Building Contests for your Partners

Overview

There are 6 main stages to creating and delivering a contest to your partners:

• Add details such as start/end dates, T&Cs for participation, and how partners can enrol
• Confirm eligibility by defining partner group access
• Add the activities partners must complete to get points 
• Configure the points available for the activities in this contest
• Set up the leaderboard(s) and how they'll be displayed
• Define the available rewards for the top 3 performers

Ensure you have your contest activities ready before setting up a contest, so you can add them as you go. For more information, see Managing Contest Activities.

Create a Contest

To create a contest for your partners:

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Click Create.

3. Complete the step-based configuration of the contest, using the Next and Previous buttons to navigate through the steps.

   Note

   Your contest is created as soon as you complete step 1 and click Next.

Step 1 - Details

Add the basic details of your contest - Contest Name, Start Date, and End Date are required.

Step 2 - Eligibility

Confirm which partners can participate in this contest. Choose the partner groups from the Eligible Partners dropdown list. 

Alternatively, create a one-off partner group for use in the context only. For more information, see Using Ad-Hoc / Single-Use Partner Groups. 

If you don't choose any partners here, the contest will be available to all partners.

Step 3 - Activities

Choose the activities that make up the contest.

• Activity Library - the list of all active contest activities that you have in Partner Management > Gamification > Library > Activities. 
• Selected Activities - the activities that have been added to the contest.

Drag and drop activities from Activity Library into Selected Activities, or use the Add button. They're added with their default points value - you can assign a different points amount for this contest only, in the Points step.

Once added to the contest, you can drag and drop the activities into the required display order in Selected Activities, or use the arrows.

Click Remove to take an activity out of the contest.

For more information about managing activities, see Managing Contest Activities.

Step 4 - Points

Assign the points that partners will earn by completing the activities in the contest.

Step 5 - Leaderboard

Set up the leaderboard to display in the portal, so that partners can monitor their progress in the contest. Multiple leaderboards are also supported for a single contest - you can present different boards to participants based on a specific data field, for example only ranking French partners against other French partners.

Step 6 - Rewards

Add the rewards/incentives you're offering to the most successful participants in the contest. You can configure up to 3 - for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions.

Click Add Reward then complete this information:

Step 7 - Review

Review the details you’ve configured for the contest, using the Edit button to go back to any of the configuration steps you want to update.

Use the Validation Checklist to confirm that you’ve completed all required/essential configuration - any missing information is highlighted.

Click Activate Contest to publish the contest - its status updates to Scheduled and it will be visible to eligible partners when its Start Date is reached.

Click Save as Draft if you’re not ready to release the contest yet.

Edit a contest

To edit an existing partner contest:

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit.

4. Make changes as required/permitted.

   The edit options you have depends on the current status of the contest:

   Draft 

   You can make changes to any of the configuration steps, or archive the contest.

   Scheduled

   You can make changes to any of the configuration steps, and can deactivate the contest by clicking Unschedule in any of the configuration steps. Clicking Unschedule reverts the contest to status Draft.

   Active or Started 

   • You can extend the end date (but not shorten it)
   • You can add new activities
   • You cannot remove activities that partners have completed

   Ended or Archived

   There are no edit options.

5. Changes are auto-saved as you move through the configuration steps.

Add T&Cs

You can include Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) with a contest, so that the partner taking part in the contest has them to hand as a reference. This is optional.

The terms you provide are displayed to a partner if they click Terms & Conditions in a contest's details page.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. It should be of status Draft or Scheduled.
4. Click on Step 1 - Details in the configuration timeline.
5. In Terms and Conditions, add the text content you want to use. 

Set the type of enrollment

Partners must enroll in a contest to take part in it. This can either be on an individual opt-in basis, or you can specify that all partners are automatically enrolled when the contest becomes active.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. It should be of status Draft or Scheduled.
4. Click on Step 1 - Details in the configuration timeline.
5. Choose one of the enrollment types: Require Opt-In (default) or Auto-Enroll.

Define eligibility

As a default a contest is available to all partners. you can restrict it to certain partners by assigning it to defined partner groups.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. It should be of status Draft or Scheduled.
4. Click on Step 2 - Eligibility in the configuration timeline.
5. Choose the partner group or groups to which to provide the contest. Alternatively, click Advanced to create a one-off partner group for use in the context only. For more information, see Using Ad-Hoc / Single-Use Partner Groups. 

Add activities to a contest

Activities are added to contest under Step 3 of the contest configuration.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. You can add activities to any contests, as long as they're not Ended or Archived.
4. Click on Step 3 - Activities in the configuration timeline.
5. Choose the activities in Activity Library that you want to add to the contest, and click Add or drag and drop to add to Selected Activities.
6. Use drag and drop or the    arrows to arrange the activities into the correct order.

Set the available points

When you've added activities to a contest, you can specify how many points each one should be worth in the context of that contest.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit.
4. Click on Step 4 - Points in the configuration timeline.
5. In Customize Activity Points, confirm the number of points for each activity, when completed as part of this contest. You can also leave the default points value, if required.
6. [Optional} In Minimum Points Threshold, specify the minimum number of points required for a user to appear on the contest's leaderboard and start working towards rewards.

Set up a leaderboard

Give your contests a leaderboard, so partners can view their engagement and how they're shaping up in your channel program.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. It should be of status Draft or Scheduled.
4. Click on Step 5 - Leaderboard in the configuration timeline.
5. In Leaderboard Segmentation, decide if you want one leaderboard, or multiple ones, for this contest. If you're going to be running multiple boards, you can separate participants into each one based on a partner data field such as Partner Tier or Country.
6. In Display Settings, define what information will be shown in the board:
   • Show top xx partners on leaderboard (default is 50)
   • Always show partner's own rank even if outside top xx (optional)- the partner is always included in the leaderboard, regardless of their current rank
   • Display point totals publicly (optional)- participants are ranked in order without their points total shown
   • Show partner names on the leaderboard (optional, off as a default) - participants' names are included with their ranking. If the rankings are set to be anonymous, the partner's own name is given with their ranking, with an easily identifiable YOU label.

7. In Tiered Rankings, decide whether to use tiers to further segment partners in the leaderboard or boards. 

   Enable the Enable tiered rankings option then set up the tiers and the positions at which users will be moved into them:

   • Tier Name 
   • From Rank - the highest ranking in the tier, e.g. 1
   • To Rank - the lowest ranking in the tier, e.g. 10

   3 tiers are presented as a default - use the Add Tier option to include more.

   Click to remove a tier.

   Click Reset Defaults to revert to the suggested configuration - Gold (1-10), Silver (11-50), Bronze (51+).

Give rewards

You can present up to 3 rewards for the most successful participants in a contest (1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions).

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to update, and click on it to open it for edit. It should be of status Draft or Scheduled.
4. Click on Step 6 - Rewards in the configuration timeline.
5. Use Add Reward to add up to 3 rewards.
6. Give a definition for each reward - type (Gift Card, Digital Badge, or Physical Merchandise), value, and description.

End and archive a contest

A contest can be at one of two final statuses: Ended and Archived.

A contest moves to status Ended when it's reached its configured End Date.

If a contest has ended and you want to archive it in your records, click on the contest to open it then click Archive.

You can't archive an active or scheduled contest.

Copy a contest

If you’re creating multiple contests, each with similar basic details, you can copy contest to form the basis of another.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Gamification.
2. Go to the Contests tab in the left sidebar.
3. Find the contest you want to copy, and click on it to open it for edit.
4. Click Copy. A new contest is created and opened for edit, with the title <original contest name - Copy. You can edit any of the details of the new contest, as applicable.

Making contests available to partners

To allow your partners to sign up for contests, add the Gamification feature page to the required site view. For more information, see Adding Feature Pages to the Partner Portal.

The page includes an Available Contests area, which shows any active contests that the partner is eligible for, with the option to join.

Any contests that the user is participating in, either by opt-in or auto-enrollment, are shown in the My Active Contests area. The user can see their current rank and points total, and click View Details to get the current leaderboard (with their rank highlighted) and access the activities.