Contest Holder Instant Feedback Ratings Best Practices

Get the best results from your contest by providing helpful feedback.

Squadhelp Admin avatar
Written by Squadhelp Admin
Updated over a week ago

The best way to keep your contest moving forward and productive is to provide instant feedback to creatives participating in your contest.

Contestants Point System 

Our platform rewards those contestants who submit high quality entries. We issue points to contestants when you (the contest holder) like or love their entries. On the other hand, if the contestants receive too many low ratings, it can reduce the number of entries they are allowed to submit in future. This mechanism acts as a strong feedback loop in improving the overall quality of the submissions to the contests.


The ratings are as follows: 

🙁 No Thank You

This means that the submission is not a good fit for your brand, product, business, etc. By the nature of brainstorming, you will probably give a lot of “No Thank You” ratings, and that’s OK. 

Honest feedback helps the creatives get closer to what you need. In most contests, 60-80% of entries fall into this category. Again, don’t be afraid to give No Thank You's; this just lets the creative know to try another approach!
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😐 On The Right Track

This rating signals to a creative that they are headed in the right direction, but not quite what you are looking for. This is a good rating for an entry that has the right style of name, but the wrong concepts, or one that has the right values and ideas, but is too long or not using the right words. 

Here are the basic categories that we see fall into on the right track: 

  • I like this word but not that word (Name Squadcrowd, I like the word Squad but not crowd).

  • I like the meaning behind this name, but it’s a bit difficult to say or spell. 

  • I love this name! But it’s probably better suited for another project. 

We typically recommend keeping your On The Right Track ratings at about 20%.

🙂 Like It

“Like It” ratings let a creative know that you’re happy with a submission and want to see more like it.  

We typically recommend about 5% Like It ratings.

😃 Love It

A “Love It” rating places an entry on your shortlist, which tells the creative that you are really excited about a name and will consider using it.

A typically project will have 4 - 12 names on the shortlist at the end of the brainstorming process. 

Conclusion

By using the above recommended curve (a lot of No Thank Yours, a good amount of On The Right Track, a few Like Its, and a very few Love Its) you will provide clear direction to those Creatives participating in your project. 

Importantly, you may see a drop off in contest participation if you do not rate entries. This is because, without communication, creatives will not know what you need or what you are looking for.

Rating entries is a great way to increase contest participation and connect with creatives who are hitting the mark. It's a great way to communicate directly with creatives, provide feedback, and drive your contest forward to ensure you're receiving the best entries possible. 

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