The PhotoFun application enables participants to create their own personalized images for the contest by using the image editor, which will allow them to personalize their photos with frames and stickers.. 

You can choose the frames and stickers you want from the Easypromos library and you can even upload your own frames and stickers, so that participants use your logo, branding or theme.

The tutorial is organized as follows:

1. Description of the application

2. Create the promotion

3. Configure the PhotoFun

4. Configuration of the Gallery

   • 4.1. Setting up the dates

   • 4.2. Visibility of the gallery: how to enable/disable gallery access for unregistered users

   • 4.3. Options to display participant information

5. Voting settings

   • 5.1. What is the voter experience like?

   • 5.2. How to enable and set up voting

   • 5.3. Set the voting frequency

   • 5.4. How to access the voting log

6. Participant registration system

7. Fraud control system

8. Sending emails to participants

9. Customize the design and complete the setup of the contest

10. User management and Statistics

11. Manage and announce the winners

1. Description of the application

The PhotoFun application enables participants to create their own personalized images for the contest by using the image editor, which will allow them to personalize their photos with frames and stickers.

In this tutorial, we explain the steps to allow you to create your Photofun, offering the following features:

• You can choose the frames and stickers you want from the Easypromos library or upload your own frames and stickers, so that participants use your logo, branding or theme.
• Users’ designs can be showcased in a public photo gallery, where voting can be enabled, facilitating the contest’s viral spread.
• Multiple options to reward participants: you can assign the prize(s) to participant(s) with the highest number of votes, run a draw among the most voted entries, draw a prize among all participants, etc.
• Users will be able to download the image they have designed to share it with their friends.  

2. Create the promotion

1. Access your Easypromos dashboard and log in with your email and password to manage and create your promotions.

2. Next, click on the "Create new promotion" button to start:

3. Select the "PhotoFun" application, under the “Contests” section:

3. Configure the PhotoFun

Step 1. Access the “Upload photo” stage

This stage will allow users to participate in the contest by uploading their own photo, which they can customize with provided frames and stickers.

To begin, access the promotion Editor: 

Next, access the “Participation stages” section:

Enter then the “Upload your photo” stage to edit it, through the pencil icon:

You will find the following configuration tabs:

1. “Options” tab: here you will find the following features to customize the stage:

• Stage name: this is the name that will be displayed on the stage distribution screen.
• Stage description: optionally, you can describe what this participation stage entails, which will also appear on the stage distribution screen. Describe how to participate, indicating the type of multimedia content that users can upload (photos, videos, stories, etc.).
• Dates: allows you to schedule the start and end dates for users to participate and upload their image.
• Stage image: the image that will identify the stage on the stage distribution screen.
• Frequency of participation:determine the number of times users can participate in this stage as well as the participation frequency which may be:
  • Daily
  • Per hour
  • Weekly
  • In total

2. “Requirements” tab: optionally, before the participation screen, you can present a “Requirement” as an addition to the user participation. This is an additional action that users must complete before being able to participate. Available requirements include: validating a code, uploading a purchase receipt, watching a video, scanning a QR code, or only allowing participation after having entered another stage.

Step 2. Configuration of the PhotoFun

Next, click on the “PhotoFun” tab to begin configuring the different available options. 

a. Options

Under this tab, you will find all the options available to configure the general settings of PhotoFun, which we detail below:

• Upload media: allows you to upload a header image that will be displayed at the top of the page.
• Introduction message: allows you to customize the message that will appear at the top of the page.
• Button label:this option allows you to modify the text of the button that participants will click to customize the PhotoFun.
• Photo, stickers, frames labels: this option allows you to modify the name of each of the sections that the user will see in the PhotoFun:

• Scaling mode:allows you to adjust the dimensions of the images presented in the gallery, ensuring uniformity and optimization for proper viewing.
• Display sticker and frame names? This option will display the names of frames and stickers to users.
• Is the frame mandatory? By selecting this option, users will be required to choose one of the proposed frames.
• Min/Max. Number of stickers: Define the minimum and maximum number of stickers that users can use to customize their image. 

c. Frames

In this tab, you will find all the frames provided by the Easypromos platform, which are also grouped by themes. Click on the different themes to see the available frames, and select the ones you want to present to the users.

You will also be able to upload your own frames through the following option:

Recommendations to design your own frames:

• Image format: PNG with transparency.
• You can upload multiple frames by selecting a folder.
• The filename will be the public name of the frame.
• Image size: 800 × 800 px.
• Check out the Sticker and Frames creation guide for the PhotoFun.. 

Once you have decided and selected the frames you want to use, you will have the following options:

• Reorder the frames: determine the order in which you want the frames to be presented to users.
• Remove frames.
• Edit the name of the frames: if you choose to display the names of the frames, you can modify the default names as desired: 

c. Stickers

In this section, you will find all the stickers provided by Easypromos, grouped into themes. Click on the different themes to see the available stickers and select the ones you want to present to the users.

You can also upload your own stickers through the following option:

Recommendations to design your own stickers:

• Image format: PNG with transparency.
• You can upload multiple stickers by selecting a folder.
• The filename will be the public name of the sticker.
• Recommended size for the images: 450 × 450 px.
• Check out the guidelines for Stickers and Frame creation for the PhotoFun.. 

Once you have selected the stickers that you want to use, you will have the following options available:

• Reorder stickers: determine the order in which they will be presented to users.
• Remove stickers.
• Edit the name of the stickers: if you choose to display the names of the stickers, you can modify the default names as desired.

4. Configuration of the gallery

The gallery is the page where all the photos personalized by users with PhotoFun frames and stickers will be showcased. 

For this purpose, the gallery must always be connected with the “Upload photo” stage, in order to display in the gallery the content that users upload and customize using the PhotoFun tool. 

In the list of stages, in the editor, you can verify that the “upload photo” stage is connected to the gallery:

To see the gallery options that you will be able to configure, access the stage labelled “Gallery”:

4.1. Setting up the dates

The start and end dates of the stage will determine when users can access the gallery to view photos uploaded by participants. Additionally, if voting is enabled, these dates will also determine the period during which users may vote.

4.2. Visibility of the gallery: how to enabled/disable gallery

The contest administrator will have control over the access and visibility of the photo gallery for the contest at all times.

By default, the contest gallery is visible and accessible to all users accessing the contest, including those who have not yet registered. Therefore, users who have not yet identified themselves to participate in the contest can access the contest gallery.

Nevertheless, visitors who haven’t registered in the contest will only be able to view and share the images published in the gallery. If they wish to participate in the contest and vote for their favorite image, the system will prompt them to identify themselves and if it’s their first time, they will also need to register..

Alternatively, the administrator can restrict access to the contest gallery to registered users, so that only users who have identified themselves can view, share and vote the entries. To do this, the administrator should go to the Editor Participation stages Galleries public page and uncheck the “Enable public page galleries” checkbox there:

4.3. Options to display participant information

As administrator, you can configure what information you want to display about the participants in the public gallery. To do so, enter the settings of the “Gallery” stage and under the “Voting gallery” tab, you will find the following options:

• Display candidate name: select if you want to show or hide the name of the candidates.
• Display candidate avatar: allows displaying the candidate’s profile picture (if uploaded by the user).
• Display candidate country: show the candidate country (if any).
• Order of the candidates in the gallery: define the order in which the entries will be presented in the gallery.

5. Voting settings

You can enable the voting system so that all photos uploaded by users to the gallery can be voted on. To do this, access the Editor Participation stages Gallery Voting gallery tab, where you will see the checkbox to open votes.

5.1. What is the voter experience like?

What will be the participation experience like for users who want to vote in the contest? The promotion is made up of different pages that the user will navigate through to vote. Together, these different pages will form the structure of the promotion and the participation flow that the user follows to complete the promotional mechanics of the contest.

Specifically, the participation flow for voting in the contest will be as follows:

1. Upon accessing the promotion for the first time, the user will reach the Welcome page, where they will see a button to access the Contest Gallery. This gallery displays all the photos that users can vote for. 
2. Before being able to vote, the user must identify themselves using one of the enabled login methods. If it’s their first time participating, the user will need to register by completing the registration form.
3. If the user is already registered, they only need to log in again to vote.
4. After logging in, the user will see the information of the entry they are about to vote for, to confirm their vote. 
5. Finally, if the email validation is enabled (recommended) the user must confirm their email address for their vote to be counted. 

5.2. How to enable and set up voting?

When creating the promotion, the voting system is enabled by default. However, if needed, you can check whether voting is enabled at any time through the “Enable voting system” checkbox, which you will find in the “Voting Gallery” tab within the settings of the “Gallery” participation stage:

The “Voting type” option allows you to configure how you want the voting system to operate in your contest. You can choose between two different methods

• Simple votes (1 vote = 1 point) - default option:In this voting type, for each image voted on, the system will allocate 1 point to the participant. Additionally, you can configure the minimum and maximum number of images that can be voted for (minimum 1, maximum 10).
• Advanced votes (1 vote = X points):with this voting type, for each image voted on, the user can decide how many points to assign to it. As the administrator, you will need to configure the different levels of points beforehand and define the score that users can give for each level.

Additionally, you have the option to activate a page displaying the ranking of the most voted entries, publicly showing the number of votes each participant has received. A new page will be created, accessible from the Gallery, to let viewers see a ranking of the votes received by participants in the contest.

Note: if the option to “publish the number of votes and the ranking of the most voted” is not activated, the gallery will only display the entries without showing the votes received. Therefore, the number of votes for each entry will only be visible internally to the contest organizer. 

5.3. Set the Voting Frequency

From the “Options” tab, you can configure the participation frequency per user. The number of votes allowed per user will correspond to the number of participations they have:

Note: in the same participation, each user can vote only once for the same entry. When using a new participation, users may vote again for the same entry. If the number of participations allowed is 2 per day, for instance, users will be able to vote for the same entry twice each day.

5.4. How to access the Voting log

From the "Users" section of the promotion, you can see the progress of the contest’s voting in real time.

Specifically, once you are in the “Users” section, click on “Votes” to lee the list of entries in the gallery. For each photo, you can view the number of votes received, and sort them to see users with the most votes. To see the names of the users who have voted for a specific entry, click on “View”: 

The following two options will also be available for you to save the information of the contest:

1. Export all votes: this option allows you to download a file with all votes and voters information.
2. Export results:this option allows you to download a list with the final result of the voting, presenting a ranking of participants/candidates ordered by the score (votes) obtained.

6. Participant registration system

To configure the login system(s) you want to enable, access the Editor of the contest Pages Login & Register Login Here, you can set how users will identify themselves to participate. See here more information about the login types.

Note: Easypromos supports Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with external user authentication systems. Please contact our Sales team for more information.

If it’s their first time participating, the user will complete the registration with the data configured by the administrator.

To configure the fields of the registration form, access theEditor Pages Login & Register Register, and click on the “Add element” button to add the fields and request the relevant data from users:

7. Fraud Control System

The voting process of the contest includes the Easypromos security system, which is activated by default. Its purpose is to block attempts at fraudulent votes and provide tools to analyze the legitimacy of votes. The Easypromos Security System consists of:

Preventive measures:

1. Detection and blocking of malicious email addresses: includes temporary emails, invented emails, and email aliases. Additionally, Easypromos maintains a database of fake email domains.
2. Anti-Robots system: implements mechanisms for detecting and blocking votes attempts from automated bots.
3. Detection and blocking of malicious IPs: Easypromos maintains a database of malicious IPs, VPNs, and proxies.
4. Filters and restrictions based on country and IP:allows limiting the registration and connection frequency per IP, as well as restricting connection countries.
5. Security level indicator: a tool that helps the organizer configure a secure contest, including alerts in case the anti-robot system or double verification of email addresses is disabled.

Reactive measures:

1. Security center with records of blocked events: each time the system blocks fraudulent access, a record is generated for the administrator to be able to analyze and discover other potential fraudulent patterns.
2. IP Address analysis tool:allows you to view all activity from an IP address, see its properties and eventually block in a click all users from that IP along with their votes.
3. Domain Analysis tool: allows you to visualize the distribution of email domains registered in the contest, making it easier to detect fake or temporary emails to block their votes and users.
4. Easypromos offers a dedicated security team that periodically reviews all generated alerts and blocks users and votes in case fraudulent activity is detected.
5. All security measures are centrally managed from the Contest Security Center.

If the administrator or Easypromos blocks users and votes through reactive measures, the percentage of fraudulent votes will be displayed in the contest’s vote management tool. These fraudulent votes can then be removed.

8. Sending Emails to Participants

With the email platform included in the promotion, you can establish periodic and automated communication with users participating in the contest.

Below are some examples of emails you can create:

• Send an email to all participants to thank them for their participation, including the link to their individual photo in the contest gallery, so they can share it to get votes. 
• Inform users whether their photo has been approved or rejected by the person responsible for moderating the content uploaded by users in the contest.
• Send an email to users who have voted in the gallery, including the name of the participant they voted for, along with the link to the individual photo they voted for.

Check out the different email sending options you can automate with the Email Platform.

9. Customize the design and complete the setup of the contest

Once you have configured the PhotoFun, the next step is to complete the generic setup and other promotion options, such as customizing the design template to use your own colors and texts, adding your logo, entering the Legal texts of the contest, setting up viral content, etc.

Check out our tutorial to finish setting up and customizing your contest.

10. User management and Statistics

11. Manage and announce the winners

Easypromos provides a comprehensive Prize and Winner management system that allows you to create the prize or prizes you want to give away to reward participants. You can also configure how you want to assign the prizes and select the winners.

Specifically, for the PhotoFun contest, you have several ways to assign the prize(s), according to your choice:

1. Randomly:: you will be able to conduct one or multiple draws among all participants or a subset of participants and obtain a validity certificate with the draw results.  Follow the steps of our tutorial to run the draw 

2. Manually: you can manually assign one or multiple prizes to participants of the contest. For example, you can assign the prize to participants who have received the most votes.  Follow the steps of this tutorial to assign the prize manually .

3. Direct assignation of the prize(s):you can assign a promotional coupon or discount to all users after they upload their image or after voting in the contest. Follow the steps of this tutoria that explains how to create a coupon prize and assign it directly to all users after participating or voting in the contest.