OFFICIAL RULES

 

What is The Best of Branson?

The Best of Branson invites, engages and allows you, our audience, to recognize the best businesses, organizations and people in our area. Our focus is on businesses and entertainment that support, serve and do business in Branson.

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Do I have to register?

Nominations require registration of basic information from the submitter for when we need to clarify an entry. We do offer you the opportunity to share your name and email with us so that we can keep you up to date on the program. You may submit your nominees in any given topic area and return to complete the survey any time before the deadline. Voting is anonymous and does not require registration.

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Can I vote by paper or in person?

No. All nominations and voting are done through our website and links to our voting platform.

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How does nominating work?

We rely on our audience to supply us with the names of outstanding people, businesses and establishments in each of over 100 categories. Once the nominees are finalized, our audience is asked to vote on one choice in each category. Per our guidelines, you are allowed to vote once every 24 hours. There are no limits to the number of nominations you can place.

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Our audience and business owners nominate their favorites in Branson by selecting one of 7 topic areas (Attractions, Eat & Drink, Entertainment, Services, Shopping, Stay in Branson and Things to Do). Nominations outside of the Branson area will not qualify for the balloting, but are welcome to participate as advertisers in print and our digital destination, www.TheBestofBranson.com.

 

Nominating is as simple as entering a name and city in text entry fields. It’s best, but not required, to provide additional information on the nominee so that we can verify them (phone number, address, URL). Users are not required to nominate in all categories. You may return any time before 5:00 PM Central Time, Friday, June 2 to add nominations. Users are permitted to nominate a single business in more than one category. Businesses with multiple locations will appear as a single nomination for the voting phase. Only organizations and activities that are currently in business in the Branson area will be eligible for nomination. Nomination is required to be on the final ballot. Business associates and advertisers of The Best of Branson, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, www.TheBestofBranson.com, www.nwaonline.com, and any other owner-affiliated company are not given special treatment.​

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The nomination period begins 12:00 PM Central Time, Monday, May 22, and ends at 5PM Central Time, Friday, June 2

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Will everyone that is nominated be on the ballot?

For a category to qualify for the ballot, there must be a minimum of 4 separate businesses that are competing for votes. If a category is not qualifying, we will make reasonable accommodations to move the nominee to a similar category. Once a category is qualified, we will ballot each individual business that has been nominated. Nominees are then moved to the voting ballot.

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I’ve been nominated, what is required of me?

Businesses, organizations or individuals that are nominated by our audience will be placed on our ballot as they are verified. Should a business earn enough votes to be in the top five, they may be required to complete a simple online questionnaire, that includes basic business information including, name, location(s), year established, business hours, phone number, web address (if any) and submit or make available a photo of the business, organization or individual. There is no cost or obligation to participate.
 

How are votes tabulated?

Votes are tabulated by a third party. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette does not know the results of the contest until after the votes are tabulated. In each category, readers vote on their favorite nominee. Readers are permitted to vote in each category once per day. Businesses, institutions, individuals, and schools are encouraged to promote the contest in order to gain nominations and/or votes. Competitive advertising, special offers, and campaigns are permitted; however, the producers at their sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude from the competition any businesses or individuals that engage in activities intended to “rig” or “fix” the voting process.  Votes that are suspect may be disqualified from the count.

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Use of bots, robotic, repetitive, automatic, programmed, vote exchange websites, vote “farming”, scripts or other automated means designed to circumvent “one ballot per person per day” rule, are not allowed. Contestants discovered using these methods for vote acceleration are subject to suspected votes being disqualified without notice, and the jeopardy of the Contestant being completely disqualified and removed from the competition.

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The regular voting period begins at Noon Central Time, Monday, June 26 and ends at 5:00PM Central Time, Wednesday, September 6.

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Can I “write-In” a business during voting?

All nominations have to be verified prior to being placed on the final ballot. During the nomination process, we welcome all submissions.

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Our ballot is a closed ballot, however, we will accept late entries into an established category by request. All late entry requests must be received by Friday, September 1 to be included in the process. All late entries must be emailed to support@shopbestofbranson.com for consideration. 

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When will the winners be announced?

The names of the winners are posted and announced online at TheBestofBranson.com on Friday, October 27 and Monday, March 11, and honored in our The Best of Branson special winners magazine. In the event of a tie in any category, more than one winner or runner-up may be awarded.

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The Best of Branson and the unique logos are registered trademarks of Northwest Arkansas-Democrat Gazette and may only be used with express, written permission. Logos are licensed to winners at a marketing spend or direct payment of $995 or more. The Best of Branson merchandise does not count towards the logo license spend.