Most contests see a flurry of last-minute activity as voting comes to an end and lead the entries jockey for prizes.
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Put YOURSELF in your participant's shoes! While it's tempting to end your contest at the very end of the day (11:59:59 PM), chances are you wouldn't want to stay awake until midnight on a Wednesday night (or even midnight a Friday night). Keep this in mind as you think about your contest ending day and time.
đź™… What to avoid:
- Ending your contest at midnight, especially if the next day is a weekday (like Sunday night into Monday). The ending of a contest is often when a lot of activity happens, and ending late at night means that many of your participants will already be in bed and will miss out on the final hours of voting/donating.
- Beginning or ending your contest on a holiday (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, etc). Holidays are often busy times in our personal lives, and many participants on those days are distracted and not paying attention to what is happening online.
đź•› Formatting for midnight:
If you decide to end your contest at midnight on a specific date (for example, midnight on 6/15/2026) the correct format is 11:59:59 PM on 6/15/2026.
Why? 11:59:59 PM is the last second of the day. The next second is 12:00:00 AM, and is the first second of the next day.
Also good to remember: 12:00:00 PM (not AM) is noon, and not the end of the day.
We do have some clients that like to end their contests at noon, and so we will assume that's your intention if you specify 12:00:00 PM as your ending date.