Optimarketer: The Marketing Optimization Blog

LogoTournament.com is a Win/Lose Proposition

 

LogoTournament.com makes an almost irresistible offer to logo buyers while handing American graphic designers a pay scheme that could easily fall well below minimum wage.

For as little as $250, a LogoTournament.com customer launches a logo "contest" that may generate hundreds of entries (including some decent ones) from graphic designers worldwide. LogoTournament.com takes a 15% cut of the prize money.

Let's do some quick math using the top-ranked designer, an Indonesian gentleman who calls himself "Wolv." Wolv has submitted 322 entries and had his logo picked seven times. This means Wolv has averaged one win for every 46 entries. If he earned an average of $400 per victory, he received $8.70 per entry.

The designer in the 10th spot hasn't fared nearly as well. "Ideazden" from India sent in 178 entries but took home "gold" just twice. At $400 per win, that's a mere $4.49 per entry.

Just five of the 25 top-ranked designers are based in the USA, which makes sense. At a pay scale of well under $5 per submitted logo for the vast majority of entrants, this is one tournament most American designers should avoid.

Do you consider LogoTournament.com a good thing?

To Hell With, "Oh, That's Nice"

Recently I went through the online portfolio of an extremely experienced graphic designer -- a guy who's been at the game for years and years.

Naturally, he displayed his best stuff. But nothing had that extra special quality that makes me go "Whoa!"

I pictured the typical reaction among direct marketing managers: "Oh, that's nice."

Maybe someone should write a book on the state of our industry and borrow from a Dickens title. Call it Not-So-Great Expectations.

Anyone have any idea why mediocrity is so widely accepted and even preferred?