If you're looking to promote your brand online with a contest or sweepstakes, one of the questions you might have is, “Can I pick the winners?"
The short answer is yes, but you have to be careful.
Sweepstakes
In the case of a sweepstakes, the decision is simple; a sweeps is a random drawing, so just pick your winners, but first make sure it’s truly random! You don't want anyone to say you deliberately picked a certain winner — from a preferred location, for example. If you're worried about this, you can use your promotions agency as a third-party administrator and have them choose your winner.
Contests
Now, suppose you're running a contest. For example, you’re asking for user-generated content uploaded to social media or through an online form, and you’re going to judge it. It's a natural tendency to want to favor entries that praise your products or your brand, but it’s also problematic. You don't want a conflict of interest, or even the perception of one.
The safest way to judge contests is to have carefully crafted, detailed contest rules and judging criteria that you’ll follow and make publicly available. Your promotions agency can help you structure your contest and judging criteria, so you can have “a perfect winner” but still be impartial and fair.
Go Ahead and Judge
Of course there are times when it’s highly appropriate for a company to serve as contest judges. If your entrants are creating content that focuses on your brand or your products, acting as the judge helps ensure that product information is accurate and the entry is in sync with your brand image.
And suppose the entries have to demonstrate a certain level of skill or knowledge about your product or service. It makes sense to be the judge in those cases, but you can't forget one thing: With promotions, you have to be transparent. If your target audience suspects that your process is not totally legitimate, they won’t participate, or, even worse, it’ll turn into a reputation nightmare for you.
Long story short: Official rules and judging criteria help to protect your promotion and your company’s reputation. If you have concerns about serving as the judge of your own contest or sweeps, appoint your promotions agency.