How a contest campaign runs, from first call to wrap-up report

What are the five stages of a contest campaign?

The five stages are discovery with a rules analysis, plan and projection, creative, launch, and daily reporting with a wrap-up. Each one ends with something you can read or approve, so you always know where the campaign stands and what happens next.

One person on our side owns your account from the first call to the last report. That person writes the daily note, so you explain the contest once and never to a stranger. The first stage is the free contest analysis, which is where almost every engagement begins.

What do we read in the rules before planning anything?

We read six things, in this order, and write down the answer to each. The rules decide what is possible, so the plan never starts before this list is complete.

• Does the contest allow promotion by the entrant, and does it allow paid advertising?
• How does a vote work: public vote, jury, or a jury score combined with a public vote?
• What protects the vote: email confirmation, login, captcha, phone code, device limits or a daily limit? Our overview of voting protection types explains how each one changes the message.
• Who may enter, and is anyone under the age of majority involved?
• What is the deadline, including the time zone, and does voting close earlier than entry?
• How does the organizer treat unusual activity, and where do supporters report problems?

Three possible outcomes

The analysis ends in a go, a go with changes, or a decline. A go with changes might mean organic outreach only, or no ads that name the prize. A decline is explained in plain words on our page about projects we decline. The rules and risk check on WhatsApp is the shortest way to get this stage started.

How do the plan and the projection work before any money is spent?

The plan names the platforms, the audiences, the creative angles and the budget split. The projection says what that plan could reach, in ranges built from the estimates inside each platform's own ad tools. Both go to you in writing, with the quote, before anything is launched.

Three rules keep the projection honest:

• It covers reach and clicks, which an ad system can estimate. It never states a number of votes or a place in the ranking, because those depend on the field and the voters.
• Every assumption is listed next to the figure, such as the country, the language and the daily budget, so you can see what would change it.
• It is labelled a projection on the page and again in every report, and we compare it with actual results each week.

What the quote contains

There are two lines. Ad spend is paid to the platform and agreed as a daily or total budget. Our fee covers planning, creative, management and reporting, and it depends on the platforms, the countries, the length of the campaign and how much creative is needed. If you want a rough budget range before you commit, the budget planner comes with a thirty-minute strategy call. The methodology page shows how reach is planned.

How do creative approval and launch go?

Creative is prepared first, approved by you, and only then loaded into the ad account. Launch is a short checklist, not a leap.

Before you approve

We send each ad and the landing message in the form supporters will see. Check these four things:

• The name, spelling and category of your entry are exactly as the organizer shows them.
• You own or have permission to use every photo, clip and piece of music.
• If a person under the age of majority appears, a parent or guardian has agreed.
• The ask is clear: one sentence on what to do and what step comes after, such as a confirmation email.

The creative and copy service covers the writing and design when you want us to produce it.

Launch day

We open the voting page on a phone and walk through every step as a supporter would, so the message matches reality. Tracking links are tested and the first ads go live. We read delivery and approval status on the first day and tell you what we see, before the first daily report lands.

What changes when the contest deadline is already close?

A close deadline shortens the plan but does not skip the rules analysis. The decision rule is simple: the less time there is, the fewer channels we use and the more we rely on people who already know your entry.

• Plenty of time before the deadline: test two or three creative angles on two or three platforms, then scale the best.
• Time is short: pick one platform where your voters already are, run a single strong angle, and add reminders to people who have seen the entry.
• Voting closes within days: concentrate on consent-based messages to your own contacts and communities, and use ads only as a reminder layer. The calendar for seven, fourteen or thirty days shows how each length is paced.

The organizer controls the rules, and the organizer may change them or review votes during the contest. When a rule changes, we stop, re-read it, tell you what it means for the plan and adjust before spending more.

What lands in your inbox every day, and what at the end?

Every day you get a short note written by your account owner, built from the platforms' own analytics. At the end you get a wrap-up you can use for the next contest.

The daily note

• Spend and reach for the day, per platform.
• Clicks and where visitors came from.
• Which ad angle is ahead and which one was paused.
• The entry counter you can see yourself, noted next to our figures, with a plain line where tracking cannot link a visit to a vote.

The wrap-up

The wrap-up lists what ran, on which platforms, with which creative, against the projection we gave you. You also receive the creative files and the audience notes, and the ad account stays yours.

The next step is small. Send the contest link, the rules, your entry link, the deadline and what you want from the result to the free contest analysis. We reply with the rules read, the risks we see and a plan you can accept or decline.