Tag Archives: newspaper contest

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.

BEWARE this Halloween!

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It’s that time of year when people dress themselves up and pretend to be someone they’re not.  It’s all part of the fun of Halloween.

There are other imposters lurking about that can also be a bit scary – companies pretending to be something they’re not.   There are a few of those in our business – contest platforms who are calling around saying “we’re just like BetterBNC but cheaper.”

Well, we’re flattered and thankful to our loyal customers who are telling us about the calls from those businesses but make sure you do know the difference between BetterBNC, which is currently the preferred contest platform for nearly 200 media and PR organizations in the US and Canada, and the other companies, most of which offer generic platforms that they will adapt for media contests.

BetterBNC was designed by media professionals specifically for news, creative and PR awards programs.  It is based on industry contest best practices and provides the security features and high-performance cloud server processor systems needed for today’s journalism and PR contests.

We know that if you shop around and ask the right questions, you’ll see the advantages of BetterBNC.   For example, make sure you can’t just log in and make an entry to a contest without an authorization feature.  If you can do it to another contest, someone could do it to yours.

We had two contests who went to another vendor who promised a cheaper experience but a year later they came back to BetterBNC.  One told us they now know why the other vendor was so inexpensive – they didn’t offer the needed features that are core to BetterBNC.  Another said the other base platform was inexpensive but after customizing it so it worked for a journalism contest they spent more than they had with BetterBNC.   Ask questions and make sure you know what you’re getting.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!