Hearst Challenge Returns With $25,000 On The Line

Contestants must unravel the email promotion mystery to win.

By T. J. Raphael
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Hearst Challenge is back for the second year in a row, giving contestants another shot to win $25,000 in cash—if they can crack the riddle of click-through email promotions.

The goal of the contest is to create an analytical framework that successfully predicts an individual’s “response” to a given email promotion program, the winning model will best predict an individual’s likelihood of opening an email blast.

“Given the success of last year’s competition, we are excited to once again sponsor the Hearst Challenge,” Charlie Swift, vice president of database strategy and marketing at Hearst, says in a news release. “We value our partnership with the analytic community and look forward to learning about viable solutions together.”

The competition, which begins June 1, is co-sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association’s [DMA] Analytics Council. Three entrants will be invited to the DMA2011 Conference in Boston, MA to present their solution, the winning model that best predicts customer open and opt out rates will beannounced at the conference Oct 1 to 6.

Participants will have access to a historical sample email promotion history of 500,000 individuals and associated demographic characteristics through the competition’s Web site, HearstChallenge.com. Details about the nature and timing of the email campaigns will also be provided.

The models will be evaluated over a hold out sample. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is also partnering with the publisher and the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative [WCAI], in conjunction with Hearst, will award $5,000 to individuals who devise the “Most Innovative Method” for solving the challenge.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the full spectrum of approaches that are taken to the important problem of identifying which customers will respond to a promotional e-mail,” Elea McDonnell, the PhD. research director for WCAI, says in a news release.

All entries must be received by September 1 through the contest site, overall site and administration of the competition is being overseen by Thinkalytics and supported by Experian’s ConsumerViewSM.