Actually, it was called an “extreme makeover” contest, but it was basically a fun way to cull some great ideas from the user community about how to improve Snap.com’s Preview Anywhere feature for website owners. SPA is a great service that I enjoy using, so I gave it a shot and won.
The contest ran for about a month and offered cash prizes. There were over 500 ideas submitted. It was a bit daunting to traverse the hundreds of ideas submitted, but the ones I was able to read through ranged from silly to inspiring (I’d like to think I added ideas in both those categories–I had a few silly 11th hour concepts titled “Red SNAPper” and “SNAPping Turtle” …I don’t even remember what they were now).
Check out the contest winners announcement on their blog for details on some great ideas and comments. My idea was basically to create a kind of open-source filter/plug-in system for SPA that allowed anyone to create custom “preview filters” to use on their site. For example, I could create a YouTube filter that caused all SPA preview windows to display the actual video I’m linking to, instead of a thumbnail. The possibilities are endless. And, it provides a huge feature boost without having to burden the SNAP team with creating them all. Think of how the Wordpress plug-in system works–whole communities can form around stuff like this.
Like I said, the other ideas we’re very good, too. Snap’s blog mentions a big feature announcement that may or may not be related to contest ideas. I’m too modest to believe mine would be a part of that (or that they could have implemented a system like that in a month–but who knows!). Let’s just say I’d wear my new SNAP t-shirt a little more often if they did. 
I may write a future post about the marketing thought process that goes into a contest like this. I think this contest was probably the best $5,000 they’ll spend all year.
search
Categories
- advertising
- asides
- blog indiana
- blogging
- domains
- downloads
- freelancing
- ideas
- links
- marketing
- money
- news
- observations
- questions
- resources
- reviews
- security
- technology
- tips
- usability
Archives
- October 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- January 2007
- November 2006
Pieces of Flair
Projects
Stuff to click
LifeStream
- November 26th
- 12:07 pm @bnpositive Ha, yes, a compliment. I'm at the day job working on an actual fun project for a sales convention (read: pictures of beaches) (via Twitter)
- 11:57 am @bnpositive I think it's mostly due to your very accurate twitter avatar. It just makes you want to click "follow." (via Twitter)
- November 25th
- 10:26 pm @Phaedrus Wouldn't dream of it. I'm gonna miss this show, always makes me tense watching it. (via Twitter)
- 10:01 pm I can't even spell SHIELD I'm so excited! (via Twitter)
- 10:00 pm Freakin' THE SHEILD FINALE is on!!! Pause life! Pause life! (via Twitter)
- 7:03 pm Any of my fellow tweeps members of ASmallWorld.net? (via Twitter)
- 11:42 am RT @pateast We're giving away 2 tickets to Indy Startup Weekend. By 5 pm Wed, @me why we should choose you! http://zi.ma/dab9c2 (via Twitter)
- November 24th
- 10:35 pm
- 6:24 pm #magpie Corduroy is a super web-based billing system - http://corduroysite.com (via Twitter)
- 1:48 pm
- 10:18 am @indystartup Submit & vote on pre-weekend ideas for the upcoming Indianapolis Startup Weekend: http://is.gd/8Npj (via Twitter)
- November 23rd
- 7:50 pm
- November 21st
- 4:43 pm @douglaskarr what tweet-to-ad ration did you set for yourself? (via Twitter)
- 4:32 pm @bnpositive Yeah, but Google Apps is one of the few Google products with an upgrade path that leads to a pay-for service. (via Twitter)
- 2:07 pm Live TweetFeed of Hubspot webinar about Facebook #hubspot http://snurl.com/6907l (via Twitter)
- 2:03 pm Thank you, Twitter, for telling me about a webinar today that is relevant to my interests :D (via Twitter)
- November 19th
- 9:18 am I love it when one of the many IT dept. 'teams' tells me something isn't their job, that it's another team's. Are we living in caves? (via Twitter)
- November 17th
- 1:38 pm Am I the only one that sees the conflict with distributing 100,000 printed copies of a "green businesses" phonebook? http://snurl.com/5pyeg (via Twitter)
- November 12th
- 9:31 am Has anyone used or heard good/bad things about WorkEtc.com? (via Twitter)
- November 11th
- 4:00 pm After yesterday's 24 hr downtime of one of my employer's websites, I've now prominently displayed the Fail Whale in my cube in quiet protest (via Twitter)
- November 8th
- 4:41 pm
- 12:29 am watching the best movie ever with @hoosierplew: Army of Darkness (via Twitter)
- November 7th
- 6:07 pm
- 4:57 pm @bnpositive Oh, and we've changed your kid's grade from an A to a B- so the other kids don't feel as bad about their C on the spelling test. (via Twitter)
- 4:56 pm @bnpositive That is utterly stupid. Right, not everybody celebrates Christmas... but YOU do (it's HIS card!) (via Twitter)
- November 5th
- 1:58 pm I continue to be famous ;) Pics I uploaded to CNN from Tue got me mentioned towards the bottom of this CNN article: http://snurl.com/55b20 (via Twitter)
- 1:06 pm http://i33.tinypic.com/zx6yi8.jpg (via Twitter)
- November 4th
- 11:03 pm @Hockeyskates as long as I can pick. Last thing I want is to be flipping channels and suddenly Wolf Blitzer is standing in my living room. (via Twitter)
- 11:00 pm CNN projects Obama wins (via Twitter)
- 10:02 pm Wolf Blitzer just told us that the red states are for McCain and the blue states are for Obama... (via Twitter)
- 9:44 pm CNN just said they can't see how McCain will win, but please keep voting. Does the news learn nothing? (via Twitter)
- 6:26 pm CNN bustin out the futuristic 3D graphics (via Twitter)
- 5:12 pm Polls close in 49 minutes! Start drinkin' everybody!! (via Twitter)
- 3:50 pm http://getyourassoutofthehouseandvote.com (via Twitter)
- 3:35 pm Have you seen the stock market today? We should vote every day! (via Twitter)
- 9:20 am @TwitHeads Don't mess with Texas! (via Twitter)
- 8:00 am How do I always manage to screw up links... here it is: http://snurl.com/52ru5 (via Twitter)
- 7:59 am Pictures from my morning voting experience: http://snurl.com/52ru (via Twitter)
- 7:49 am
- 7:05 am track hoosierplew (via Twitter)
- 6:37 am Just voted! Only waited in line for 45 minutes (10 was before poll opened) (via Twitter)
- 6:06 am waiting in line to vote... (via Twitter)
- November 3rd
- 3:10 pm Trent Reznor just urged me to vote. (via Twitter)
- 2:13 pm @mrnoobie Free star-shaped donut from Krispy Kreme for voting, as well. God Bless America ;) (via Twitter)
- 2:06 pm @mrnoobie If you vote, Starbucks buys your coffee: http://is.gd/5w9E (via Twitter)
- 12:07 pm
One Response
[...] like most, I get excited when I see a box in my mailbox. Even though it still wasn’t my Snap t-shirts, I was still happy to have received such a unique marketing piece. As you can see below, the box [...]
Leave a reply
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.