Always-on content collection is your engine. It runs in the background, steadily building your library with customer photos, videos, and feedback. Competitions are your spark plugs. They create a burst of activity, generate your highest-quality content, and give customers a reason to put in real effort.
The difference between a good competition and a forgettable one comes down to structure. A clear prize, a specific brief, a deadline, and a public winner announcement. Get those right and a single competition can generate more high-quality content in a week than an always-on campaign generates in a month.
82DASH’s Reward by Selection feature is built for exactly this.
Setting up your competition
Step 1: Define the competition
Before you touch 82DASH, nail down the basics.
What are you asking for? Be specific. “Best photo of our product” is okay. “Best photo of you using our product outdoors in natural light” is better. “Film a 15-second video showing your morning routine with our product” is best. The more specific the brief, the better the submissions.
What’s the prize? It needs to be worth the effort. Competitions ask more of people than a standard content request, so the reward should reflect that. A $50 voucher, a free product bundle, a significant discount, an exclusive experience, or a third-party gift card with real value. Don’t run a competition with a 10% discount as the prize - it won’t generate the excitement or effort you need.
How many winners? One winner creates maximum excitement but limits your usable content. Five winners gives you more great content to work with and better odds for participants. “Top 10 submissions each win [prize]” is a good middle ground for businesses that want both excitement and volume.
What’s the deadline? A week to two weeks is the sweet spot for most competitions. Short enough to create urgency, long enough for people to participate. Longer than two weeks and momentum fades. Shorter than a week and people don’t have time.
Step 2: Create your content request in 82DASH
Create a new content request. Choose photo, video, or both depending on what you’re after.
Choose Reward by Selection as your reward type. This is what makes a competition work in 82DASH - you review all submissions and select the winners, rather than rewarding everyone automatically.
Write your content brief with competition-specific details: exactly what you want them to create, the prize and how many winners, the deadline, how winners will be notified (via their wallet pass push notification), and any rules or requirements (original content only, must feature your product, and so on).
If you’re offering third-party vouchers as prizes, upload your CSV of voucher codes. If you’re offering your own discount codes, set those up in your reward settings.
Step 3: Set up your landing page
Your competition landing page should feel different from your standard content collection page. The messaging should emphasise the competition angle - the prize, the deadline, the fact that this is a special event rather than an everyday request.
82DASH lets you customise your landing page design and copy. Use this to create urgency and excitement. “Enter by [date] to win [prize]” as the headline. The brief explains what to submit. The reward section shows what’s up for grabs.
A competition only works if people know about it. Use every channel you have.
Push notifications. If you have existing wallet pass holders from previous campaigns, send a push notification announcing the competition. This is your most reliable channel - 90%+ open rates, landing directly on their lock screen. These people have already submitted content before, so they’re primed to do it again.
QR codes. If you’ve got Dynamic QR Codes on tables, packaging, or signage, swap the linked campaign to your competition. Instant reach to everyone who scans.
Email and SMS. Send to your customer list. Subject line should lead with the prize, not the ask: “Win a $50 Amazon voucher - just share your best photo” beats “Submit content for a chance to win.”
Social media. Post about the competition on your own channels. Show example submissions if you can. Tag the competition hashtag.
In-venue signage. For physical businesses, put up signage specifically about the competition. A table talker that says “Photo competition - win a free meal for two” gets more attention than your standard content collection card.
Step 5: Judge and select winners
When the deadline hits, review your submissions in 82DASH. This is where the content tags come in handy - tag your favourites, shortlist the best, and select your winners.
When you select a submission, the reward is delivered to the customer through their wallet pass. They get a push notification letting them know they’ve won. It’s immediate and personal - no “we’ll email you in 5-7 business days.”
Step 6: Announce the winners
This is the step most businesses skip, and it’s one of the most valuable.
Share the winning content on your social media channels. Tag the winners. Celebrate their submissions publicly. This does three things: it rewards the winner with recognition (on top of the prize), it shows future participants what winning looks like, and it gives you excellent social content that’s already rights-cleared through 82DASH.
If you’re running regular competitions, the winner announcement becomes a content format in itself. “This month’s winner” posts build anticipation for the next round.
Competition formats that work
Run it monthly. Same structure, same prize, new winners. Customers start anticipating it. “Submit your best photo of [product/experience] this month. Top five photos win [prize]. Winners announced on the first of each month.”
This gives you a steady stream of curated, high-quality content and builds a habit among your most engaged customers.
Tie the competition to a season, event, or moment. “Best summer photo” in June. “Spookiest Halloween creation” in October. “Most creative gift wrapping” in December. Seasonal themes give people a creative direction and make the competition feel timely and relevant.
Ask for a specific video format - a 15-second product review, a styling reel, a recipe using your product, a room tour. Video competitions tend to get fewer entries but much higher-quality content. The submissions you select become your best ad creative.
“Tell us your best [brand] story.” Combine a form submission (the story) with a photo or video. This generates testimonial content that’s far more detailed and personal than what you’d get from a standard content request. Select the most compelling stories and you’ve got case studies, social content, and website copy.
Combine the competition with the Amplify features or Reward by Selection for Instagram/TikTok posting. “Post your best photo on Instagram, tag @yourbrand, and submit your handle through 82DASH. Best posts win [prize].” You get the content in your library and the organic social reach from their post.
The contact card advantage
Every person who enters your competition and doesn’t win still gets a contact card when they submit. Your brand is saved to their Apple or Google Wallet. You have a push notification channel to them.
This matters more than it seems. A competition with 200 entries and 5 winners gives you 195 people who engaged with your brand, created content for you, and are now reachable via push notification. They didn’t win this time, but when you announce the next competition, they’re one push notification away from entering again.
Over three or four competitions, you build an audience of engaged, content-creating customers who are actively looking for the next chance to participate. The competition is the hook. The wallet pass is the long-term asset.
Running competitions alongside always-on campaigns
You don’t have to choose between competitions and always-on content collection. Run both.
Your always-on Instant Reward campaign collects content steadily - every submission gets rewarded, building your library and wallet pass base day after day. Your monthly or seasonal competition generates bursts of high-quality content and excitement.
The always-on campaign is your baseline. The competition is your highlight reel.
If you’re using Dynamic QR Codes, you can swap between them seamlessly. Your table cards or packaging QR codes link to the always-on campaign by default. When a competition launches, swap the campaign. When it ends, swap back. No reprinting, no new materials.
Common mistakes
Prize too small. If you’re asking people to compete, the prize needs to feel worth competing for. A 10% discount isn’t a competition prize. A $50 voucher, a free product, or an experience is.
Brief too vague. “Share your best photo” gets low-effort entries. “Show us how you style our jacket for a night out” gets content you can actually use. Specific briefs produce better competitions.
No deadline. Open-ended competitions don’t create urgency. Set a clear end date and communicate it everywhere.
Not announcing winners. If nobody sees who won, the next competition loses credibility. Announce winners publicly, share their content, tag them. Make winning visible.
Running them too frequently. Monthly works. Weekly is too often - people stop caring. Quarterly might lose momentum between rounds. Find a cadence that keeps things fresh without exhausting your audience.
