[CQ-Contest] Sweepstakes: The PBR of Contesting

[Matt Wilhelm (W1PY)]

You know I love my OF friends, but I always find it entertaining to sit
back and watch them act the same way they love to claim millennials
behave.  Sweepstakes is too hard, no instant gratification on Sunday, etc.
Cracks me up.

Why does there have to be a change in the rules to make Sweepstakes more
fun and popular? During my short tenure at HQ, one of my ideas that didn't
pick up traction was a significant rebranding of the contest.  Same rules,
but different marketing.  A lot of young adults (20-40 years old we'll say
in this context) seem to find "coolness" in things that are ironic and in
someways not as good or easy as other options. Here are a few examples that
I've seen popping up over the last decade or so...

Growing long beards
High and tight haircuts
Designing and building things that are difficult to make, but not very
useful just because they can.
Shaving with safety razors and straight razors
"Mom jeans"
Badmitton
Cat sweaters
Glasses from the 80's that were a prime target for bullying
Fixed gear bicycles
bicycle rodeos/rallies
Holga cameras
Jeans so tight you have to wear your keys on a carabiner attached to your
belt loop
Trained mustaches
Pabst Blue Ribbon
And on and on.

Sweepstakes is ripe to be the Pabst Blue Ribbon of contesting.  It's been
around forever, it's hard to drink, and you can always depend on it being
there. Let's ditch the clean sweep mugs and participation pins, slap on
some bay rum and rebrand. Let's get some wearables that aren't polo shirts
or embroidered deniem colored button ups. Instead of trying to increase
participation by making it easier, let's embrace that it's old and musty
and really damn hard for a newcomer and let's make that cool."I operate in
Sweepstakes because it's hard as hell!" Let's focus on how when you make
friends in this hobby, that during Sweepstakes, you might get an extra
dit-dit at the end of the exchange, the equivalent of a nod or raised glass
from the other end of the bar to say, "Hey I know you, I'm drinking this
crap and I see you are too, cheers!"

It's all about attitude and marketing. Spend a week talking about how bad
it sucks and you're going to get a crappy turnout.  And to be honest, if I
were new to this list and between the ages of 20-40 (missed it by THAT
much) I would run as fast as I could in the other direction! Pull up your
britches OFs, work on that positive attitude and push your Division
Director to make Sweepstakes cool and therefore fun again!

http://www.obsev.com/food/why-did-hipster-start-drinking-pbr.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/pbr-coolness-study_n_5399109.html

73,

Matt W1PY
ex W1MSW