OFFICIAL RULES AND REGULATIONS. NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.
Sponsored By: NextStudent Inc., 19601 North Black Canyon Highway, Phoenix, AZ, 85027 (sometimes referred to herein as “NextStudent”).
Entry Period: Entries for the NextStudent “Website Design Contest” (the “Contest”) will be accepted between February 27, 2008, at 12:00 a.m. MST, and March 13, 2008, at 11:59 p.m. MST.
Eligibility: The Contest is open to the public, but Contest entrants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States in order to be eligible for the Grand Prize. Employees of NextStudent and family members of NextStudent employees are eligible to enter the Contest; however, employees of NextStudent are not eligible to receive any prizes associated with the Contest. All applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply.
How to Enter: To enter, please review the Rules & Regulations in their entirety, along with all design specs and details. Then submit your design(s) for the NextStudent.com homepage to nextstudentdesigncontest@nextstudent.com between February 27, 2008, 12:00 a.m. MST, and March 13, 2008, 11:59 p.m. MST. Design entries must be submitted in a JPEG format. You may submit an unlimited number of designs for consideration.
How to Vote: Each entry will have its own unique URL on the Contest website. All eligible design submissions will be listed on the right-hand side of the Contest website under “Contest Entries.” Visitors can vote on the designs they like best by clicking the star rating button on any design’s unique webpage. Site visitors, Contest entrants, and entrants’ friends and family are encouraged to visit the Contest website regularly, view each one of the design entries, and vote for their favorites. Please note that spam voting is prohibited. Any design that advances in the competition due to spam voting may be disqualified at any point.
Design Specs: Design entries must adhere to the following specifications in order to be eligible for consideration:
- Fixed width: minimum width of 770 pixels, max width of 970 pixels.
- 3 columns
- Tabbed navigation
Please note that the NextStudent logo must remain the same.
Feel free to use the wire frame below as a guide for your design. Please note that the wire frame is just a suggested template, and design entries will not be penalized for not adhering to the provided wire frame (although all entries must adhere to the design specs listed above in order to be considered eligible).
Contest Details: The Contest will be judged in three rounds.
- Round One: The five designs that receive the most votes in a popular vote conducted via the NextStudent Contest website will be eligible for Round Two. Voting in Round One will be open to the public between February 27, 2008, 12:00 a.m. MST, and March 14, 2008, 11:59 p.m. MST.
- Round Two: The Contest entrants with the top five designs from Round One (as determined by a popular vote, as described in “Round One”) will be asked to submit their design to nextstudentdesigncontest@nextstudent.com in an EPS, PSD, or PNG format within 72 hours of the close of voting in Round One. Font names and image sources and IDs will be required with design entries submitted in Round Two. Designs not received within 72 hours of the close of voting in Round One will be disqualified. NextStudent will add test links to all eligible designs received in Round Two, which will then be submitted for multivariate testing via Google’s Website Optimizer. Testing will begin March 19, 2008, 12:00 a.m. MST, and end March 28, 2008, 11:59 p.m. MST. The three designs in Round Two that convert the most visitors (i.e., that have the greatest number of recorded clickthroughs on the test links) within this testing period will be eligible for Round Three.
- Round Three: NextStudent’s CEO, along with employees in NextStudent’s Web Marketing and Art departments, will select the winning design, taking into account the popular vote, number of visitor conversions, and NextStudent’s preference.
One winning design will be chosen by April 1, 2008, 11:59 p.m. MST, to receive the “Grand Prize” as described below.
Grand Prize: One design will be selected by NextStudent’s CEO, along with employees in the NextStudent Web Marketing and Art departments, to receive the Grand Prize. The selection of the winning design will take into account the results of the popular vote conducted via the Contest website in Round 1, the number of visitor conversions measured by Google’s Website Optimizer in Round 2, and NextStudent’s preference. The Contest entrant who submitted the winning design will receive $2,000 (USD) and a featured article on the NextStudent homepage (www.nextstudent.com) with a possible link to his or her company or personal website, at NextStudent’s discretion.
Prizes may not be substituted except by NextStudent, who reserves the right to award a substitute prize of equal or greater value. All federal, state, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winner. NextStudent will file 1099 tax statements with the IRS for the winner of any prize. Non-cash prizes will be awarded “as is,” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied, by NextStudent. Non-cash prizes cannot be transferred, substituted, or redeemed for cash, except by NextStudent at its sole discretion. The name of the prize winner can be obtained from NextStudent, between April 1, 2008, and December 31, 2008, by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to NextStudent Inc., c/o Web Marketing Dept., 19601 North Black Canyon Highway, Phoenix, AZ, 85027, U.S.A.
Claiming a Prize: The Contest winner will be notified via e-mail within 10 days following the end of the Contest (April 1, 2008), at the e-mail address provided with the winner’s Contest entry. All prizes must be claimed within 15 days. To claim the Contest prize, the winner must respond to NextStudent’s prize notification e-mail and complete the Affidavit and General Release and W-9 form included with such e-mail. All unclaimed prizes will be forfeited.
General Conditions: By participating in the Contest, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules & Regulations and by the decisions of NextStudent Inc., which will be final and binding on all matters pertaining to this Contest. Contest entrants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States in order to be eligible for the Grand Prize. Except where prohibited by law, by entering the Contest, each entrant agrees that NextStudent and its designees may use his or her name, likeness, city, and state for advertising, promotional, and other purposes in any media now or hereafter known throughout the world (including posting his or her Contest entry on NextStudent’s websites) without further compensation or notification. The winning design may be used in whole or in part in the final redesign of NextStudent.com. NextStudent reserves the right not to use any designs submitted to the Contest. NextStudent also reserves the right to use some or all features from any design submitted to the Contest. ALL SUMITTED DESIGNS SHALL BECOME THE EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF NEXTSTUDENT. Submitted designs that are considered to be inappropriate will not be considered for entry on the Contest website. Neither NextStudent, nor its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, divisions, advertising, or promotion agencies, or the respective officers, directors, employees, or agents of the foregoing (collectively, the “Released Parties”) are responsible for (i) any injury, losses, or damages of any kind resulting from participation in this Contest or acceptance, possession, or use of any Contest prize; or (ii) any warranty, representation, or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any prize, including but not limited to its quality, mechanical condition, or fitness. If, for any reason, the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond NextStudent’s control, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest, NextStudent reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process, and to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest, and judge entries from among all eligible, nonsuspect entries received prior to such action. Released Parties assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. Released Parties are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, providers, computer equipment, software, or for failure of any e-mail or entry to be received by NextStudent on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in this Contest. CAUTION: Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, NextStudent reserves the right to seek damages from any such entrant to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Privacy: NextStudent will not sell or otherwise share personally identifying information with other people, parties, or nonaffiliated companies except to provide services to you at your request or as required by law.
NextStudent does not rent, share, or exchange the e-mail addresses of its Contest entrants or voting participants. E-mail addresses voluntarily given to NextStudent or collected from e-mail comments are never shared.
Contact: All entries, questions, or reports of technical issues with the NextStudent Contest website should be e-mailed to nextstudentdesigncontest@nextstudent.com.
