Giving away free stuff on my website, in a competition...

How to do it? Whats the best way?

[PFOnline]

I run a music related fan site, and was recently contacted by a publicity company promoting a copy of a DVD for a certain band.

They said they could supply me with some copies of the DVD, free of charge, to give away on my website, in a competetion.

I was wondering, what is the best way to go about having this competition?

Should I post 3 questions or so regarding the band, kind of like a quiz, and ask people the email in there response. Then filter out which people got the questions right... then print them out and draw the names out of a hat for the winner?

Are there any other ideas for competitions? And isn't it possible people could just use multiple email accounts to try to better there chances of winning? I just notice this is how most sites have competitions...

Any thoughts?

[PFOnline]

Also, does anyone have experience with this kind of thing?

Do they usually send you the copies, and you are stuck with the shipping charges and stuff, or do they send out the copies to the winners themselves?

I'm not even sure how that usually works...

[Symbios]

I did this on a technolgy site, we worked closely with the sponsor and asked questions about the product, the winner was jointly selected by us and the sponsor from the replies to a question.

The sponsor sent the prize out and it worked pretty well.

If you do something similar I'd suggest that you email other sites with a similar user base telling them that you have stuuf for free, maybe they will put a link in.

[trillianjedi]

I'm running one on a site of mine right now.

The widget manufacturer will send out the prizes direct - I don't want to know.

Check out the PR company - if they're very small, be satisfied that they will actually deliver the goods come adjudication day.

Are there any other ideas for competitions?

I did a silly photograph competition - people sent in pics of them (their dog/baby etc) using Widgets in silly situations.

How about people sending in pics of themselves impersonating members of the band?

If there's a PR company involved - ask them, they'll know what works, what they want to achieve and what suits the image of the band.

Should I post 3 questions or so regarding the band, kind of like a quiz, and ask people the email in there response.

Sorry, but yawn yawn y a w n! ;-) Get creative with it - you're in a creative industry.

Remember, the band just want publicity out of it - that's all, it gets their name about. Make them work for it - you certainly shouldn't be picking up the cost of postage to send the DVD's out. And you'll always get one winner on the opposite side of the globe to you.

And what you want out of it is the same - so do something interesting and come acoss as a funky website that's getting support and input from the bands you're talking about.

And isn't it possible people could just use multiple email accounts to try to better there chances of winning?

That's one of the reasons we did the photographs - I know for a fact that a few were sent in from the same people, but who cares, they all look good in the gallery....

Like I say, the band just want publicity, I wouldn't worry at all about multiple entries. The more the better.

TJ

[Livenomadic]

I'd most definitely try to get some content out of it.

Maybe a contest about your craziest experience seeing the band live or something.

100 people submit 300-500 word articles, you organize them into fun categories:

Humorous
Crazy
Luxurious
etc.. etc..

And you've just given yourself another little section to your site.