The voter-funded media contest at Simon Fraser University is off to a slow start. So far only two contestants have entered the first-month round (January 2008), even though five cash prizes are offered and the entry fee is waivable. Entry deadline is January 15.
I have not undertaken an ambitious promotion effort, but have done the following:
- emailed news releases (similar to this) to The Peak and CJSF-FM on November 23 and December 13 (they haven’t published this news, as far as I know);
- emailed news releases to a political science professor and a communication professor on Nov 23 and Dec 13, asking them to forward the info to interested students (the communication professor helpfully referred me to a staff contact for forwarding to students; I’ll go ahead with that today);
- had numerous discussions with Simon Fraser Student Society representatives and other interested students, including presentations to SFSS Board and Forum in June 2007 (the two entrants so far have come from these contacts).
A media competition can promote itself. Even with just two competitors, they have an incentive to reach out to as many students (& faculty & staff) as possible, to win votes. Although media content is usually on websites, they can also promote themselves by other means such as leaflets, posters, Facebook and email. This contest will be ongoing from month to month, so the effort to attract voters will also attract future media contestants.
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1 comment:
Hi Mark,
I am an alumni of the Communications program at SFU at currently Communications Coordinator for the SFSS. I have been making an effort to get students in the department interested in the contest. With luck we will start to see more action on the blogging front!
G
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