I was recently named as a weekly winner and finalist in a recipe contest.    What I didn’t know when I won was how much I’d learn from how the contest was structured.

This was the second contest I’ve won this year.  It’s also the second time I’ve received a call from an agency where they led with a discussion of legal issues rather than letting me know that I was in line to win a prize.  “Congratulations! You’re a potential finalist/winner” would have been so much more enjoyable.

I won a year’s supply of product.  A year’s supply ended up being 24 coupons I received in June that expired in December.

There was a voting phase.  Votes could be cast every day over a 2 week period on FaceBook.  This meant having to urge my friends to vote everyday which can be annoying but the real issue was that my friends would need to allow the sponsoring company to have access to their friend lists in order to vote.  This requirement discouraged many people in my network.   In addition, voting for this contest didn’t work on mobile devises or tablets so very few people voted.  So many of the comments on the sponsor’s Facebook page related to the issues with voting that I’m not sure the contest didn’t hurt the brand equity more than it helped it.

I’m glad I entered.  It was fun to be a finalist.  I just hope the sponsor finds a new agency before next year’s contest.