Why Contests Freaking Rule(thecollegestartup.com)
thecollegestartup.com
Why Contests Freaking Rule
http://thecollegestartup.com/why-contests-freaking-rule/
5 comments
Interesting niche. What if you sent out a "crazy flavor" report? Maybe a video of you tasting some of the most insane Japanese flavors you can find.
Could be an interesting way to keep people engaged so when you send out an offer for them to buy a specialty collection of candies they have a better idea of who you are and what actually tastes good :)
Could be an interesting way to keep people engaged so when you send out an offer for them to buy a specialty collection of candies they have a better idea of who you are and what actually tastes good :)
Contests are interesting because it actually is a way of providing some (very small) value back to participants in exchange for contact information/viewing an advertisement/whatever.
Many companies would happily pay a nickel for an email address. Lots of people would probably be happy give out their email address for a nickel if it were 100% frictionless, but it just doesn't make sense to execute a transaction for that small of an amount. But give people a 1/10,000 chance at a $500 prize (actual value, $0.05), and you've eliminated the transaction overhead. It's actually rather win-win.
Almost makes me wonder if there isn't a business model somewhere out there that cuts out the middle-man of "content" in an advertising scenario entirely. If an advertiser is willing to pay, say, $0.25 for an impression of an ad, would users watch it willingly in exchange for a shot at a contest prize with an effective value of $0.25? You'd have to find a way to eliminate "farmers" or people outside the targeted demographic, but you could probably do that using Facebook or some other way to target specific groups of people.
Many companies would happily pay a nickel for an email address. Lots of people would probably be happy give out their email address for a nickel if it were 100% frictionless, but it just doesn't make sense to execute a transaction for that small of an amount. But give people a 1/10,000 chance at a $500 prize (actual value, $0.05), and you've eliminated the transaction overhead. It's actually rather win-win.
Almost makes me wonder if there isn't a business model somewhere out there that cuts out the middle-man of "content" in an advertising scenario entirely. If an advertiser is willing to pay, say, $0.25 for an impression of an ad, would users watch it willingly in exchange for a shot at a contest prize with an effective value of $0.25? You'd have to find a way to eliminate "farmers" or people outside the targeted demographic, but you could probably do that using Facebook or some other way to target specific groups of people.
I'm sure there are all kinds of models out there that could be played with using prizes as an exchange of value for leads.
Most people don't like it when they realize that while we are all human and there is merit to each personal connection.. we are also still just a number on someone's excel sheet when it comes to scale.
Most people don't like it when they realize that while we are all human and there is merit to each personal connection.. we are also still just a number on someone's excel sheet when it comes to scale.
The copy on this site is seriously misleading (http://contestdomination.com/?contest=dropbox). All the copy leads one to believe that you get DropBox Pro for simply filling out the form. Instead of saying "win a dropbox subscription" it says "get a subscription" and "Want to get a full year of our favorite online storage tool? Enter below to..[list of dropbox pro features]". This sentence further suggests that what you are entering is something else: "Enter the contest and receive exclusive offers and updates". Yuck.
Assuming you are the same person who emailed me about it, sorry for any confusion. I wasn't trying to mislead anyone, the entry button clearly states "Enter Contest!".
As far the HelloBar that you mentioned, I have now changed to "win a year of dropbox pro".
As far the HelloBar that you mentioned, I have now changed to "win a year of dropbox pro".
I wrote this short piece because I think quite a few startups could benefit from running contests after launch to keep the surge of new email leads coming in the door.
Launchrock style pre-launch are awesome, but how do you keep the big subscriber bumps coming after launch day?
Launchrock style pre-launch are awesome, but how do you keep the big subscriber bumps coming after launch day?
Selling things to the general public seems like a series of depressing lessons about human nature, particularly of the sort "people say they won't do/don't like x, but reality begs to differ."
I wish it wasn't that way, but it's a tough lesson as to why you have to make your decisions based on hard data and not just survey data.
Actually I am just running a contest for Candy Japan (http://www.candyjapan.com/?c=smbc) and had a default unchecked button to allow me to email them. Well, now I'm getting a bunch of people checking that button and giving me permission to email them, but not sure what to send.