Tutorial: How to create a Video Contest – Easypromos - Online Helpdesk

In this post we explain the steps involved in setting up a video contest with Easypromos, as well as all your options for customizing the app.

To create your video contest, follow the steps outlined below:

Step 1. Create the promotion

1. Access the Easypromos Control Panel and log in with your email address and password to manage and create your promotions.

2. Create a new promotion via the green button.

3. You will be presented with a list of the products available. Choose ‘Video contest’ to create a promotion that lets users submit their videos and display them in a public gallery.

4. As a next step, set up the following options:

Organizing brand. As a first step, you should select or create an organizing brand for your promotion. This organizing brand is independent of any social network and works as a folder within your Easypromos account, in order to help organize the promotions that you create.
Template version. Select which template you want to use to create your promotion: Premium or White Label.

Note: Compare here the features and functionalities included in each template.

5. After clicking on "Continue" button, you'll get access to the promotion management page, where you have all the options for configuring the promotion. We outline the most important sections below:

Header. This displays the promotion title, the platform version and other relevant information such as the promotion ID number. You'll also see the promotion status: Draft, Active or Expired, as well as if it’s about to start. Once the promotion period has ended, this field will be marked in red saying: Status: Expired. You can choose what you want to show on an expired promotion page.
Link to the promotion. You should use this URL every time you share the promotion. Learn more about sharing here. You'll also see the copy link button, which instantly copies the link to make sharing easier.
Activate Promotion. When the promotion is ready to launch, click this button to activate it. You'll be taken to the activation page, where you can review billing information and make payments.
Side menu. All your promotion settings in one place.
View tutorial. This tutorial guides you step by step through the creation and management of your promotion.
Promotion dates and timezone, as well as language settings.
Languages indicates the default language of the promotion. You can change this if you wish.
Localization limits participation to one or several countries. More information here.
Next steps: Practical recommendations that will guide you in the creation and management of your campaign.

Tip: the promotion ID number (#) is a unique identifier for each promotion. Quote this number to the Easypromos support team if you have any issues. This will make it easier for us to review your settings and help you out.

Step 2. Customize the text and images for each page

The platform comes pre-configured with many features, based on the platform version that you have chosen. Now let’s take a look at how to customize text and images in the promotion, as well as colors and font settings.

1. Enter the promotion 'Editor'.

2. Configure the text and images for each page of the promotion:

A) Welcome

Change the provisional title for something that highlights the strong points of your promotion. Make this descriptive text as attractive as possible to users.
Configure the texts for the page, and upload an image to make it more dynamic.
Change the provisional description for something more personal. Explain how the contest works so that participants are clear about what steps they should follow to take part. You can also customize the ‘Enter’ and ‘View entries’ buttons.

B) Entry form

In this section, you must set up the registration form that participants will complete to enter the contest.

You can customize the text and the header image in the "Options" tab.
Add the fields that you wish your participants to complete. You can ask for their email, telephone, date of birth, gender, city and country. You can also add custom comment fields, dropdown menus and check boxes as needed. Learn how to set up the entry form.
Media field. Because you've selected the “video contest” app, this field is pre-configured to ask participants for a video entry. By default, users can link a Youtube or Vimeo URL to this field. Change the field label if you want to customize the name.

Important: By default, Video Contests only allow users to participate with videos previously hosted on Youtube and Vimeo. They simply insert the URL of the video in the Media field of the registration form.

If you want to allow participants to upload a video file directly from their mobile or computer, you must enable the "Video Hosting Extension", which has an additional cost of $99 (price per contest). The extension will be added to the cost of activating the contest.

Click on the "Enable" button:

2. A pop-up window will open to confirm that you want to enable the extension:

3. The extension will be enabled, and the cost will appear on the purchase summary page:

When you enable the Video Hosting extension, the platform will suggest connecting a Dropbox account for safe and convenient file storage. If you connect to Dropbox, videos will be automatically stored on your account. You'll find them in a folder named Easypromos, followed by your promotion ID number.

Note: Learn how to enable and configure Dropbox integration.

You can configure advanced options, such as:

4. If you want to enable a field for video captions or details, you can add the "Comments field". Participants will be able to write up to 65.000 characters, but you can choose to limit captions with the "Maximum characters allowed" option.

C) Thank you

Customize this page with a final image and a thank you text. You can also create an extra button with a link to an external page of your choice.

Text to encourage users to share. To the left of the first share button, there is a text which you can customize. Use this to encourage your participants to share the contest.
Thank you message. You can use this text to thank participants and tell them when the winner will be announced.
Use the final image to remind participants what the prize is and encourage them to share the contest with their friends.

D) Gallery.

Set up how the public gallery of entries will be displayed. In this section, you should focus on the following option tabs:

Contents: From here, you can upload a header image and add an introductory message to give the gallery a more corporate touch.
Layout: By default, the gallery uses a tiled layout. This allows you to present more than one picture on the same line, and makes for a visually attractive collage. In this section you will find the following configuration options:

Decide if you want to use the Tiled gallery or the Vertical gallery.
Adjust the details of the gallery design. Find out how here.

Votes: Access this tab if you want users to vote on entries.

By default, Video Contests come with the voting system enabled. In this section, you’ll be able to set up what type of voting system you wish to have in your contest. You can also disable the voting system from here.

Additionally, you have the following customization features:

Customize the name of each section, and the icon that identifies it within the promotion menu. For example, you can change the default name of the "Welcome" page to "Start", with a menu icon to match.
Add new sections to the promotion menu. There are two ways to do this:
- New page, for example, to present and explain the prizes of the promotion.
- External link, to drive traffic to your website or microsite.

Learn how to customize the promotion menu in this tutorial.

Note: download the Easypromos Design Guide for recommended image dimensions.

Step 3. Customize the design

In the Design menu, you can can completely customize the look and feel of the promotion for your brand or product. The Design menu offers the following options:

Colors: Change the colors of texts and action elements (such as buttons).
Typographies: Select the font used for texts and action elements.
Container: Completely customize the container by setting the style, opacity, height or position.
Background: Customize the background of the promotion with your own image or choice of colors. The background will be the same for each page of the promotion.
Other: Set the style of the promotion buttons (outlined or solid), as well as the color of the button text. Also from here you can customize the background color of the pop-up windows of the promotion (for example: window that opens the terms and conditions, My Networks window, etc.)
Advanced (White Label only): Use your own CSS styles to completely customize the template.

Discover all the graphic possibilities of the Design module here.

Step 4. Insert legal texts

In this section you can upload legal texts to display them in the promotion. Specifically you can upload the terms and conditions to explain all aspects of the promotion, contest or sweepstakes. Additionally you can also upload your privacy policy to explain how and for what purpose you will treat the data of the users that register in the promotion. It's also possible to upload your own Cookies policy.

To insert the terms and conditions, go to Editor > General > Legal content, where you will find the following sections:

Terms and conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookies Policy

Note: Check here how to set up the consent of the legal texts of the promotion.

Step 5. Configure My Networks and the promotion footer

The 'My Networks' module enables you to totally customize the page which users see before confirming their registration for the contest. You can give them the opportunity to click ‘Like’ on your Facebook Page. My Networks can be customized for Facebook pages, as well as Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. Learn how to do that here.

To customize My Networks, go to Editor > General > My Networks:

The Footer is a banner presented at the base of each page. You can customize this text, or deactivate it if you don't want it.

To enable the promotion footer, go to Editor > General > Footer where you'll see the following options:

"Created by" field which will allow you to customize the name of the brand or company organizing the promotion.
Decide what elements you want to show in the promotion foot.

Step 6. Customize viral content

This section is very important if you want your contest to go viral. The viral content is the message that will be shown whenever a participant shares the promotion with friends, or invites them to take part in the promotion.

To customize the viral content, go to Editor > General > Share:

You can customize the share message for each social media channel that your followers use. For video contests, we recommend completing the following sections in the Share section:

A) Generic content.

Set up the generic content of the promotion here:

Viral image: This is the image that will accompany the shared text. To optimize for social networks, we suggest dimensions of 1200px by 630px. The same image will be shared on Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. If you don’t upload a specific image in this section, the main promotion image will be displayed when participants share the promotion.
Generic content: This is the viral text that will be shown on social networks when participants use the share buttons on the main page, the registration form or the header of the video gallery. Learn how to edit this content.

B) Participation.

This viral message will be shown on social networks when participants use the share buttons on the "Thank You" page.

Step 7. Advanced Settings

Editor > Pages > Entry Form > Options. On this page, you can control the following options:

For Video Contests, we recommend the following settings:

Max. users: Decide if you want to limit the promotion to a maximum number of participants. By default, there is no limit on participants.
Maximum entries per user: You can decide how many times a user can take part. For example, you can choose to allow participants to submit more than one video.
Enable premoderation: You can moderate competition entries before they appear in the public gallery.
Notification of new entrant: Enable this feature if you want to receive an email whenever a new entrant registers for the promotion.
Disable autofocus in first form field. By default, the “Name” field in the entry form has the autofocus activated so that the participants can begin to write without having to click on the field first when the page loads. This option allows to disable this effect to avoid that the autofocus scrolls down the page, which is useful in promotions that have a big header image.
Anti-fraud options: With the aim of helping administrators organize top-quality contests, Easypromos has developed a series of techniques and tools to minimize bad practices. Learn more about anti-fraud tools.

2. Editor> Pages> Form> Social Login. From here you can enable identification with Facebook as a way to identify users and decide if you want it to be mandatory for the user to identify with this social network to participate.

3. Editor > Pages > Gallery > Options. Here you have the following advanced options:

Anonymous participations. Activate this if you don’t want to display users' names and Facebook profiles next to their competition entries in the gallery.
Allow comments on participations. You can enable comments on competition entries so that other users and their friends can comment on video entries.

Step 8. Set entry restrictions

The application allows you to restrict access to the promotion for some users. Specifically, the platform offers you 2 forms of restriction:

Restriction by country: You can limit participation to a specific country or countries. In this way, only users who connect from the selected country or countries will see the promotion. Learn how to enable country restriction here.

Restriction by age: Limit the promotion to users whose age is higher than the one indicated by the administrator. This establishes a minimum age for participation. Learn how to enable the age verification window.

Step 9. Communicate with participants via the email platform (optional)

If you need to communicate with participants during and after the promotion, you can use this section to create, customize and send emails.

This feature is especially useful for video contests because it enables you to set up automatic emails. For example, you might want to contact participants for the following reasons:

Thank participants for registering, and inform them of when the contest will be held and when the result will be made known.
Remind participants of how many votes they need to be a finalist.
Send an email to the contest winners.
Send an email to all participants, confirming that the promotion has ended and thanking them for their participation.

Learn how to create an email with the platform to communicate with participants and increase your promotion's viral reach.

Important! The platform has the ‘smart tags’ feature at its disposal. This enables you to configure customized emails. Use the ‘smart tag’ {{user_voteme_url}} which, upon sending the email, is substituted for the unique participation URL of each participant.

Step 10. Other advanced options for the video contest

If you want your contest to be by categories, configure it now with this tutorial.
If you want to establish the contest in several phases, learn how to manage it with the dates.
Participate in the contest via Twitter and/or Instagram following these instructions.

Step 11. Publish the winners page (optional)

Before publishing the promotion, or during the competition period, you can choose to display the prizes that you are going to give away. The same page will show the winners of each prize, once there are winners. You can decide if you want to publish the prizes page from the beginning of the promotion, or you can wait until the winners have been selected. To customize and publish the winners page, go to Editor > Pages > Winners.

Check out the Prize Management tutorial to learn about all your options for designing, awarding and managing prizes.

Step 12. Preview the promotion

You can check how the promotion will be displayed once activated, in order to review the design. You'll find the "Preview" button in the header of the Editor, on the right-hand side:

Please keep in mind that the Preview just shows what the promotion will look like. It is not a functional test. That’s why you can click through the pages without filling in your data, for example.

To test the functionality of the promotion, you will need to activate the promotion and protect it with a password while you test it privately. Learn how to do that here.

Step 13. Activate the promotion

Once you have finished setting up your promotion, you can activate it from the management page. You can also view billing information and make payments from this page. Read more information here.

Step 14. Publish the promotion

Although your promotion is now active, you still need to take the final step: publishing it.

When you created the contest, a microsite with a unique URL was generated to display the promotion. This URL is the main link to the promotion. By default, the link leads to the welcome page of the promotion, but you can change this. You can also, and not exclusively, publish the promotion on a Facebook Page, or embed it in your blog or website. You can control where you wish to publish the promotion via “Buzz”. Learn more about publishing your promotion here.

Step 15. Share the promotion

It’s important to share the promotion on as many different channels as possible. Always use the main link to the promotion, as it’s uniquely compatible with all devices.

You can share the promotion via the following methods:

With the direct link to the promotion.
With the ‘share’ button on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Use Facebook Ads to give more visibility to the promotion. One of the most effective ways to improve the visibility of the promotion is through the Facebook advertising service, which will allow you to create an advertisement to promote the contest and generate traffic to the promotion. To do this, you must access the Facebook advertisers page and create an advertisement to promote the contest.
By Featuring your promotion. This option places your campaign on the list of Easypromos highlighted promotions. There is an additional cost for Featuring a promotion, calculated per day of the campaign. If you’d like to Feature a campaign, consult this tutorial.

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Step 16. Manage the active promotion

While the promotion is active, you can monitor and manage competition entries from the management page by clicking on the "Participants" section in the left-hand menu. You can also access the list of entries from the “Statistics” section:

From the "Participants" section, you can view information on participants and download it as an Excel file.

Note: Information about participants will be available even once the promotion has finished.

Step 17. View promotion statistics

Access the "Statistics" section for information about participants and their interaction with the promotion. This information will be available as soon as the first competition entry is made, and remains accessible after the promotion has finished. Learn more about the information you can access in this section.

Step 18. Manage prizes and publish the winners

When the participation period of the promotion ends, you can use the prize management system to create prizes and configure how they will be assigned. When the promotion has finished, you can choose to assign prizes randomly or manually.

Randomly: You can run one or more sweepstakes among all participants, or among a segment of participants. The platform automatically generates a certificate of validity with the results.
Manually: You can manually assign one or more prizes to chosen participants. This is useful in contests with voting or skills tests. We also recommend this option when winners are selected by a jury, notary public, or the organizing brand.

Learn how to create prizes and select winners in the Prize Management tutorial.

You can begin selecting your winners from the “Winners” menu:

Step 19. Finishing up the promotion

The end of a promotion is controlled by the dates set up in the promotion Editor. When the "End of publication date" is passed, the promotion status changes from active to expired. By default, the promotion is unpublished and is no longer visible. If users try to access the promotion URL, a screen with the message "promotion expired" is displayed.

As administrator of the contest, you can edit the content of this "promotion expired" screen. For example, you could republish the promotion so that it is visible again, show the winners of the promotion, or keep the contest gallery visible.

Learn about your options for expired promotions.