The Importance of a Popular Vote in UGC Contests

There are a number of ways to determine a winner in contests built on our platform, and we are already at work building more. Still, whatever your chosen contest model should happen to be, we advise that you incorporate a popular vote in the mix.

Voting Equals Traffic and More Entries

When voting is part of a contest, entrants who rally their communities for support are driving traffic to your contest for you. Many will sign up to vote, and some will even choose to enter for themselves. For this reason, we encourage that voting should start early, and last for much of the duration of the contest. The sooner contestants are invited to encourage voting, the more traffic they will be able to bring to the campaign for you.

Incentive Breeds Competition

It is not enough to merely have a voting round as part of your contest, you must also offer some kind of incentive for contestants, to create a competitive environment. When there is something on the line, that is when voting activity really picks up.

Example: Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Contest awarded a large gift certificate to the top vote getters, and lesser GCs to the top 50 couples after the voting round. Those same 50 qualified for a shot at the grand prize of a $100,000 dream wedding.

Advancement to the "finals" or to the next round of a contest is a great way to build incentive into a campaign with a single prize. Alternatively, consider offering separate prizes for the top vote getter and the final grand prize winner.

A Few More Words About Voting

If traffic and "visibility" are among your goals for your contest, enable voting right from the beginning of the contest. Not only will this mean more time for entries to collect votes, but it means that contestants can start their promotion in the same sitting as when they entered.

A word of caution about contests with a popular vote: they are always determined by the most popular person, or the most ambitious self-promoter. This is not always the best entry, so if having an especially great piece of content as your winner is important to you, consider including a judging round, and award the grand prize based on the judges' picks. It is important to make it clear in your contest messaging exactly how a winner will be chosen, and don't forget to include incentive for the top vote-getters.

Another way to encourage lots of voting is to provide some incentive for voters themselves. Let's just face it- contests with a popular vote are popular enough that one of your friends or family members has probably asked for a vote already sometime this week. Offering a random draw prize for voters is a great way to offset the time (and the optional sharing of contact info) that voters invest in your contest. Additionally, you can consider the needs of voters by allowing for just one vote per user, per entry. This means voting just once, and not having to return daily to vote for the duration of the contest. This may seems at odds with the suggestions above regarding traffic, but don't lose sight of the fact that new traffic is better than returning traffic. As a brand marketer, I'm sure you understand the value of exposure to new visitors each day, rather than the same group returning time and again.

If you have questions about how to get the best results from a contest that accept user generated content, we are here to help. Contact us and ask how you can take advantage of these and other tips for best results with an online contest.