Photo and video contests with voting and moderation
Contests and prize draws for shoppers: entry intake, voting, moderation, fair winner selection and published results.
Contest and prize draw formats we run
What a turnkey contest includes
How a contest runs — from brief to prize handover
- Brief: campaign goal, dates, prizes, who can enter and what counts as an entry.
- We prepare the technical specification, a fixed-price estimate and a dated work plan.
- We design and build the campaign site or the bot scenario and connect the required PromoKit modules.
- We run a 63-point quality checklist and open entry submissions.
- We handle moderation, voting and draws and answer participants throughout the campaign.
- We publish the winners, help with prize delivery and hand over the final data exports.
Voting and picking a winner fairly
Voting can be open to everyone — entries are then ranked by the number of votes and participants bring their own friends and followers to the site — or kept closed, with a brand jury scoring against criteria defined in advance. So that the outcome cannot be disputed, each vote is tied to a device and an account: a second vote from the same phone is not counted. That is how the voting tool we built for the Fleet World forum worked — attendees scanned a QR code in the hall and could vote once. Where chance decides the winner, the engine runs the draw by a preset formula and stores the result, visible in the admin panel and available for export.
Entry moderation and protecting the prize pool
Every submission is reviewed before it goes public: the moderator filters out stolen photos, abuse, third-party brands and anything that does not fit the campaign rules. Wherever the prizes are good, prize hunters appear — people who create dozens of accounts to farm rewards. We recognise them by device fingerprint and by behaviour: frequent browser and IP changes, suspiciously fast sign-up, repeated login attempts. Each signal adds to a score, and past a threshold the participant is flagged. Before a valuable prize is handed over, the winner can also be checked against our database of professional prize hunters built up over hundreds of launches.
Publishing winners and reporting on the campaign
Winners land in a dedicated site section automatically, filtered by draw type and by week: participants do not wait for someone to update a table by hand, and you do not assemble the list manually every week. Cash prizes go to a phone number or a bank card through connected payment systems, e-certificates arrive as a link and a file, physical gifts ship to the addresses stored in the personal account. While the campaign runs, the dashboard shows how many entries were uploaded, how many passed moderation and how the votes are distributed, and any data can be exported to Excel — including for reports to legal teams and retail chains.
Where to run a contest: site, social networks or chatbot
The platform depends on where your audience already is. A separate campaign site makes sense when the contest runs alongside a receipt or code mechanic, when there are many prizes and the participant needs a personal account. A chatbot in Telegram or VK is cheaper and lowers the barrier: entries are sent straight as a message, with nothing to install. Social networks bring reach — hashtag posts are pulled onto the campaign site automatically. In our experience the best result comes from combining channels: some people will never open the site, others will never message a bot, and one shared mechanic collects both.
Who it suits
Contests suit brands that want more than a sales bump — they want living content from shoppers: photos, videos and stories the brand can reuse in its own communication. They work especially well when no purchase is required and reach matters, when the brand already has a community willing to take part, and when plain prize giveaways no longer surprise the audience. A contest mechanic is often layered onto a running receipt campaign: participants return more often and spend longer on the site, and the brand collects material for social media.
FAQ
How is a contest different from a prize draw or a lottery?
In a contest the winner is chosen on the merit of the entry — scored by a jury or by participant voting. In a draw the winner is chosen by chance. The campaign rules follow from that choice: they are a legal document where a participant must find the answer to any question, from the list of eligible products to how a prize is collected. The wording is usually prepared by the organiser’s lawyer, and we build the mechanic exactly to the approved rules.
How do we pick a winner fairly and avoid disputes later?
Define the scoring criteria and the selection method in the rules before launch. With voting, one person votes once: the vote is tied to a device and an account. With a draw, the engine selects by a preset formula and the result is stored and exportable. Questionable entries are removed by moderators before publication, not after the results are announced.
How are contest results published?
Winners appear automatically in a dedicated section of the campaign site, filtered by draw type and by week. The list updates as soon as results are finalised, with no manual entry. The same list is convenient for reporting to legal teams and retail partners, and participants can see that prizes really do reach people.
Does a purchase have to be required to enter?
Not necessarily. A contest works well with no receipts or codes at all — the barrier is low and reach is wider. If the goal is sales growth, the contest sits on top of a receipt or code mechanic: uploading a valid receipt earns the right to submit an entry or extra chances in the draw.
Who moderates the entries — you or us?
Whichever suits you. We have a dedicated moderation team that reviews submissions against your rules. You can also work in the moderator interface yourself: it shows the entry queue, the decision history and rejection reasons. A common split is that we handle the flow and edge cases go to the brand.
How long does it take to launch a contest?
About three weeks on average, depending on the complexity of the mechanic. With a standard template and no newly invented mechanic it goes faster. The longest part of a promo is not development but approvals and design revisions, so plan backwards from the campaign start date.
How do you protect voting and the prize pool from abuse?
A vote counts once per device and account. Participant behaviour is scored: browser and IP switching, unusually fast sign-up, dozens of login attempts. Multiple accounts belonging to one person are merged into a single profile by device fingerprint. Before a valuable prize is awarded, the winner can be checked against the prize hunter database.
Can the contest run inside our own infrastructure?
Yes. The platform runs both in the cloud and on your company servers when security requirements rule out storing data outside. The mechanic connects over API to your CRM, loyalty cards and internal systems — you do not have to change them.
How much does running a contest cost?
The price is the sum of the modules you switch on: entry intake, moderation, voting, draw management, prize delivery, mailings. The calculator on this site lets you assemble the setup yourself and receive a fixed-price estimate in Excel, a commercial proposal and a dated work plan.
Ready to spark a UGC wave around your brand?
We will share cases and propose a mechanic that fits your goals and budget.