Interesting. I feel like the only good scoops most of the tech blogging sites now have is about internal drama and much less about awesome M&A type news.
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.
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".
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 :)
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?