Vi Föräldrar's Cover Contest a Success Again

In April 2010, the Swedish Bonnier Tidskrifter magazine Vi Föräldrar (We parents) launched its first cover contest, inspired by Bonnier Corporation's Babytalk. Readers compete to have their child grace the cover of the magazine and win prizes.

The contest was a success: 7,000 photos were uploaded, traffic to viföräldrar.se increased 128 percent during the first part of the contest, and over 180,000 votes were tallied. Now the second contest is in full swing. 

"The cover contest has been great for the website," says Irini Hedin Despiniadis, project manager at Bonnier Tidskrifter Digital Media. "Visitors like it and last year it could be seen on countless Facebook pages and family blogs."

The voting is in two stages. First, the 20 children who get the most votes go to the semifinal, where five then are voted into the final. The finalists and there parents travel to Stockholm for a fashion shoot for the magazine and on Aug. 2 the winner appears on the cover.

Hedin Despiniadis says that the cover contest has also meant a lot for the Vi Föräldrar brand. "Parents are proud of their children and want to show them off, especially in such a good, genuine parent magazine like Vi Föräldrar," she says. "And the increase in site traffic from the contest is obviously an important part of strengthening the viforäldrar.se brand. Since the costs are low because the contest is on the web, it provides a good profit in a short period, with plenty of sponsor revenues. Which even have a long-term effect of catching the attention of even more advertisers on account of the traffic numbers."