I’m suffering from a bit of voting fatigue.
A Clandestine Meeting, Brooklyn, NY
Yes, I currently have a Pepsi Refresh Project and three SXSW panel proposals up for voting. And I’ll probably write blog posts about them soon. But I’m torn.
Wait, don’t get me wrong; I love supporting friends’ projects. Send them over, I’ll take a look, and vote, donate and help promote if it’s meaningful, valuable, and can change lives (yours, mine, everyone).
I like the players. But I dislike the game.
I understand why we (online digital strategists) create these contests. We tap into the naked human desire to win contests and their rewards, provide people a way to market and promote their own cause / reason / project, and help them directly promote themselves, driving traffic, attention and money indirectly to us, the creators of these contests. Inexpensive marketing, tapping into other people’s time, passion and self-interest, to support our underlying business goals.
That’s not underhanded or duplicitous, it’s just how it is. Tapping into people’s self-interests to drive your own self-interest is simply smart business, marketing and product strategy.
That’s the game.
And it always has been. The difference, and this is where we’re feeling the pressure, is driven by the fact that everyone has the potential for a larger voice on a larger platform than ever before. More content, information and voices? We need more context, more filters, more curators. More contests, more clamour for votes and money? We need better ways for us to signal what we care about and track the impact my votes and money had. More context, more filters, more curators.
As Sloane has told me before, contests can be tricky strategies for fundraisers to pursue, because votes don’t mean money. And when the votes don’t add up to money (meaning, you don’t win), you have to go back to your supporters for money. But in your supporter’s mind, they’ve already helped you. In their mind, they’ve already given you something. And they have, even thought you many not have received the benefit. That’s the problem.
Not all contests and fundraising platforms are equal, mind you. Mechanics matter. Kickstarter, for example, is as much of a market-testing and fan management platform as a project fundraising tool. Each platform and contest embeds its own game, a bounded set of social interactions that promote and incent gestures, behaviors and actions.
That’s why game theory matters here. All contests are games, a set of interactions, incentives, moves, risks and rewards. Yes, it know most of these contests come from a place of good. The intent is good. But the game simply creates too many opportunities for the execution to fail, to misplace the rules, incentives and rewards for everyone involved. And we’re left with a bad taste in our mouths, a lingering dissatisfaction in our heads, and a hole in our hearts.
Thus, as Mike would say, we need to change the game.
But I’m first to admit I don’t have the answer. Simply ending all contests isn’t the answer. At first, I didn’t want to just say “this sucks”, without proposing a solution. But perhaps, by raising the issue, we can start to problem-solve this one out. I’ll certainly be paying attention.
