Contest experiences (Part I)

As mentioned before, contest takes many forms. For this post, I will write a bit about my limited experiences and also share some of my likes/dislikes of some contest that I took part in and/or got to know about.

Yet, its the organizers' intention that is the most important factor of a contest.
Almost all contest that I know of, comes with the following objectives:
- To increase awareness/publicity of a new product and/or service
- To remind the target participants of the existence of a product and/or service
- To attain a better feedback from the target participants (product/service users). Eg. new slogans, photos etc.
- To decide on a choice (eg. voting)

Once the intention(s) is/are ascertain. Then comes the mechanism of the contest. The below are just some observations over the years, and I will post more thoughts as it occurs to me.

Now there are many mechanism/types of contest. Yet some best practices that can be observed are:
- proper start date and end date. Perhaps even a "judging" time and place.
- a declared way of judging/winning. It could be a lucky draw, a set of completed puzzles, could be subjective judgement and/or even voting. Or a combination of these and more.
- a declared way of notifying the winners. With respects to privacy etc.
- complies with the legal framework of that community. (eg. for certain citizen/residences/subscriber, financial accounting etc.)
- a declared way that the participants will respect the decision of the judge(s)
- other relevant information/details eg. the sponsors, prizes, the delivery mechanisms etc.

A note here, subjective judgement is not a bad thing, though it can be frustrating for the non-winners. Eg. a photo contest.

Also, some of the mechanism for a contest might be fun for a selected group of participants but turns off another group of participants due the perceived "difficultness". It could be language (eg. expecting English slogans by a majority non-English speaking community?) or a skill (eg. I know I am not a good photographer :-)) or equipment(s) (eg. a particular brand of cellphone).

Some interesting contests that I noticed can be found at ContestJunkie (author contributes to this blog) and others. Yet I cannot help noticing that some contest are better run then others.

Most recently, BATA contest (BATA Photo Contest) has conflicting dates of closing. This "misprint" in the virtual posters on its website was not clarified in any way by any additional text on the website (at the time that I checked). I feel that just an extra line on the contest webpage would be sufficient to avoid confusion and people calling up BATA company's marketing department to clarify. :-) Perhaps it's this organisation's aim is to make people discuss this contest more, so as to create awareness. :-o

While other contest have really short lifespan. Take for example the Allswell double-boiled drink contest that started on 13 Oct till 30 Nov (about 7 week period). By 20 Oct (1 week later), almost all the instant-win prizes (5 + 40 + 45 units) have been redeemed!! This would make the instant-win part of this contest very uninteresting for the next 6 weeks. :-) Though, assuming that there's no illegal breaking of the contest rules/parameters, that is a clear signal that this company's products are really popular.

Another interesting contest run by this blogger - EastCoastLife. This blog/site has a contest organised with passion. I just found out about this lady blogger's interests in many local topics and turned it into a complex-yet-fun-enough knowledge-hunt contest on topics she covered in her blog. 10 questions on her blog, to be answered by handwritten answers that's send via snail mail to a real-world address. I find this meaningful - a mix of high technology and classic technology. The prizes are really good too.

There are many ways to organised contests, and I like those that allows the participants to have fun and be part of a nice experience - win or loose.

Contesting Life!

Human life is one of the most beautiful contest in our
collective known existence. Think about it this way, (see
funny pix above) the fact that you are reading this means
that you already won the most important contest you have
known....you won the right to live! :-)

Sure, there are many ways to win -- both positive and
negative. Before we go on, I would like to take a detour and
talk about the types of wins that are perceived after we are
born: there are the winning of items (eg. ContestJunkie etc) - some
priceless (eg. a sentimental item), some more expensive, some
not so. There are the winning of a relationship, a partner,
a friend. There's the winning of skills - not necessary a
technical/scientific/engineering skill but also
artistic/verbal/physical skills or a combination of both.
There's also the perennial one-angle-measurement of winning
of cash. I will talk about this cash idea in another
posting.

For now, I will return to talking about the contest of
winning. In every areas of our lives that we won...from the
most basic existence (sperm+egg) to other areas like finding
a life partner, mastery of a skill etc. Its the contest that
matters. The more positive that contest, the more long term
the result. Even in loosing a positive contest, we get to
take away the knowledge and experience of competing. Of
giving our best, up against the best the country, region and
world has to offer. There's no loss of face from loosing a
positive contest.

What do I mean? There are many contest, and many ways of
winning. When we contest positively in life, we develop/get
processes and system that can be described as
justice, fairness, equality and meritocracy etc.

When we contest negatively, and there exist many such
negative contest (eg. cheating, lying and stealing in its
various scale) which can be found in the popular newspapers,
internet news sites and even coffee-shop gossip, we will
end up with potential war/blood-shed or at the least bruised feelings.

So to win any contest, there's a need to stay in the game. A
popular analogy is about striking lottery, if you don't even
buy $2 of ticket...your chances of winning is nil. Another
analogy, If you don't open your mouth to ask a girl/boy for
a date, the chance of a relationship with this person is near
nil. My point is, if you don't take action and just "think about it",
while other people who have thought about it and grab that
chance to be in the game is closer to winning then you. :-)

So no matter what contest you like, may you have the courage
and the clarity of purpose to be a positive part of the
game.

Occasionally, just staying in the game (whatever your game may be)
can get a bit tiring. In times like this, know how to take a break and
go for something different. Could be a holiday, could be doing
something totally different, basic idea -- stretch your body and mind,
grow your capabilities and create win for all the areas in your life.