Business Promotion: Post-Mortem

[GroupMagma]

Hey guys,

Now that our first contest is in the books, I wanted to talk about it. Did you guys like it? What did you like? What didn't you like?

I'll start with some quick notes:
+ Creativity! You guys brought your A-game, as suspected. Very well done.
+ I like how it brought more users to the forums. I'm definitely in favor of contests in which we grow our Community. :)

- That took way too long to do on a weekly basis. I liked the contest, but it's more of a normal contest, not a weekly. :p
- A lot of the votes I seemed to get were from users with 0 posts who didn't seem to stick around. :p

How about you guys?

[kooky panda]

I really enjoyed looking at the entries, but was dissapointed there were not more. I think the concept of designing and being creative scared off a lot of members
(I know once I heard creative I got scared). :eek:

[xokay]

I think it was a good idea. I didn't find time to participate. I'd love to have more contests like the Zen/Crop Circle ones. I had SO much fun doing the Zen one and ended up winning. It was awesome! I love themed stuff like that that show off our creativity!

[CopperBoom]

Being creative was fun. However there was a lack of criteria on which voting needed to be based. Best business plan should have a clear definition of target market, target groups, etc. I saw most of the entries was too general. If the contest was about favorite flyer or description then it should be clearly stated in the contest. It was a bit confusing.

Anyway I don't see this being a weekly contest either. It takes too much time and efforts and as above mentioned the creative and designing part scares users off.

[bigbux3]

Well, I like the idea of weekly updates. The first time I won a contest was in City Story on the last week you posted the number contest. I won on my first try... BUT. I still like the idea of a new contest. From my perspective the Business Contest took a LOOOONG time.
GroupMagma, Can you post a thread for new ideas, and choose multiple contest, such as for City, Farm, Restaurant, Bakery, Nightclub, and Empire?

[Ashvillyton]

This contest takes too long! Bring back the regular contests

[bigbux3]

That would be REALLY nice but they wont
READ:

http://forums.teamlava.com/showthread.php?14041-End-of-an-Era-No-More-Weekly-Contests-%28as-we-know-them%29

[Mogwai4111]

I tried to avoid poll voting when suggesting contests because they seem to turn in to popularity contests. Instead, I suggested the forum recruitment contest. Same game, different name ;)

[trenae]

I too liked the creativity part of the contest, some fun entries.

However the part (aside from time) that I didn't care for would have been it didn't really need any interaction with other members. I guess in short while I liked the contest idea I wouldn't mind seeing weekly contests where players need to interact with each other.

The other thing that might be nice to do is to have a minimum amount of posts before you can vote/participate - and have it a low enough amount that new forum users can participate - however not have that the only reason they've logged into the forum.

[casadolce]

While it was fun to look at the submissions, I think the low number of contestants is an indication of how "attractive" the competition was. It is too complicated, technical, and time consuming for a lot of us. After all, I have a restaurant, a bakery, a boutique and a nightclub to manage!

[Rachael98]

I think that the entries were fantastic.
However, there weren't that many (eg. compare to old weekly contests; I'm not suggesting we go back to them, but there were often 100+ entries there). It should perhaps be something for occasions (for example Christmas: we could design special Christmas menus etc.). The voting system also seemed to complicated for a few people who seemed incapable of reading. GM, your wall had a few votes. It was PM, not VM! I'm not sure what we can do about the 0 post users. It might (definately) have been neighbours setting up an account solely for the purpose of voting for their friends. However, we can hardly force people to post, especially if it's going to be worthless to the community because they don't know what we're actually going on about. That would take thinking about. I'm sure we got a few people who stayed though?
I'm all in favour of keeping it, but perhaps making it a little more simple except for the special occasions, like Christmas, where we can go extravagant (and maybe extravagant with the gems too:p).

[driftboutique]

I think trenae's point about interaction is a good one. I don't know what the solution is, but there must be a way to combine creativity, fun, and interaction together. I feel like Mog's games have succeeded there, but I'm not sure how readily it translates to a competition where there are prizes with real-world value.

[LanokaHarbor]

Being creative was fun. However there was a lack of criteria on which voting needed to be based. Best business plan should have a clear definition of target market, target groups, etc. I saw most of the entries was too general. If the contest was about favorite flyer or description then it should be clearly stated in the contest. It was a bit confusing.

Anyway I don't see this being a weekly contest either. It takes too much time and efforts and as above mentioned the creative and designing part scares users off.

Couldn't have said it better myself. A business plan is usually required to secure loans in the real world. A mission statement is the key element, and should be one long statement. I saw so many that didn't quite address the requirements, which is fine, because a lot of players of different age levels have actually seen a real business plan.

I am still against contests that require outside knowledge of designing software. I don't know how to use them and I am sure I am not alone, and I have no intention of learning how to. There should not have been any optional graphics, because that placed entries with no graphics at a severe disadvantage.

[missnicecutie]

I think there should be more smaller prizes, maybe ten winners or more, but 15 gems per prize maybe... just like in real world money makes ppl move, this will gather not sooo hardcore fans to participate

[mrstoney]

I liked the idea of it more than the contest itself I think it's a great idea it just needs a little tweaking, for instance we could make it a bi-weekly contest since it's a bit time consuming and double the amount of winners and it's still not very android friendly and to make it apparent that they don't necessarily have to use photos from the apps but can use photos that are close in comparison to their own game ( witchever one they're using) and last I think that the contest should have a variety of goals. Mostly because it's kind of hard to come up with a new promotion every time. So instead try more theme oriented goals to try to incorporate into their post. Maybe even something that relates to the weekly updates.

[mrstoney]

I don't see why everyone is scared to be creative but the idea of adding a Theme based goal would probably help so everyone will have a guideline to follow yet at the same time make it your own.

[moratorro]

I think that GM received a lot of votes from 0 post users because a lot of players didn't even know there is this board.
When they read on neighbors walls: 'Please, go to forum and vote me!' they joined the forum and discovered a new world (!).
I think many of them will remain here, and this is good: it was the purpose of the contest!
As a matter of fact I did joined this forum only because I had a problem with RS, and I was looking for a solution.
Now I take a look in here every day...

[Dylanie]

I liked the contest. I should've gone all out in my entry. Hopefully there's a next time. :)

One thing you could do to increase the number of entries in a creative contest like that is to have one winner be a random drawing. That way people who look at entries that are already submitted and think, "there's no way I'll be able to beat that" would still have incentive to join.

Oh and I think a lot of the 0 post entries were because some people promoted their entries on neighbors' walls and got people to join the forum. Which I think is a brilliant idea, and will probably try next time (if there is one) but it would be good to have a minimum post requirement (like 2-5) before people can vote.

[Superyalda]

I think that GM received a lot of votes from 0 post users because a lot of players didn't even know there is this board.
When they read on neighbors walls: 'Please, go to forum and vote me!' they joined the forum and discovered a new world (!).
I think many of them will remain here, and this is good: it was the purpose of the contest!
As a matter of fact I did joined this forum only because I had a problem with RS, and I was looking for a solution.
Now I take a look in here every day...

Precisely! I think it's a good sign that many of the votes came from new users. It means that the contest pulled them in! Wasnt that the purpose? I did actively campaign in the game, and provided hours of support to users who wanted to get into the forum but couldn't figure out how. I'm glad they got in!

My comments to these newbies were always to stick around and check the forum regularly for helpful info and more contests. I really hope it helps! Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

[Superyalda]

As for further contests, at this stage I don't really think it matters what you decide, random selection, votes, complicated or simple. What matters is informing the users that it's there! You won't get a massive contest turnout if gamers done know the forum exists, right?

Make a new promotion in an update that, something like 1 gem on your first post! Give the users who are totally oblivious to the forum incentive to check it out. Do you know how many ppl in the game didn't even know that a forum existed? Forget about knowing how to get in, they were clueless!

I believe you need a two stage inititive plan:

1. inform users that theres a forum in the game
2. Give them incentive to participate

And ... Even if a users gets curious and starts looking at the FAQ, the forum isn't presented in a way to attract new users. Add some "come on in, the waters fine" (eg) text there, and get the URL in the FAQ, too!

Hope this insight helps. I'd LOVE to see more involvement.

[ladyj0y]

I am new in this Forum and I play 3 Games regulary. I am from Germany and I hope you can follow me with this bad english XD I have.
How ever...I think Contests are AWESOME. And I think its ok to be creative. You can win a lot of GEMs. It's fair to create something special.
It would be nice if there were more Contests. Maybe one time in 2 Weeks? I think if it is a easy Subject 1 Week... but is the Subject big and maybe more work to do..than it would be longer.
Boah..sorry for this bad english XDD I look forward for the next Contest. And I will win GEMS! XDDDD

[Mogwai4111]

And I will win GEMS! XDDDD

That's the spirit!

[ariesblu]

Though a little complex, I liked the idea of having these types of contests overall. I just think a lot of people didn't enter this one partly because of the visual aspect. Although it wasn't required to have one, many are more advanced than others, and when you have it based on voting for your favorite, people are more attracted to visual than just words. That's in part why I think all of the winners had some type of visual attached to their entry.

[Swiminn6]

I am new in this Forum and I play 3 Games regulary. I am from Germany and I hope you can follow me with this bad english XD I have.
How ever...I think Contests are AWESOME. And I think its ok to be creative. You can win a lot of GEMs. It's fair to create something special.
It would be nice if there were more Contests. Maybe one time in 2 Weeks? I think if it is a easy Subject 1 Week... but is the Subject big and maybe more work to do..than it would be longer.
Boah..sorry for this bad english XDD I look forward for the next Contest. And I will win GEMS! XDDDD

Welcome to the Forums! Actually, you had great English. Better than some people on this forum! Also good ideas, I'm sure the team will put this into consideration.

[Superyalda]

I'd like to mention a contest idea which I listed in the original thread but want to bring it up again.

A LOTTERY!


Numbers from 1-50 (eg) would be added to the design menu
Every day a user can buy one number for let's say one gem
If the user buys 5 numbers that week, they will be included in the drawing
TeamLava randomly selects five numbers each week
Winnings can be decided as follows, or something similar:



5 matching numbers = 50 gems
4 matching numbers = 15 gems
3 matching numbers = 5 gems (break even)


the winner would need to post a message in the forum. Specifically, GM would write the name of any thread in the forum and the winner would need to find that thread and post a message there

I'm sure someone here who's good at math can figure out the odds and statistics and tweak it if necessary.

This kind of contest:

Gives gamers incentive to buy/use gems
Requires five days of gaming per week
Is not limited by device type
Is not limited by creative/graphic/writing abilities
Would pull gamers into the forum for sure
Ensures that the same users aren't winning repeatedly
Makes it easy for TL to decide the winner without too much fuss


What do you think? :D

[moratorro]

I think it could be a great idea to provide some rewards also to people who are just voting for the other players.
Example: GM collects votes through PM, and at the end of the contest he can ramdomly choose one (two? three?) user (between the ones who gave a valid vote) and give them 10 (20?) gems.
This way everyone would be prompted to enter the contest, even if just giving a valid vote!

[Superyalda]

I think it could be a great idea to provide some rewards also to people who are just voting for the other players.
Example: GM collects votes through PM, and at the end of the contest he can ramdomly choose one (two? three?) user (between the ones who gave a valid vote) and give them 10 (20?) gems.
This way everyone would be prompted to enter the contest, even if just giving a valid vote!

Cool! We could take it a step further. The person posting the vote should list the storm8 ID of the person their voting for. GM can select one voter and one votee (?) not necessarily together. The catch is to make people come to the forum to check who won, too.

[hippoberry]

Id really love a forum edition of this contest. :)