Contests are promotional marketing tools that have been used by marketers to engage consumers to interact with their product.  The winner of a prize in a contest is determined, not on the basis of chance, but on the skill or personal talent exhibited by the entrant.  Each entry submitted in a Contest must be judged and scored based on measurable judging criteria that are disclosed in the Official Rules.  Each criterion is assigned a point value, and a judge (or judges) who is an expert in the field, scores each entry and determines the winner.  Because this eliminates the element of chance as a deciding factor on who will win, a proof of purchase (“consideration”) may be requested (in certain instances).  

Contests can run the gamut of communications vehicles, including essay, drawing, photo and video and are often conducted to reward the best story, artwork, recipe, jingle, commercial and more.  As technology options expand for consumers, more and more contests are being advertised on Sponsors’ websites, with participants submitting their entries via online and SMS text messaging.  As consumers continue to adopt the latest trends, promotions that utilize User Generated Content (UGC) are becoming more and more popular; specifically those that request consumers submit a video entry.  Many of these UGC promotions involve “community voting”, whereby submissions are posted online for consumers to cast their vote for their “favorite”. 

As the popularity of this particular promotion tactic continues to grow, marketers are wise to consider a number of unresolved issues concerning UGC promotions:

• Consideration issues and how they affect the judging process:  Because the public may not be considered “experts”, public judging may introduce an element of “chance” into the promotion.  What initially started out as a contest of skill may now become a “popularity” contest. This becomes a problem if a “proof of purchase” or some other form of consideration is required to enter.  

• Additional judging process issues:  If all entries are immediately posted to the website for viewing, all entries may not be subject to equal viewing by consumers, thus skewing the voting results. In addition, if the entries for the voting are posted during the entry period, there could be a “copycat” issue.  Entrants can view an entry that has been posted, then tweak it and present it as their own. 

• Intellectual Property issues:  Often consumers include 3rd party music, photos, logos, etc. in their video without receiving permission from the owners.

• Privacy issues:  Often video submissions include images of the entrant with other people without receiving permission/releases from these other people.

Some possible solutions to apply in order to avoid these pitfalls:

• Avoid requiring a proof of purchase or entry fee when structuring a UGC promotion.
• Avoid requiring consumers to include the product in their entry submission.
• Avoid posting entry submissions on the website until the end of the entry period.   
• Do have expert judges review and score all entries first, and then post the top scoring entries on the website for consumer judging.
• Do have the public judge on criteria for which they are qualified to judge.
• Limit the number of times consumers can vote.
• Insure the Official Rules clearly disclose what is and what is not allowed in the entry submission, and what the Sponsor can and can’t do with those submissions.
• Discourage 3rd party content.  Instead, provide content for participants to use in their entry submissions.
• Do require releases from all people who appear or are referenced in the entry submission.  
• Decide if or how you wish to use the entries and insure that you secure these rights from entrants.

While these suggestions are by no means comprehensive, they can help you determine how to prudently structure your next UGC promotion.

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