Or, a Third Option

Bench announced their intended winner today.

Unfortunately, it's not a legitimate entry. It's a photo which had the necessary hashtags added after it was posted. As mentioned previously, Bench clarified that that wasn't allowed.

It's also an incredibly beautiful picture by an attractive fashionista, but that's a separate issue.

I'm reaching out to Bench to let them know that the selection goes against their Rules.

That's all she wrote

So, it's Wednesday, October 1st, which means that the #LoveMyHood contest is closed. On the 29th, Bench Tweeted that it was the last day of the contest, so I did a last blitz of pictures around my neighbourhood. They later clarified that the 30th was the last day, so I did another, very long walk around my hood. I explored Serena Gundy and Sherwood Park, taking many pictures of the plants, flowers and pretty trails.

In total, I posted around 4500 legitimate entries to the contest and there were about 5900 pictures posted by everyone (including mine of course) that had the #BenchHood hashtag. Note that many of those 5900 were backdated pictures, cases where participants found old pics in their Instagram feed and added the necessary hashtags (which Bench stated doesn't count). Some only included the #BenchHood hashtag and not the necessary #LOVEMYHOOD hashtag. Some of them were also posted by children (which fails to meet the age 18 requirement). It's very difficult to estimate a more accurate figure, but the number of compliant entries is significantly less than 5900.

Based on the above, my odds should be somewhere in the 77-80% range.

Naturally, that's assuming that the draw is truly random, and the participant's brand suitability isn't a factor in the final selection. I enjoy the Bench brand, but I don't look like someone who would appear in one of their ads, so if they decide to consider my appearance, I'm sunk.

My next post will either be a cynical one, or a jubilant, celebratory one. Let's hope for the latter!

Thanks very much for the good times, Bench! Good luck to all!

Nearly Done

Well, I've been continuing to click away and I've got about 75% of the entries (somewhere in the range of 3600 pictures). In the last two days of the contest, I hope to put aside some time on my lunches and the evenings to do a final #LoveMyHood picture-taking blitz.

There are still lots of great pictures being posted every day by folks who want to show off their Hoods. If you haven't had a chance to check them out, I recommend it. I count myself very lucky that the winner will be chosen randomly instead of judged, otherwise I wouldn't have a hope in heck. As it stands, if the draw were held today, I'd be in a very good position.

Naturally, I'm still paranoid that the contest organizer will be biased towards a picture featuring an attractive person prominently displaying the Bench logo in front of a beautifully-shot cityscape, but I'm confident that Bench will run its contest by the book. We'll see on Wednesday, won't we?

Many thanks to Bench for running such a fun contest! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed this week.

The End in Sight

Hi All. They were calling for rain all weekend, so I was a bit anxious about getting out to take my #BenchHood pictures. As it happens, I managed to find a few hours in which the sun made an appearance. On Saturday, I stick to my own neck of the woods. I got a few nice shots of my little suburban corner of Yonge & Eg, as well as the local park.

On Sunday, I decided to wander wherever my feet decided to take me. They happened to mosey in a southwesterly direction. I found some neighbourhoods I'd never seen before, as well as a nice park and a few interesting construction sites. I found up at the University of Toronto, where they were having the Word on the Street festival. Authors and publishers of all types were running booths. I grabbed some ice cream and a hot dog and kept taking those pics!

I noticed that other than me, participation was a bit low this weekend BUT the people who did participate were doing some amazing work! I love seeing the little stories that some of the participants included.

We're heading for the home stretch now. This week, I'll be working harder than ever to support the contest and show Bench that I Love My Hood!

Thanks for reading.

Into Week Three

I had a productive weekend for my #LoveMyHood entries. I explored Toronto's underground PATH system and took lots of snaps along the way. My journey ended with a visit to the Bench location at the Toronto Eaton Centre. The staff was very friendly and I had a fun time trying on some nice coats and hoodies for the approaching fall season.

I also took an extended look at the various businesses of the Yonge and Eglinton area. They were having a Fall Festival on Saturday, so there were a lot of multicoloured balloons around.

I've noticed that more and more people are participating in the contest! I've seen some great pictures of many of Canada's great cities, including some wonderful neighbourhoods that I'd love to visit someday.

I've also noticed something a bit unfortunate. There are lots of people who are coming back to older Instagram photos and adding the #LoveMyHood and #BenchHood tags after the fact. I'm worried that these folks aren't aware that you need to include the tags with the picture when you post it. I'm unsure if I should Comment on the pics to let them know, or if they would find it annoying. 

A few more blogs are also getting into the action. Many are having their own sub-contests for a nifty $100 Bench gift card. Not too shabby! Good luck to everyone in the running.

I currently have around 1700 entries and there are about 2500 total pictures with the #BenchHood tag posted to Instagram. However, many of those pictures don't adhere to the contest rules (the late-tags mentioned above, for example), so the actual total is probably a few hundred lower. So, if the contest draw were tomorrow, my odds would be in the 70% range. Pretty good, right?

I'm having a lot of fun, and can't wait to start Week Three of the contest!

A Thousandaire!

Things are going strong with Bench's #LoveMyHood Contest!

Before I started, I reached out to Bench to verify that:

1) Entries are definitely unlimited.

2) Entries are definitely random, are not judged and will be drawn from all eligible entries.

Bench confirmed both of the above points, so I was ready to go!

So, my approach for this contest has been to monitor the entries and do my best to ensure that I post nine pictures for every one posted by ANYONE else. Ideally, by contest's end, I'll have 90% of the entries.

It's been a challenging proposition so far. In order to get the necessary pictures, I've been taking long walks around my neighbourhood, as well as around my office. If I see something interesting, I snap a quick picture. I don't have a cell phone, but I do have an iPad, so I've been carrying that in my messenger bag as I take my strolls.

So far, I've averaged 90 pictures per day or so. I'm not a photographer, so the subject matter and quality of the photos varies wildly. To respect my fellow Torontonians' privacy, I've avoided taking pictures where individuals' features could be discerned. I also try to avoid using filters unless it's absolutely necessary to tweak a picture to make it viable.

As of this writing, I've posted over 1000 pictures. I've tried to be very supportive of the contest on social media, always responding when it's mentioned on Facebook or Twitter.

The other participants are doing an amazing job, I must say. There are a couple of professional photographers who have submitted, and their pics are fantastic. There are also a couple of people who also post regularly, usually two or three per day. I'm very glad that there has been such a positive response.

I remain hopeful that Bench will select the winner randomly as per the Rules. If so, I'm in very good shape. Bench, MacIntyre Communications and a number of cool fashion blogs are doing a great job promoting this contest and I'm very glad to be a part of it! 18 days to go!

The Record Begins

The record begins!

I grew up in Montreal, and as a child I always loved those little games and competitions that companies would promote. 

"You could WIN a mountain bike!"

"You could WIN a trip to Disney World!"

"Get FREE POPSICLES FOR A YEAR!"

That kind of thing. The problem was that I was a minor and I lived in Quebec. I like structure and I like to ensure that Rules are followed. I guess another term for it is "anal retentive". I would read the Rules for these contests and it would always frustrate me that the vast majority of them were invalid in Quebec. Quebec provincial law has some very particular language policies for contests and most companies aren't willing to put in the additional cost and time that it would take to comply with them. So, I was stuck without any chances to win mountain bikes, trips, etc.

So, a few months back, Virgin Radio announced their "Summer of the Selfie" contest. The prize? A 2014 Scion FR-S. Not too shabby, right? So, I read the Rules and learned that you could enter up to ten times per day and that the winner would be determined by random selection of all the eligible entries.

Starting in May, I tried to make sure I took ten selfies per day. I pulled funny faces, I made little signs, I played with props, I went to different locations, etc. I also kept track of how many other people were entering, using a website called Tagboard, which aggregates all uses of a specific hashtag. I was able to see how many people entered, how many people tried to enter (but missed a key qualifying element, like mistyping the hashtag, or taking a picture of a cat instead of themselves). By the end of the summer, I'd determined that of all the valid entries, from 20-25% of them were mine.

So, assuming that the contest organizers followed their own Rules and selected the winner truly by random, then I had between a 20 and 25% chance of winning. Pretty good, right?

But it's easy for paranoia to take over in times like this. It's easy to imagine that companies like Virgin Radio want to ensure that the winner is someone in their key demographic. It's easy to picture the contest organizer scrolling through the pictures and selecting a photogenic, younger face over a doughy, older one. That's almost certainly not what happened, though. Even though a company like Virgin Radio would love to show a young, hip winner behind the wheel of a sweet new ride, they probably wouldn't risk the negative publicity that would follow if it ever got out. Even if sour grapes and jealousy try to convince me otherwise, I have to assume that companies want to keep things above board.

So, I kept the faith. As it happened, a pretty young woman walked away (drove away, rather) with the prize, which is exactly what happened the previous year. It happens. It makes a certain amount of sense. The majority of the entrants were young and about half of them were women, so it's not like it was a statistical aberration or anything. Two cases is a pretty small sample group.

But it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. As happy as I was for the winner, I wanted to know for sure that contest organizers' winner selections are truly random.

And that's when I learned about Bench's #LoveMyHood contest.

Bench Canada is giving away return airfare for two to anywhere in Canada and a $500 gift card. All you have to do is post pictures of "your hood" (where you live) on Instagram with the appropriate hashtags and follow them. As was later clarified, entries are unlimited. At the end of September, a winner would be selected at random from all eligible entries.

So, my plan is to enter this contest as often as possible, based on my availability. I'm going to explore Toronto and take many, many pictures of the neighbourhoods I visit. I will definitely be aiming for quantity over quality. I'm not a photographer, I don't have a great eye for it, but since that doesn't matter when determining the winner, I'm not going to sweat it.

If all goes as planned, the clear majority of the entries will be mine. If so, and assuming that the Rules are followed and the contest is run fairly, my likelihood of winning will be considerably higher than 20%.

Here's hoping that everything works out!