Have you heard that the Coca-Cola Company is currently running crowdsourcing projects with HeroX? The Sweetener Challenge is taking a hard science approach to discovering a naturally-occurring compound that tastes like sugar, but without the calories. The set-up is pretty great: a big company, a big problem -- in particular, one everyone can relate to -- who doesn't love something with a sweet taste to it?
But how precisely do we engage and educate the large, international communities looking to participate in this specific crowdsourcing effort? Is it with curated stories and videos from around the internet, 100% original content, or a blend? That’s where you come in. For the first time, HeroX is opening up our very own internal process of project-specific content to the crowd.
We’re offering $50 per winning piece of content (with no limit on the number of submissions) and a platform for publishing for the best content on subjects related to the Coca-Cola Sweetener Challenge. Bring us your videos, long-form essays, curated content (with credit!), research papers, or editorials that illustrate endless possibilities for a breakthrough. The best of the best will win cash prizes for their effort, but more significantly, will become a published thought leader in the HeroX network, and likely asked to do similar work again in the future.
As mentioned above, the key message your content should convey will be relevant to and validate the Coca-Cola Company Sweetener Challenge. It doesn’t have to be all about sugar or sweeteners - feel free to get a creative and take a few liberties - but always bring it home so the audience can connect with the competition itself.
Think carefully about the audience(s) you are engaging with, and their "taste" in content. The Sweetener audience is tasked with identifying a chemical compound in a detailed, technical competition. While chemistry and food science are obviously the major themes in this challenge, the biological and psychological components of the human sense of taste is also very relevant.
We’re offering $50 per winning piece of content and a platform for publishing for the best content on subjects related to the Coca-Cola Sweetener Challenge. Bring us your videos, long-form essays, curated content (with credit!), research papers, or editorials that illustrate endless possibilities for a breakthrough. The best of the best will win cash prizes for their effort, but more significantly, will become a published thought leader in the HeroX network, and likely asked to do similar work again in the future.
Key Message is Key
As mentioned above, the key message your content should convey will be relevant to and validate the Coca-Cola Company Sweetener Challenge. It doesn’t have to be all about sugar or sweeteners - feel free to get a creative and take a few liberties - but always bring it home so the audience can connect with the competition itself.
Target audience
Think carefully about the audience(s) you are engaging with, and their "taste" in content. The Sweetener audience is tasked with identifying a chemical compound in a detailed, technical competition. While chemistry and food science are obviously the major themes in this challenge, the biological and psychological components of the human sense of taste is also very relevant.
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Positioning Statement |
Sugar sweetens most of what we enjoy eating and drinking. While historically, sugar was extracted from sugar cane, which has source of sweetener for thousands of years, more recent developments have allowed for sweeteners to be derived from other plants. Sweeteners have also evolved to include sugar alternatives and even naturally derived low- and no-calorie sweeteners. Consumers continue to seek natural and low-calorie options for their diets that are still pleasing to the palate, and these natural sweeteners provide new options. While a tremendous amount of research has gone into the discovery and development of natural low- and no-calorie compounds, there are novel compounds still waiting to be discovered and developed. |
| Target Audience | Food scientists, chemists, biochemists, sugar scientists, Ph.D. candidates in aforementioned fields. |
| Mission | The mission of the Coca-Cola Company Sweetener Challenge is to find a natural, safe, reduced, low- or no-calorie compound that generates the taste sensation of sugar when used in beverages and foods. |
| Tone | Curious, positive, encouraging, smart (but not overly technical), enthusiastic |
| Challenge Value Pillars |
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| Promise | The Coca-Cola Company, with the help of a global community of innovators, will identify the next breakthrough in sugar-sweetness recreation in a low-calorie and all natural way. |
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Pre-Registration |
June 30th, 2017 |
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Open for Submission |
June 30th, 2017 |
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First submission review period begins |
July 10th, 2017 |
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First round of winners announced |
July 12th, 2017 |
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Second submission review period begins |
July 12th, 2017 |
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Second round of winners announced |
July 27th, 2017 |
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Final submission deadline |
August 10th, 2017 |
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Final winners announced |
August 18th, 2017 |
To be eligible for an award, your entry must:
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Content Specifications |
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Format specifications |
Your entry must be submitted in one of the following formats:
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Section |
Description |
Overall Weight |
Creative, engaging, on-topic |
The piece uses a logical framework for organization of thought in an engaging, easily readable/viewable format. Paragraphs and sentences follow standard rules for structure and syntax. |
20 |
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SEO Optimization |
SEO keywords for “crowdsourcing”; “open innovation”; and other strategic Google adwords/key phrases are used repeatedly the piece. The SEO must “flow” with the overall composition and not read as forced or awkward. |
20 |
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Originality |
Creativity and your unique perspective/approach will add points. All work will be checked for copyright infringement. Any use of pre-existing text will be an automatic disqualifier |
20 |
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Tone |
A strong writing voice with lots of personality will get full points. |
20
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Effort |
Extra footwork on behalf of the writer, such as extensive (cited) research, primary sources, and interviews will earn points in this category. |
20 |
Participation Eligibility:
The challenge is open to all individuals, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. Teams may originate from any country. Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English.
To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement.
Registration and Submissions:
Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 5:00 pm EDT on August 10th, 2017, . No late submissions will be accepted.
Intellectual Property Rights:
As detailed in the Challenge-Specific Agreement – Competitors will forfeit all IP related to their submission.
Selection of Winners:
Based on the winning criteria, prizes will be awarded per the Judging Criteria section above. In the case of a tie, the winner(s) will be selected based on the highest votes from the Judges.
Additional Information
