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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment