Montana is home to two great universities: The University of Montana & Montana State University. Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) decided to capitalize on the rivalry between the Grizzlies & Bobcats by running this simple sweepstakes in which two fans will win tickets to the match up in November. What a simple, fantastic contest. Bonus points for having an opt-in for their Today’s Deal program on the submission page!
The pet with the most votes (vote count is currently over 100K!) helps their owner win 4 tickets to a game in the Saints Dome & more…all worth $1750!
Here’s what the winner scores:
- 4 tickets to the Jan 1st Black & Gold game!
- Plus a week at Camp Bow Wow Uptown
- $200 in Lakeside Shopping Center gift certificates
- $100 in pet food and clothes from Lakeside Pets
- $100 to The Melting Pot courtesy of Toyota of Slidell
- $100 to The Olive Branch courtesy of Toyota of Slidell
What a fantastic contest – it combines sports & pets, which are 2 of of our top 30 contest ideas!
“Biggest Fans” is one of the top contests categories run on UPICKEM. “Bolt Fever” from The San Diego Union-Tribune is a testament to why these contests are so popular. Appealing graphics, a topic that reaches a large audience and high participation make this contest a touchdown.
At last, football season has arrived! With that in mind, today I’d like to showcase an excellent football contest from Tribune Chronicle (Warren, OH). The paper is running 3 football contests: a local high school contest, top 15 college games, and the national pro game (run by Second Street). To make it easy for readers to enter, they created a landing page that promotes all three contests and is surrounded by sponsors’ ads. What a genius idea! Great work – we can’t wait to see the results of your contests.
Are you running a football contest that deserves a standing ovation? Let us know in the comments.
In addition to running UPICKEM’s National College Basketball Bracket, Atlanta Journal-Constitution is hosting their 5th annual custom designed Slam Dunk Contest for local high schoolers to show off their skills on the court. Slam dunk kings post a video of their best dunk in hopes to win the contest, what a fun idea! The AJC does a wonderful job of promoting this contest on their blog and created a powerful promotional video below:
Cynthia Daniels Du-Bose, the AJC’s Senior Producer weighed in on the contest:
Established as a round-by-round contest, Slam Dunk – now in its fifth year – has never awarded its winner a prize. It operates simply off of giving “buzz” and “bragging rights” to its winner. Our goals for 2011 are to increase interactivity; and to establish “buzz” around the contest. Right now, we are pegged to announce the winner right before the state championships begin.
