Eligibility 
  • Entry Period & Method 
  • Judging/Voting Criteria 
  • Prizing & Fulfillment Details 

A contest agency provides a full-service solution to digital promotions, covering all aspects of the promotion to support your marketing goals and ensure a successful launch. From development to official rules, a contest and administration company can ensure all aspects of your campaign are taken care of. 

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Contests: Entry Types & Judging

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Contests: Entry Types & Judging

Contests entries can be any piece of content that a user can submit. Realtime Media’s flexible development allows for UGC aggregation through multiple entry types and methods. The obvious submission for digital contests are photos and videos, but our PromoPick™ platform has the capability to accept: 

  • Photos 
  • Videos 
  • Text Files (.docx, .pdf, .txt, etc.) 
  • PDFs 
  • Audio Files (.wav, .mp3, etc.) 
  • Video Files (.mp4, .mov, etc.) 
  • Rich Text Entry Direct in Platform 

Entries can be collected through on-site upload or through social platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. 

When you choose to have your winners selected by judging, it is critical that you implement standard criteria that are used by all judges throughout screening. Brands can collect, screen, and judge entries in our Admin Portal. These entries can be displayed in one of our five gallery style options. 

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Contest Services: What’s Included

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Contest Services: What’s Included

We have two main ways we can help you launch your contest. You can use our PromoPick Solution which provides you a turnkey layout that you or our creative can design for, or we can work together to assemble a custom user flow and design that you dictate. 

Our PromoPick™ solution caters to multiple campaign types and marketing objectives. In as little as five days, our quick-to-launch, cost-effective solution can be prepared to engage your audience and deliver key information about your users. 

This standard package includes backend contest management and administration from start to finish, including: 

  • Contest strategy and promotional launch. 
  • Contest administration and official rules templates. 
  • Contest management: Judging and screening, prize fulfillment, and post-promotion outreach. 

In three simple steps, we can provide you with a quote for your sweepstakes objectives: 

Choose Your Promotion – Contests are a great solution for creating a deep brand experience by motivating your target audience to provide user-generated content. We have additional PromoPick™ solutions for Sweepstakes, Instant Win, and other strategies that align with your marketing goals. 

Choose Your Layout – There are multiple templates that can be customized to your brand identity and capture leads and information seamlesslyEach template includes a welcoming landing page, an entry/registration form, and a “thank you” screen to confirm entry. 

Check our Interactive Demo Layouts to see some design options and how users will navigate through your sweepstakes. 

Structure Your Prize Pool – Incentives are the core of your contest! Select a prize strategy or contact our expert team to help you optimize your return. 

Additionally, sometimes online promotions can attract attention you don’t want: spammers and bots. Our sweepstakes and contest technology are safeguarded to ensure protection and screening against fraudulent or spam entries using a multi-point user and device check to ensure it’s a real human accessing the promotion page or microsite to register. 

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Contests: Benefits

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Contests: Benefits

Contest marketing promotions accelerate growth for your business and boost brand engagement. Asking users to submit photos, videos, or other content is great for involving users with your brand and products and can provide insight into your audience’s thoughts.  

By offering users a chance to win a prize, brands can incentivize consumers to complete designated goals and provide benefits such as: 

  • Drive Social Actions – Incentivize social sharing via our proprietary One2Many referral system. 
  • Increase Awareness and Sales – Increase brand awareness and drive purchase by displaying user entries and allow for social sharing. 
  • Market Research and Insights – Use contest entries to discover insights about your audience and product usage. 
  • Curate User-Generated Content – User submissions can be downloaded and re-used to create engaging ads that highlight real consumer content. 
  • Acquiring First-Party Data and Leads – Give consumers a chance to share important information about themselves and their preferences. 
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Contests: Examples

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Contests: Examples

Explore our past campaigns to see how Contest promotions have boosted our client’s objectives: 

LG and Netflix B&Binge Essay Contest Promotion 

Realtime Media teamed up with LG and Netflix to spread excitement around LG’s new OLED E8 TV and Netflix’s season premieres of Arrested Development, The Crown, and The Hill.   

To promote these new seasons, LG looked to the most dedicated watchers to write a 500-word essay expressing why they are the biggest fan of their chosen show. Judges then selected a winner for each show to win the grand prize of traveling to an iconic location to binge watch the new season on a OLED E8 TV. 

This campaign worked to drive new product discovery and purchase, promote the new Netflix series, and increase consumer engagement with the LG brand.  

Learn more about the B&Binge Essay Contest Promotion 

Fossil Q’s Smart Watch Design Contest 

To increase excitement for the upcoming Q Smart Watch Release, Fossil launched a multi-phase, UGC contest. Consumers submitted their own user-created smart watch digital face designs and were able to vote on their favorite. 

The contest used multi-phase voting and entry, prompting consumers to come back and vote through multiple rounds. This resulted in over 1,900 gallery votes and 45% of contest registration through shared links. Fossil Q was able to increase their consumer-brand interaction while involving consumers in the promotion of a new and exciting product. 

Learn more about Fossil Q’s Smart Watch Design Contest 

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Contests: How Do They Work?