Photo contests are a great way to interact with your fan base, and Digital Brick makes it easy to collect photos and other useful data. However, how many ways can you actually run a photo contest? A lot, as it turns out. That’s part of the reason Digital Brick’s Photo Contest Campaign is the most well-known in the industry. It’s incredibly versatile, and you can do much more than create a run of the mill contest.

If you need some fresh ideas for promotions, you’re in luck. There are tons of great ways you can use our photo contest app that benefit you and your users. Here’s are 9 different ways you can rock your next photo contest.

1. Give Users the Chance to be Heard

Let your fans vote for their favorite photos. This is a pretty standard promotion, however, you can make it unique with a few quick customizations.

For example, maybe you’re not interested in collecting user’s photos, but you’d like them to vote on yours. You can ask for user input for selecting a new logo, your next flavor, or anything you can think of.

And we get that sometimes you don’t want to ask users for information in order to participate, especially if you only want users to vote. No problem – you can always turn off the entry form.

Want to try it? It’s easy. Enable the Gallery in the Edit tab, then go to the Customize>Content tab. Turn the Entry Page off, and set the Gallery as the default page.

2. Collect User-Generated Content

Why create content for your users when your users are happy to create it for you? If you’re prepared to offer a great prize, your fans are ready to respond with amazing creative content for your platform.

Whatever you do, make sure your prompt is interesting. Interesting asks beget interesting responses. And let’s face it, if you’re not interesting, you’re irrelevant.

3. Collect a Beautiful Wall of Words

Have an idea for a text-only promotion, but want to feature your users work publicly? No problem. Whether you’re collecting haikus or users best odes to #leftshark, you can display the words your fans spin around the promotion.

The app actually allows you to accept text-only entries, too. Just flip the switch to accept these in the Edit tab, and remove the file upload option under the Form Fields tab.

4. Run a Cross-Platform Hashtag Contest

Hashtags work because they are easy. And with Digital Brick, it’s incredibly easy to run a hashtag contest across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook – we set everything up for you!

5. Run a Caption Contest

The caption contest is a classic vehicle for bringing out the funniest material people have. It’s simple. You provide the photo; they provide the caption.

6. Host an Essay Competition

A photo might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes, you want to collect that thousand words, too. If you want a photo and an essay, you can do that by using the “textarea” form field, which is meant for accepting larger amounts of text.

7. Have a Birthday Celebration

Big day coming up for your brand? Celebrate, and invite users to, too! Invite people to your business’ location to snap a selfie to redeem a deal.

8. Do Some Good

The prize for a promotion doesn’t always have to be for a single user. Support the causes your company cares about by running a contest where you give a donation to the most-voted for charity. Better yet, let users submit the charities they care about most, then open up voting after you choose the top choices that align with your company.

9. Make Your Fans Look Cool

Most brands are spending way too much time and energy trying to make themselves look cool. Instead, try making your users look cool as a result of interacting with your brand. Ask them to post their best photo with a celeb and add a caption.