How to win freelance contests or where diamonds come from in Bolivia

I think many people are worried about how to win freelance contests? I will try to give universal advice-and-rules-in-form-instructions-on-application :)

Preface. Bought paint a pack.

The client who placed the competition for freelancers is a self-confident subject. In 90% of cases, he is not able to choose a contractor (which is why he goes to tenders, in fact), more often than not he is able to even correctly formulate the task, plus he is experiencing a wild financial famine, and also very sincerely hopes that will get a miracle born from the artist a brilliant solution to his project, and cites as an example the Nike logo, drawn over $ 50 in the last century.

10% of clients go to contests consciously, cynically, all appreciating and understanding the hopelessness of the event. These are professional customers who are willing to pay a penny just to look at the mass of ideas proposed with a cold eye and perhaps choose something to refine. Overwhelmingly, the competition for them is just the beginning of the project: they collect a lot of decisions and then go to a specific performer who looks at all this shit a wonderful mess, draws conclusions and produces a high-quality product for the client for completely different money.
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The first rule is sober.
Know what you are going. Think about why a client came to make a contest with freelancers. Give it a sober assessment, and do not be an idiot expect a miracle miraculous from this undertaking.

Council one - idiotic.
Tell yourself: "Yes, I am an idiot, I decided to participate." Do not experience illusions. And only after that, with a calm soul, a clear mind and a clear conscience, cynically and calmly proceed to study the task of the victim.

Preparing to win. Given: red cow - one.

A client company needs to write a text, make a logo, create a slogan, create a website or produce a booklet layout. Not the essence of what is concrete. Suppose that there is a certain competition for some kind of creative development, and you decided to still participate in it to win.

Rule two - mental.
Create the right attitude to win. The competition is not an Olympiad, it needs to be won, and not to receive satisfaction from participation.

The second advice is reasonable.
Do not build any illusions, even if you are “well-really-very-cool-and-gut-finally-I-monster”. The mood should be simple - in the minimum amount of time to make the most winning decision of the competition.

Preparing to win. TZ, Brief and friend Cervantes.

In the overwhelming majority of the competitions, TK and Brief are incorrectly written, but to change them is the same as to break the mill to Don Quixote. It is better not to show off and not have a brain for the client, but just carefully read what you have been given. Why? Because a client who decided to hold a contest for $ 200-300 will not spend a lot of time explaining. The task, which he set, naturally seems to him crystal clear and precise. Do not enrage him: it is better to refuse to participate than to waste time on a war with an armored train.

Rule three - mill.
In the ass Don Quixote. Either participate in the competition with the information that is in the TK and Brief, or better not participate. There are many brains without you - it is better to use the client's answers to their questions.

The third advice is self-made.
Least of all, the client wants to make sure that he is a fool-all-not-so-in-TK-wrote. Even if he agrees to remake the Brief and your advice will be useful to him, then you will never be selected as the winner, because you had the audacity to be happy to point out to the client that he was stupid at the time of writing the Brief.

Preparing to win. Blood test and surgery.

Even in wacky tasks, usually 50% of the solution is already sewn up. No matter how crooked a person writes a task for a competition, he describes the task in the ways and words available to him. What does this give us? This gives us a portrait of the person who arranges the competition and some description of the desired result. It is clear that if the task is written in "bee mee mmm bl", then it is foolish to offer a project solution worthy of a lifetime to hang in the Louvre next to the Mona Lisa. The hardest thing for those who for some reason consider it cool is to write a task in the language of dead marketing: “A dynamically developing, young, promising company ... blah blah blah.” Familiar phrase? Nothing at all ... But for them there is a killer solution.

Rule Four - the enemy.
Enemy need to know in person. In our case, the enemy must be known in the text. In its text. Evaluate all the details of the text written in the contest and analyze them, play the deductive method.

The fourth advice is lazy-surgical.
Yes, in each task there is already a solution. Be lazy, do not invent anything for the client. Take the task, dissect it, cut it out of the body with the blunt spoon with a sharp scalpel of a mad creative surgeon, and that's it. All is ready.

Work on the option. Where do diamonds come from in Bolivia?

And only after going through the preparatory stages, in 10-12 minutes, you can begin working on an option. Above one option. Thoughtful and clearly directed to the right jaw of the client with acceleration a = mg2. Do not forget, you have already done 50% of the work. For God's sake, do not look for a black cat at night in Bolivia, especially if it is not there.

The fifth rule is cynical.
Do not express yourself. Well please, please, porfavor, etc. Play James Bond in the advertising and creative world and hit the target the first time, regardless of what your creative Ego wants. Just take and solve the problem. Having in mind is not that this work should save the world. And the fact that it must take the client. Just take the decision from Brief. The fact that after the scalpel in your hands left.

Tip Five - determine the target audience.
Who is the target audience of all the works ever sent to the competition? Women from 20 to 65 years old, middle-income and with an active lifestyle? I am begging you! Of course not. The only CA of the works submitted for the competition is the one who published this competition and the one who wrote these idiotic wonderful TK with Brief and Cervantes.

The penultimate step. Two of the casket.

Having in mind the portrait of the client described at the beginning, it is not difficult to conclude that the decision will be made only on a personal “like / dislike”. No arguments or marketing analyzes of a competitive client will convince, and it’s ridiculous to do them within the framework of standard budgets for such undertakings. Therefore - drive on marketing. Stomping your foot loudly, crush the cockroach inside you, which whispers your conscience: “Well, it should work like that on the market.” No, it should not. It must be accepted and paid. Those who are important marketing and project work in the market, do not go to competitions.

The sixth rule is schizophrenic.
When everything is ready, look at what was done through the eyes of the person for whom you have done all this. Try to put yourself in his place and understand, would you accept this work as the only true and best. Suffer a split personality. Be different for a minute. Cut and throw out half of your experience and a third of your education.

The sixth tip is critical.
The state of “bought-paint-pack”, into which you fall after the fulfillment of the sixth rule, is very dangerous. Do not forget to return from it to your usual cleverly intelligent. I knew talented guys who so selflessly looked at their work through the eyes of clients, that at one moment they forgot to come back. Put a cross on your hand.

We achieve. Shovel on temechku - earned on seeds.

Whatever you do, follow these rules, and no matter how shuddered they feel that our children can see it - feed it beautifully. Sometimes in contests, some weak jobs initially benefit from a beautiful presentation. Do not deny yourself this, spend 3 minutes on a delicious picture.

The seventh rule is karmic.
When producing something that is contrary to the rational, kind, eternal, be prepared that cat tears will be cast to you.

Council of the seventh - the only and sincere.
The only serious advice I will give at the end of this verbal diarrhea flow - never, HEAR, NEVER participate in contests for money. Treat them the way you want: as a sport, as a game, as anything, but never treat competitions, work or a way to earn money.