Linandko's videos, contest idea

[saratoga]

EDIT: Thank you to all that helped shape this contest! Here is the first video, just explaining everything. I'll keep my original post below me, in case anyone is interested what it was like when we first started out.
VIDEO ONE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0SF9z9v79c


Hello everyone! As you may or may not know, I am Lindsey, or "Lin" of Linandko. I make movies with my boyfriend Kohei and we post them on youtube, the main ones now being: Animal Crossing New Leaf, Fantasy Life and just random videos for our Vblog.

Our ACNL videos got crazy attention that we never ever anticipated, and it has been sooo much fun. I love being able to answer questions and help people out, all while playing a game that is genuinely fun

Kohei and I have been talking and we want to do some sort of contest involving ACNL for when it is released in the US/EU etc. Since we are poor college students we are unable to do extravagant contests like buying people 3DS XLs etc, but we figured that doing something cool in game would be fun.

The idea, for now:

We would make a video right after the dates are announced for the US and EU release dates. We are thinking this will be somewhat soon, maybe in Feb, possibly March (just a hunch) so we still have a lot of time until this happens. In this video we would announce the contest and tell people what it would consist of, what we are thinking now is this:

• 2 US winners (US/Canada) and 2 EU winners (EU+rest of world) making for four winners total.
• Each winner would get 250,000 bells, as well as a marine (diving) suit
• They would also get to come to our town, and choose from some items in our "fortune cookie/rare item room" this includes stuff from the fortune cookies, 7-11 items, gold items, mermaid series, etc. All stuff that is a bit difficult to attain. Maybe they would get an item or two. We also are playing around with the idea of them being able to order like 5 things from our catalog, but we have no idea how attractive a prospect that'd be (we have a ton of items each, so it wouldn't be skimpy).
• Each winner would get a video featuring us in their town, or vice versa (we'd work it out with them). It'd be just another video in our video series, and could be a lot of fun depending on what they want to do (island games, etc. are all possible).
• A basket (nine fruit) of your choice.

Obviously still a work in progress, but we came up with more or less this^ when we talked about it yesterday. I also suggested giving the winners all silver tools but Kohei wondered if people would even want that. If anyone has ideas/suggestions we would love to hear them!!

So anyway, the announcement video would set up the contest. We'd let them know that we would post another video, about a month before the game would be released. In that video, we'd request that everyone write [us] or [eu] in a comment, and it would act as an entry. More than one would mean disqualification, and their youtube account must be more than a month old (to prevent people from making multiple ones to post entries), but aside from that, anyone that is planning to get the game is eligible. We would close the entries maybe a few days before the game was to be released. We'd then make a final video where we show us printing out the comments, checking to make sure nobody "cheated" (did it multiple times, etc) and then show us going to a random number generator website to pick the winner! After the four winners were chosen we would get in contact with them, and get their FCs and all of that.

So...this is what we have so far. I would love input for the prizes as well as what you guys think about the best way to go about this on youtube [is our current idea of having three videos good, or need work?: (1) announcement of contest, (2) actual contest entry video, and (3) showing the winners "live" (in a way) to show how we did it 100% randomly and fairly].

Thank you in advance for any ideas or suggestions you may come up with. I genuinely want to make a fun contest, and I figured a place where everyone loves this game as much as we do would be the best place to ask

 

[Sora]

Oh my gosh! I love your videos! I think the entire video sounds great! But the best option, as for featuring the winners, may be to just have a video with them in your town. I would think you coming to our towns would be fun and all, but depending if you meet with them close to the release or far after the release may affect it. If it was close, unless they time travel, the town would be a bit empty and the experience might not be as entertaining. While as going to your town and just having a video there while playing games, ect. may be more fun for them and the viewers. Thats just my thought so feel free to discard it! Once again I love your videos!

 

[saratoga]

Oh my gosh! I love your videos! I think the entire video sounds great! But the best option, as for featuring the winners, may be to just have a video with them in your town. I would think you coming to our towns would be fun and all, but depending if you meet with them close to the release or far after the release may affect it. If it was close, unless they time travel, the town would be a bit empty and the experience might not be as entertaining. While as going to your town and just having a video there while playing games, ect. may be more fun for them and the viewers. Thats just my thought so feel free to discard it! Once again I love your videos!

That is a good point about us going to their towns...if the game had just come out there not might be a whole lot to see. We will definitely have to invite the for the part if they were to choose some rareish items and for the island though, so that is a good point. Thank you so much for your input

 

[Jennifer]

I think this sounds really nice and awesome

I don't really have any advice (Other than that maybe picking a random number can be a bit off due to how Youtube places comments sometimes @-@) since I can't think of any good ideas but I do think it's really nice of you guys to do :3

And yeah, while some people may want you guys to see their town (Maybe they've already set up paths And got some cool items for their home), it probably still won't be TOO much early. Though, if they have the island, playing Minigames on their island may be cool.

Only other thought is you may want to make like...a video of your catalogs shortly before the contest ends so it'd be easier for people to just pick what they'd like and no worries over if you have it or not (And possibly a bell limit as well-- don't think you'd want someone asking for like...the 5 most expensive items XD)

Edit: I wrote these and then accidentally forgot to save >>
On Silver Tools: I personally would like them, actually. Maybe it's just me, but I think the Silver tools are pretty cool and while getting gold for some isn't too bad (Like the Shovel), it could take a bit. Not to mention Silver Axes have the highest chance for designs!

On Fruit: I would say, if possible, maybe give the person an option to pick 9 different fruits or a basket of 9 of the same fruit or maybe like... 5 of one fruit and 4 in another fruit. Just to give someone more options if they'd really like it :3 (And as Jake mentioned below, of course figure out if you'd want to include Delicious fruit or not in that)

 

[Jake]

This is actually a really great idea.

This is my 2 cents on this idea;

1) the three video thing I think is really good. I like the three steps or w/e showing the progress, and the third one is a good idea to show it's not rigged.
2) "I also suggested giving the winners all silver tools but Kohei wondered if people would even want that"
Personally, I wouldn't want silver tools because I'd much rather get them myself (maybe only I'd be happy with the silver axe from the contest). But I only speak for me not everyone so ya
3) what Sora said is a good idea. It's true we'd have like nothing in out towns and it'd probably be more fun/entertaining if they went to your town/s instead
4) Might be a little hard for you to obtain (since you only have apples and oranges) but maybe the 9 basket thing could include delicious fruit? But I still really like the normal fruit idea.

I don't know your ideas sound really nice though. I'll come back if I think of anything else.

 

[Kookydoll]

I love your guy's videos! I think this contest is a great idea! I think all of your ideas are really good, the only thing I would say is that when the winners come to your town(s), it might be a lot more difficult to communicate which items they want, which fruit they want, and so on, because you won't be in close contact with them and can't directly talk to one another, you would have to type everything out with the chat function. Maybe set up some kinda skype call with one another, if you're comfortable with that, for better communication? I don't know if I explained this clearly or not...

 

[K.K. Guitar]

I wanna participate! sounds like fun!

 

[saratoga]

I love your guy's videos! I think this contest is a great idea! I think all of your ideas are really good, the only thing I would say is that when the winners come to your town(s), it might be a lot more difficult to communicate which items they want, which fruit they want, and so on, because you won't be in close contact with them and can't directly talk to one another, you would have to type everything out with the chat function. Maybe set up some kinda skype call with one another, if you're comfortable with that, for better communication? I don't know if I explained this clearly or not...

Because there would be a week or so plus window inbetween announcing the winners and having them come over, we would get in touch with them over youtube and e-mail and communicate all of that ahead of time, so I wouldn't think that this would be a problem. Thanks for your input

 

[Superpenguin]

I suggest you make it required to have an account a bit more than a month old now that you have told people about it, and the release date announcement could still be more than a month away.

 

[Viriel]

That's a wonderful idea, and it's also very kind of you to add EU players like me to the contest.
I'll definitely be part of it

 

[Chameleonsoup]

That's so generous of you! What a lovely idea

 

[mattmagician]

Sounds awesome You guys know I'm here to help if you need anything!

 

[Haihappen]

I wanna participate! sounds like fun!

me too, me too! :]
I really love your videos! Didn't know that you were in this forum, that's pretty cool *youtube celebrity*

 

[saratoga]

I suggest you make it required to have an account a bit more than a month old now that you have told people about it, and the release date announcement could still be more than a month away.

That is a really good point. Maybe something like "account older than 1/10/13" although that is oddly specific haha.

That's a wonderful idea, and it's also very kind of you to add EU players like me to the contest.
I'll definitely be part of it

We get messages all the time that is like "we love you, from france!" and "greetings from Chile, you guys are awesome!" So I really wanted to include non-US players as well. We get so much love from them it wouldn't make sense not to

me too, me too! :]
I really love your videos! Didn't know that you were in this forum, that's pretty cool *youtube celebrity*

Wow thanks! But we aren't there yet...maybe someday haha Thank you for the kind words too!

Sounds awesome You guys know I'm here to help if you need anything!

Thanks! We still have a few months to get the bells and everything ready, but I'll let you know for sure if I need a hand.

 

[Kaijudomage]

Sounds like a plan, to be honest I'm a little saddened by the fact that only 4 people will win.

If I don't win, I can still visit in my dreams.....

 

[Pokeking]

This sounds like a great idea. Would the town visit be through the Dream Mansion?

I love the Animal Crossing videos you and Kohei put on YouTube. I also liked the one that's the visit of a Japanese game shop.

 

[Jennifer]

Since I realized I forgot to mention it...I think some people would enjoy being able to get stuff from the catalog. I'm sure shoes and socks may be popular for some considering you can't open it for a while. Or maybe some furniture sets they may not be able to get for quite a while (I remember hearing a lot of the holiday furniture can be bought as an example).

I know I've already planned out my future outfit so the sooner I get an appropriate haircut, the socks, shoes, and AR reader, I will be good I still need to decide on the hat/hair accessory though...

With Marine Suits--if they are orderable (Understandable if not XD As I remember hearing none of the island stuff is), it might be cool to let people pick what Marine suit they want.

Pokeking - I would guess it'd be an actual visit as they wouldn't be able to get their prizes through the Dream World

 

[SodaDog]

I didnt know you were linandko! your videos are nice, and way better than those junk people of today!

I would love to be in your contest and be featured in your video, if i can.

 

[Octavia]

I think this is a great idea. The possibility of winning a 7-11 item sold me on the spot. Definitely change the Youtube account date though. If you don't want to do a specific date, you can always say "before January of 2013".
You both picked out a nice variety of prizes, but as Jake mentioned: I, personally, wouldn't be interested in the silver items. I'd like to earn those on my own. Different strokes for different folks though.
Would there be the possibility of a couple/all four meeting together to play a game on the island? If it can be worked out to everyone's schedule, of course.
As for the visit, I think it's best to let the winner decide. Some may want to show off their progress, while others would want to go to your town.

 

[Yuki Nagato]

Nice idea, I'd be interested in entering.