Absolutely! Squadhelp now has an internal team of branding experts who will work closely with the CH to help manage their contest. The shortlist is purely based on the relevance of the name to the overall fit into the brief. It is not in any way based on creatives ratings, stats, or ranking.
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Our Managing Service is offered to help CHs launch and effectively manage their contest. These contests are no different than any other contest, all creatives will be eligible to enter. This service is offered as a beta and we will mention in the contest comments if the contest is managed by the SH team. These contests will be managed by the SH Teamâs in house branding experts.
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Thank you, I appreciate the quick reply
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@RachelSH and the team: This is all fantastic news. I am so thrilled that SH has added the (beta) Managed option! What a great new service. I hope it is very successful! Thank you for such FAST answers to my suggestions as well. I appreciate that!
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Could you add a managed tab to the active contest page!
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@RachelSH is there any chance of the new branding team having involvement in picking winners for abandoned contests?
I already know the answer but had to ask anyway 
@Chasity2ku The SH branding team will not be involved in the selection of winners in abandoned contests. In case a winner is not selected by the contest holder, the award is paid out as per our Winner Selection process (http://help.squadhelp.com/article/what-happens-if-a-contest-holder-does-not-select-a-winner/).
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The only thing I see that would be a problem or keep me from entering those contestsâŠis that names are subjective.That was kind of the problem with SH choosing winners in abandoned contests. They still are people and have their own tastes,which could potentially exclude certain creatives naming styles.
Already it can be where I feel as a creative I am entering totally appropriate and good names fitting the brief in certain contestsâŠthat still get rejectedâŠas peopleâs taste in names vary,and what is a great name to you, may not be processed the same way by the others.You bring in another set of people who are subjective again about what names âfit the briefâ then it might make it even harderâŠespecially as far as people who submit more creative names and not so âvanillaâ type names. And we all know from what names sometimes winâŠthat often they have very little or nothing to do with the brief.
So I am totally on the fence about this being done, as I donât want to add another element that might make things even harder. Too many cooks and allâŠyou know.
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By the wayâŠI keep suggesting a few things I think would make things easier and improve the siteâŠand they donât get addressed which is kinda frustratingâŠi.e not having a high rated name disappear from you entries list should it later get demotedâŠhaving the time clock count down on the actual contest page etcâŠ
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@hollygirl You should not be worrying about this. You are a great namer and great names will rise to the top with a professional branding person helping, I believe this new service benefits all of us for a number of reasons. It will bring more customers who would be apt to use those âvotingâ naming sites where the names really arenât that great and those other companies that are selling a hybrid service that they say is crowdsourcing but CHs only get 5-10 names. SHâs new service crosses over all those platforms. I also believe that the quality of chosen names will improve and this is beneficial to contestants when CHs are evaluating which platform produces names they can love Mostly, I want to tell you Holly that you have nothing to worry about because you are a great namer. I have to say on my end that if one of my names was chosen in a contest with a branding expert who helped, I would be even more thrilled at a win! That would be quite gratifying to me. A lot of people love doing this and are really great at it. Some people are really great at it and their names donât rise to the top as often as they should. I donât know if I am one of those namers but that is what I hope to do. SH has the best platform by far for both CH and Contestants as far as I am concerned. I prefer to put more time into SH over the others. I trust the branding expert way more than I trust the âvotingâ system sites. Plus, we can all learn from them!
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SH, I have two more suggestions for site improvement that I think would be beneficial as indicated below.
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Multiple domain submissions for one name - There are times when we have to make decisions about the domain to submit with a name and our choices may impact the decision by the CH to choose the name. For example, on those contests that have the âNameâ (which is really what CHs are buying) plus domain, it would be great to be able to submit several domain choices. We submit âXYZâ name which is the actual name and then domains like this XYZFinancial.com, XYZ.io, XYZAdvisors or XYZs,com. If we could do this it would reduce the number of submissions that CH has to go through and they may look at the names differently.
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Ability to submit PARKED domains and have them marked at parked. I know we have talked about this before in a different context. But if the CH understands up front that parked domains are another market and they can get a perfect domain for $1000 or something, I really wish we could submit them. I know there is concern about contestants subbing their own parked domains but you are already allowing us to do that. If the entries could be marked âParked by contestantâ or âParked by outside entityâ then we could hit a little box telling the CH that.
Thanks!
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@Commulinks Youâre completely in my head. I have been wondering about the aspects and ability of these two ideas on and off for a couple months now, but you definitely put it into better words and I was a bit worried to suggest as well because I thought there may be some bigger reason that I hadnât come across yet as to why these aspects are not allowed. Which there probably still is, but this is something I have definitely wondered, not in exact terms but basically and I am sure others have wondered this or even thought about this as well.
The only reason I am even commenting to this, though, is because I just had an issue last night for a particular contest. I came up with the most perfect name that really fits in so many ways, but it was taken. Parked. Available for $1200. Do you know that I actually was wanting to slam my head into my desk at that point? If only I had that kind of money, I would have actually purchased this and then offered it out to the CH because itâs not being used otherwise and itâs a bit of a broad name otherwise so I canât honestly see anyone using this and/or thinking of it for awhile. I should be able to submit it as a proposal because I did find it and it just happens that one other person/company happened to see the variables of the words and nabbed it up. Itâs obscure though, at least to me, but while obscure it happens to not be for this particular châs wants, style, and tone. I think I should be able to submit it and they choose whether they would be interested in such because right now they donât even know of the ability and I canât tell them. But, if theyâre willing to pay for SH and Creative help like this, maybe theyâd be willing to pay for that domain too â they just cant search for a name like that if they donât know what to search for and what I brainstormed out to be fitting so it can be argued that no, there is a possibility they wouldnât find this on their own or know about it so may need someone to point that out to them. But as it is now, we canât do that. Bit frustrating as I feel Iâm useless at this point in being able to help the CH to the best of my abilities because my hands are tied on being able to do this.
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It seems you look at the group of experts as one mind and one point of perspective, when itâs actually quite opposite, imo. The great thing about SH choosing is itâs an overall consensus of a diversified group that determines if itâs fitting or not.
Within that group are varied tastes and perspectives all coming together for a common goal, which is much more deserving than getting in a good name before the contest goes stale.
This new option could keep contests alive that would otherwise be subject to a somewhat random pick.
I like the new rules but still find the abandoned contest process to be a bit of a crÄp shoot.
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Oh and multiple domains has been suggested beforeâŠnot sure why theyâve not implemented it. Itâs a huge benefit to the CH!!!
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LOL @rareworthy - it JUST happened to me, too on one I was really âmarriedâ to (you know how you get stuck on an idea sometime?). Of course this has now happened to me thousands of times but sometimes it really is one of those names that is just so perfect.
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Will we be introduced to the internal team of branding experts ???
We donât know that,though.We have no idea who this panel is, how many,or what credentials they have.So you have no way of knowing if itâs a diversified group or not.While some CHâs could certainly use a little guidanceâŠultimately they only know what they like and donât like.
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I donât need to know anything about themâŠeven if they tried to select a group with similar interests, likes, backgrounds, etc. (which they wouldnât) itâd still be highly unlikely they always agree on entries in the way you presented it.
You take a group of people and youâre gonna have diversified opinions, period! I donât need their background or anything else to convince me of that. No two people are alike, and certainly not a group of people!
Question, if they are Branding experts, why use us? Shouldnât they be able to brand without us?
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Iâve mentioned this before but Iâll mention it again, I would like to see a download option for the brief. That way, we can have the brief in our hands instead of having to âclick for briefâ only to have it pop up, and disappear once you clickâŠIt seems an easier way for those of us who have ADD/ADHDâŠor anyone else who would like simplicityâŠ
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