[CQ-Contest] Sweepstakes: The PBR of Contesting

[Ria Jairam]

You’re describing hipsters. The hipster culture is kind of weird... and I’m
a “Xennial” which is in between millennial and genX

73
Ria, N2RJ
On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 4:36 PM Matt Wilhelm (W1PY) <
westcoastbayou at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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