TEMPE, Ariz. — DraftBeast.com was recently selected as the grand prize winner of TrafficJunky’s inaugural season of “The Next Big Thing.”
TrafficJunky’s contest, which will award $25,000 in advertising to DraftBeast, included several rounds amongst hundreds of contestants, beginning in January and ending at The Phoenix Forum, where three finalists competed for the grand prize money.
The concept behind “The Next Big Thing” is simple, TrafficJunky execs said: “Submit your product or idea and we select the top 10 entries with the most potential, offering them each $1,000 of free advertising on our network to test their offer and demonstrate the ROI they can achieve on our adult traffic.”
“At the end of the test phase, it is down to the final three that are selected to pitch their ideas in front of a jury of industry veterans during the grand finale at the Phoenix Forum. The winner will receive a whopping $25,000 in advertising and a partnership with TrafficJunky to help them take their business to the next level.
The jury during the finals included Karll and Miller from TrafficJunky, Brad Mitchell from MojoHost and Brazil from Mindgeek.
The three finalists included DraftBeast.com, an online sexy, sports fantasy drafting game; ThePlumeApp, a mobile app designed to secure and facilitate sexy texting and flirting; and Vapormones, a vape product marrying aroma diffusers.
Hundreds of entries and offers were submitted from companies that ranged from travel, retail, online services and apps, TrafficJunky execs said.
“Round 2 yielded very encouraging results with above average click rates on the contestants’ banners, shining the light on a desire for tube site users to interact with new verticals and offers,” TrafficJunky execs said.
“By the end of Round 2, semi-finalists were interviewed to gather as much information as we could on conversions, revenue generated along with some general feedback on the campaign, what they learned from it and what their plans moving forward might be, should they be selected.”
Once in Tempe, Ariz. at The Phoenix Forum for the final round, each of the three finalists were given about 20 minutes to introduce themselves, their product and their strategy, as well as answer the judges and audience members' questions.
“This gave place to some very pertinent and highly enlightening exchanges. The audience and panel of judges being comprised of experienced business minds, the questioning and answers lead to important discoveries that would help the judges’ decisions later on,” TrafficJunky execs said.
“All three finalists were deserving and arguments were made in favor of each. The end result was never the less unanimous. TrafficJunky’s ‘The Next Big Thing’ winner would be Draft Beast.”
TrafficJunky execs said the search for “The Next Big Thing” turned out to be what they aimed for, and the company is planning another contest next year.
“Many months ago in our Montreal offices we set out to discover a new business and vertical that could shape up to be the next successful vertical on our adult tube traffic,” they said. “Today we can say we accomplished this feat with Draft Beast and in through the process of the contest we discovered other truly innovative business ideas and products that could be next in line to take the adult space by storm.
“We would like to thank the nearly one hundred entrepreneurs who submitted their projects and we salute the many innovative and exciting minds and products that we were blessed to work with during this great adventure.”
Pictured: Mike from DraftBeast.com being handed his TrafficJunky’s grand prize
