As a Contest Holder you have certain responsibilities. Please read through the Contest Holder Guidelines below:
Never Violate Intellectual Property Rights
Every entry submitted to your contest belongs to the Creative who originally created it, until that entry is selected as the winner of your contest or a bonus is sent (see details below).
You automatically own the entry that you select as the winner of your contest.
If you intend to use other entries from your contest, you must compensate the Creative who submitted each entry.
In case of naming contests, if you want to register additional domain names from your contest (or use the name or domain in any other way), you can do so as long as you pay a minimum $100 bonus to the contestants who came up with the names.
For example, if you register 2 additional domain names (in addition to the winning entry) from a contest, you must pay the minimum bonus to each creative for the additional names/domains that you are using.
Minimum Bonus Policy For Receiving IP Rights for Non-Winning Submissions
Naming Contest - $100
Tagline Contest - $100
Logo and all other design contests - $100
Important: If you register a domain, please send a bonus to the creative immediately in order to avoid any interruption in your contest. This bonus will be refunded back to you if you select the same name as the winner of your contest. If you pick a different winner, the bonus will be kept by the creative as compensation for their submission. Failure to send a bonus for registered domains will result in a temporary suspension of the contest until the Creative receives the bonus amount.
No objectionable content
Please do not post a contest that contains anything that may be considered obscene, pornographic, illegal, or offensive in any way.
Please do not run a contest if your company is based on a service or product that may be considered obscene, pornographic, illegal, or offensive.
Provide feedback for everyone
The majority of the contestants that submit entries to your contest (in fact, all but one) will not receive anything more for their work than the comments that you leave them for their submissions. Please let each and every creative know what you think about their entries and rate each one. This will also help the contestants adjust their submissions as they will get a better understanding of your taste and preferences. Learn more.
Be polite with the contestants
Creating a positive brainstorming environment is important to the success of your contest. Our Creative Community works very hard. Even if you think a submitted entry doesn’t meet your requirements, there is still a good chance that someone took quite a bit of time on it, so politely tell them why you don’t like it. There is never any reason to be rude.
Not picking a winner is not cool
If you are running a Guaranteed Contests, Atom is required by our Terms of Service to award the winning amount. It's always best if you choose the winner yourself. (If you do not intend to use any of the entries submitted to your contest, we can even split the award amount between a few of the Creatives who you feel contributed the most to the brainstorming process).
In cases of non-guaranteed contests, even though you technically don’t have to pick a winner for your contest if none of the entries meet your expectations, we strongly recommend that you do. By selecting a winner and awarding the prize for your contest, you are showing your appreciation for all of the hard work that has been done for you.
If a Contest Holder of a guaranteed or non-guaranteed contest does not select a winner within 30 days of the contest end date, Atom will automatically award the prize amount, as per our winner selection policy.
Consider guaranteeing your contest prize
When you guarantee the prize for your contest, you are committing to select a winner with no option for a refund, which means we can tell the contestants that there is a guaranteed prize for the contest, and that a winner will definitely be selected. This can lead to a substantial increase in the number of entries submitted to your contest and the quality of the entries.
Do your research
Atom acts as a platform in your contest/project and we make no claims whatsoever as to the originality of any of the entries that are submitted. You should do a fair amount of research and consult with a trademark attorney before using any creative material in trade or business. This applies to any creative agency and not just the creatives here at Atom.
Be as detailed as possible
Providing as much information as you can about what you are looking for is always best. When you fill out the Contest Brief be sure to provide as much information as possible about what you are looking for. When providing feedback to the designers be as specific as possible about what you like and don’t like.