Fresh MILK Photo Contest

This morning I received an e-mail invitation to the Fresh MILK Photo Contest. It looks to be a somewhat prestigious contest. As with all contests, I studied the terms and associated prizes. At first I thought this might be the most fair contest terms I had ever read. Here is a summary of the contest terms and prizes.

• Photographers retain all rights in their photographs
• Winning photographers agree to a 10-year non-exclusive license
• Winning images will be used in a book and merchandise
• Photographers not chosen grant no license
• No fee incurred to enter the contest
• Sponsor pays 150 general winners $500 each
• Sponsor pays grand prize winner $50,000
• A pool will be created containing 10% of net proceeds from book and merchandise sales
• All 151 winners receive an equal share of the pool to be paid annually

I first thought “Wow! Prize money plus profit sharing. Finally a fair split for contest winners.” Then I started doing the math. A $500 license fee for 10-years of non-exclusive commercial use (book and merchandise sales) seems ridiculously low. Splitting 10% of the NET proceeds among all the 151 contest winners won’t amount to much either. That comes to .066% each (10% ÷ 151). That’s right - you get the enormous sum of a whopping 66 one-thousands of a percent of the NET proceeds, paid annually.

This doesn’t seem so fair after all. What do you think?

Author: Walter Rowe | Category: Business | August 2008