• THE PLATFORM

Contest Platform

In order to understand how the competition platform works, it’s helpful to learn a bit about the process that we’ve been refining for the last ten years. Although our customers may enter at different stages in the process, each customer becomes familiar with the way we operate through the following tiered approach. Each stage includes different activities and deliverables that relate directly to one or more of the services that we provide. The result? A proven process that aligns to ensure proper configuration of Skild’s competition management software.

THE SKILD WAY

Process-1

DESIGN

We believe every contest is unique, so the Design must map directly to your goals and desired outcomes. During this critically important stage, Skild will lead you through strategic and tactical decisions to determine the overall “game plan.” In cases where you already have a clear understanding of your needs, we can help expedite the contest development process. The Design stage will identify the key decisions impacting online operations and administration, such as the competition timeline, number of phases, target audiences, setting goals for numbers of registered contestants and entries, entry form details, development of scorecard criteria and weighting, and defining the judging methodology.

Skild design stage

RELATED SERVICES

Process-1

Setup

Once the basic parameters of your contest have been established, the project team will configure the competition software. A well-designed contest ensures that a regular flow of information and timely reports match your expectations. This stage involves using all the Design decisions to put in place the necessary infrastructure to run your contest, including the public web presence, community features and back-end contest application. All competition-related documents such as the official rules, submission guidelines, FAQs and scorecards must also be cemented and imported during the set-up phase.

Skild setup stage

RELATED SERVICES

Process-1

Play

Let the games begin! This stage starts with launch of your contest. Registration opens for contestants, marketing and PR efforts commence and submissions start pouring in. Once live, you will begin to receive reports on the status of your contest, eliminating many of the “black box” concerns that the average contest platform and methodology fail to address. The Skild contest platform allows you real-time access to all user data and detailed reports. This means no more wondering about things like what percent of the registered contestants have submitted an entry, or how far along are the judges with their assignments? Once the submission window closes, entries are assigned to the judging panel and/or published for public evaluation. Each certified entry is scored using custom-created criteria, and the scores are tabulated and approved before the semifinalists, finalists and winner(s) are announced.

launch of contest

RELATED SERVICES

Process-4

Monitor

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Well, thankfully we’re really into program measurement and analysis. Our competition platform allows us to track the standard stuff like registrations over time, submissions over time, user location and so forth. But we also track things like judging progress and aggregate time spent logged into the contest app. Skild reports, combined with Google Analytics which can be configured for every contest, provide a complete picture of how well your campaign did in relation to your goals from the first stage. These valuable insights help us report back to the various stakeholders and tweak the design for successive contests.

program measurement and analysis

RELATED SERVICES