Tag Archives: ad contest

Happy Holidays from BetterBNC

We hope you’ve had a wonderful 2016 – we appreciate our valued BetterBNC customers.  We have a record number of organizations using BetterBNC this year and look forward to even more switching to the platform in 2017.

If you’re a current customer, remember to contact us for your renewal information – just email or call the office and we’ll get started for you. If you are interested in switching your contest to BetterBNC, simply contact us to schedule a demo at your convenience and we’ll go from there. All you have to do is email karen@smalltownpapers.com.

We look forward to more great contests in the coming year!  Happy Holidays from all of us at BetterBNC.

BetterBNC saves time for your judges.

We repeatedly hear from organizations looking for an easier contest experience for judges who volunteer their time and energy to evaluate entries. Some platforms require that judges download all entries in their category before reviewing which is time consuming, cumbersome and eats up space on their own computers.

With BetterBNC judges simply click on links to review entries hosted online. The process is fast and easy — and it’s one of the reasons we receive so many customer referrals from individuals who have used the platform to judge contests.  Judges want to be able to use their valuable time reviewing and commenting on your entries rather than waiting on downloads.

Schedule your complimentary BetterBNC demo today and we can show you how easy the judging experience can be from the judges perspective.  The platform is also easy and intuitive for contestants and your contest administrator.  Email karen@smalltownpapers.com to take a look.

Is my contest too small for BetterBNC?

It’s a question we often hear.  Is the BetterBNC contest platform designed for larger contests – those with a large number of entries – or will it work for my organization’s small contest?

BetterBNC customers have contests ranging in size from a hundred entries to thousands of entries – the platform works for contests of all shapes and sizes.  Even our very small contests appreciate that it saves time and energy for everyone involved – your contest admin, judges and contestants.  The result may even be growth in the  number of entries you receive each year – we’ve seen that trend among our customers.

We also have customers who come to BetterBNC from other platforms as well as those who are taking the contest online for the first time after operating in the past manually.  Don’t worry about the learning curve – all of your training and support for the year is included in your BetterBNC base price. There’s never a charge at the end of the year for support.

Contact BetterBNC and take a look at the platform in a complimentary demo.  Email karen@smalltownpapers.com to schedule a demo for you and your team this summer.

 

A Better Way to Judge Your Media Contest

It’s one of the most important facets of the contest experience – the judging structure.  For a smaller contest, it may be fairly simple and straightforward.  But, particularly for larger media contests, reviewing and rating entries can involve a number of judges, more than one judge evaluating each entry, multiple rounds of judging, a wide range of criteria being evaluated and feedback being provided to contestants. It can be quite complex.

BetterBNC can accomodate all of the above.  The base platform is perfect for a straightforward judging process and the platform has modules available for more sophisticated judging structures including:

Entry Asset Manager – Download all attachments, website URLs, and judges’ comments from all contest winning entries at one time. All winning entry content items are organized into folders and uploaded to a secure FTP website for admins to download all at once, saving time and effort.

Detailed Scoring Module – Add multiple criteria to each category’s judging form, each with its own scoring slider and comments field. Reports allow you to retrieve all scores/comments for every entry (winners and non-winners), including up to 5 places for winners. Allows for an enhanced judging feedback approach, allowing admins to retrieve all judge feedback for all entries (winners and non-winners).

Advanced Judging Module – Multiple judges may be assigned per category (automated/manual options), with multiple rounds of judging, and admin reports help you retrieve all winners’ information.Allows for multiple rounds of judging and multiple judges per entry, with all admin reports to help track results at each state.

Multi-round Judging Module – Two or more rounds of judging can be applied to your contest. Once your first round judging is complete, we create a duplicate contest database, allowing each finalist entry to be moved to any new categories/judging set by admin.

BetterBNC can also provide customization for contests with unique judging processes that modules do not address.  Contact us to schedule a complimentary demo at your convenience or to get started with BetterBNC.  Email karen@smalltownpapers.com for details.

Judges Really do Prefer BetterBNC

We’ve been delighted to have welcomed several new contests in recent weeks and we have a new one signing on to BetterBNC this week.  We’ve seen a very strong trend with these new contests.

Many organizations are encouraged to switch to BetterBNC because either their contest judges recommended it or their members who have judged other contests using BetterBNC have suggested it.  Judges say BetterBNC has one of the easiest and most intuitive judging interfaces around.

We take that very seriously as we strive to make the contest easy and efficient for everyone involved including the judges who often volunteer their time to thoroughly review entries.  We incorporated an easy drag and drop mechanism to help them organize their favorites and we have features that ensure judges can review entries from their computer or device without having to worry about time consuming and cumbersome downloads.

Last year, we added a Marketing Manager features (which comes with the base price) that allows contest administrators to send reminders and other information to judges right from the contest dashboard.

We appreciate our customers who continue to recommend the platform to their peers involved with journalism, creative and PR contests across the country.  If your organization would like to see the platform, contact us to schedule a complimentary 45 minute demo.  Email karen@smalltownpapers.com today.  We can help you make the switch before your next Call for Entries goes out.

An easy switch to BetterBNC

As 2015 wraps up, many organizations are thinking ahead and planning for their 2016 media contest.  We are currently working with several organizations that are switching to BetterBNC from other platforms and most all have asked if there is anything they can do in advance to make it an easy switch and save some time.

BetterBNC keeps it straightforward but there are a couple of things you can do to speed up the process.

  1. Know the structure of your contest.
    We’ll have you fill out a template that we use to build the contest but know the structure ahead of time.  How many categories? Are there divisions? You’ll want to know the names/titles of each?
  2. Understand how the judging process works.
    Some contests have one judge per entry while others have a panel or multiple judges reviewing entries.  Understanding the judging structure will help determine whether you will need a judging module.
  3. Assemble your team.
    Have the contest administrator on board and anyone who will be working with them.  Once the template is submitted, you are able to schedule a training session at your convenience so you’re ready to go as soon as the contest is turned over to you.

BetterBNC builds the contest for your organization and when it’s turned over to you, you’re able to go in and simply make any changes you need from the original template you submitted.  You can also build your customized and hosted contest homepage which comes at no additional cost.  And remember, with BetterBNC, all training and support for the year is included in your base price.  We’re here to help when you need it.

Check out BetterBNC today.  Schedule a demo and see how your contest can be even better in 2016. Email karen@smalltownpapers.com to get started.

The BetterBNC Difference for Your Contest

Thank you for helping make 2015 the most outstanding year yet at BetterBNC! We’ve welcomed more than a dozen new contests in recent months including 3 Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) chapters, 7 National Council for Marketing & PR (NCMPR) chapters, a new high school press association and the first National Association of Black Journalists chapter. Additionally, we are busy processing renewals for upcoming 2016 contests. It’s an exciting time at BetterBNC.

All of us at BetterBNC wish you a warm and wonderful holiday season. We appreciate your partnering with BetterBNC to create the very best journalism, creative and PR contest experience for everyone involved in your awards program.

The BetterBNC Difference
We’re often asked by organizations looking to move to BetterBNC, what the main difference is between BetterBNC and other contest platforms. Built and designed specifically for journalism, creative and PR awards programs, BetterBNC offers the most features and benefits important to the media trades.  Our comprehensive, on-demand contest administrator training and support program sets us apart from all others. Unlimited support for contest administrators, judges and contestants is included in your base price – there is never a limit on the support you receive with your contract and you never receive a bill at the end of the year for support.

>>Click here to read what our customers say.
>>Click here to read our December newsletter.

BetterBNC is completely independent of any trade association or political organization and has no external agenda.
We are committed to fairness, transparency and security,
and we work only for you.

The easiest way to contact previous contestants.

emailYou’re gearing up for your next journalism, creative or PR contest and you’re drafting your communications announcing the competition.  Time to download the email addresses of last year’s participants so they can receive your Call for Entries and other announcements.  Perhaps you have a new contest admin so this is all taking a bit of time.  You find yourself saying “there must be an easier way.”

BetterBNC now has a Marketing Manager feature that allows your contest admin to easily email previous contest participants right from the admin dashboard.  You can quickly and easily send all of them an announcement about the upcoming contest.

The Marketing Manager feature allows you to create an email template or draft a new email.  You can contact contestants or judges.  It’s an easy way to reach everyone with announcements, reminders and even thank you email.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the Marketing Manager, let us know and we’ll sent you the easy guide or we can walk you through.  Remember, with BetterBNC, all of your training and support for the year is included with your renewal.

Helping you improve your contest experience.

BetterBNC has won customer praise for our commitment to customer satisfaction.  The team encourages and, more importantly, listens to suggestions from our customers every day.  Many of those suggestions are now popular features in our base platform.

With our contest platform uniquely designed specifically for print and broadcast journalism, creative and public relations contests, it’s important that we maintain an open dialog with those using the platform. We learn from contest administrators, judges and contestants about the unique features needed for their specific contests.

Understanding how frustrated judges can get when they use a platform where they have to download dozens of large file entries helped us design our own program which uses links and third party sites such as RealView to house large entries and make them easy and fast for judges to review and evaluate.

Contest admins wanted a quick way to house all of their contest information and the idea for customized homepages was born. It is now a feature which comes with sign up or your renewal (at no additional charge) and is being used by most of our contest administrators.

And we heard prospective customers loud and clear when they told us that they don’t like getting a bill at the end of the month or year for their training and support.  At BetterBNC, all training and support is INCLUDED in your base price – you NEVER get an extra charge for training and support. We’re here around the clock to ensure your contest is a success!

Our door is open, our ears are listening – we encourage feedback so contact us and let us know about your contest. What are people saying?  What features would you like to see in the future?  Know of an organization which would benefit from moving their contest to BetterBNC?  Let us know and we’ll reach out to them.

The platform that can improve your awards program.

logo-300As we’re processing all of the renewals that are coming in and setting up the contests that have just signed on with BetterBNC, we find ourselves amazed at the growth in the platform over the past year alone.  At this time a year ago, we were excited to have expanded into more PR and broadcast contests and contest administrators were delighted to be using a new feature allowing them to create their own customized contest homepages.

Since then, we have welcomed dozens of new contests to BetterBNC and added new features like the Marketing Manager which allows contest administrators to email contestants and judges right from the dashboard.  It’s made it really easy to send out call for entries, reminders and thank yous.  We launched a BetterBNC website refresh which contest admins describe as clean, fresh, intuitive and easy to navigate and we are adding more creative contests such as advertising awards programs.

Some of the biggest fans of BetterBNC continue to be judges who say its far and away the easiest platform they’ve used to judge print and broadcast journalism, creative and public relations contests.  We appreciate all the feedback we receive from those using the platform and look forward to continued work with the best journalism, creative and PR awards programs out there.

Contact us anytime or email karen@smalltownpapers.com if you’d like to schedule a complimentary platform demo.