Online Contest Lights Up Xmas Coverage

The Ipswich Evening Star recently used a range of interactive online tools in its successful Christmas community competition.

Readers were invited to upload photos of their festive lights to the newspaper’s website and users could then vote for their favourite via an online poll.

Holdthefrontpage.co.uk reports that enterprising journalists also integrated Google Maps into the feature so that visitors could locate the sites of the various domestic illuminations.

The event was the Evening Star’s first internet-only competition and more than 1,000 votes were cast by users.

Marketing spokesperson Sue Gipps said the success of the contest is likely to lead to further online-only ventures, such as a regular ‘bonniest baby’ feature.

“What we would be doing is web and in-paper together so that they complement each other,” added Gipps.