Contests are interesting because it actually is a way of providing some (very small) value back to participants in exchange for contact information/viewing an a

Contests are interesting because it actually is a way of providing some (very small) value back to participants in exchange for contact information/viewing an advertisement/whatever. Many companies would happily pay a nickel for an email address. Lots of people would probably be happy give out their email address for a nickel if it were 100% frictionless, but it just doesn't make sense to execute a transaction for that small of an amount. But give people a 1/10,000 chance at a $500 prize (actual value, $0.05), and you've eliminated the transaction overhead. It's actually rather win-win. Almost makes me wonder if there isn't a business model somewhere out there that cuts out the middle-man of "content" in an advertising scenario entirely. If an advertiser is willing to pay, say, $0.25 for an impression of an ad, would users watch it willingly in exchange for a shot at a contest prize with an effective value of $0.25? You'd have to find a way to eliminate "farmers" or people outside the targeted demographic, but you could probably do that using Facebook or some other way to target specific groups of people.