One size fits all: Gift certificate. A place like Amazon would be perfect. A very wide variety of merchandise. What more could anyone want?

A wide variety of Adobe goodies would be great...

Adobe Goodies, MP3 Players (I Pod), Technical Books, Free Software pack, Certificates, Cell Phones/ PDA (O2) etc…

Some extendscripts and actionscripts would motivate me! Even some sort of subscription to Adobe Stock Photos!

Amazon or Adobe shop gift certificate sounds great to me... Or how about a free ticket to Max?

> Imagine a budget of under US$2,000.

well you either spread it real thin and everyone gets a bumper sticker or

"fill out the survey and go into the draw to win a new MacBook computer valued at $2000"

or

"fill out the survey and go into the draw to win one of 10 ipods valued at $200 each"

appeal to the gambling nature and the possibility to win something more than a key ring....

just a thought...

As 'antipodean resident' above, it would motivate me enormously if i would be legitimate to win without having to move to your country.

One thing you better not do is giving away software because most peoples who fill in the survey already have the legal software.
I would go for limited personalised Adobe goodies like a Mike Downey puppet, a small adobe taxi cab, a Kevin Lynch antistress ball, a Daniel Dura massage tool,...
But I would also be very happy with just a gift certificate for Amazon or the adobe store :-p

Adobe Goodies, Technical Books, Free Software pack or gift certificate for Amazon or adobe store.

We often find it works better to offer a guaranteed reward to every participant rather than a chance at a prize draw - more administration, but worth it for the better quality data that gets collected.

Why not give out O'Reilly Safari online bookshelf subscriptions? All Macromedia Publishing books are available on Safari, so it's a great gift to any Flash developer who doesn't yet have some of the Flash books.

I'd like to get paid one of Russian professional translator for 2-3 months of his work for translation one of the newest AS3 book which will probably appear very soon.

Usually Russian flash community got the right books with 2-year latency. Huh.

Adobe swag is always popular, and gadgets are even better. If the gadget is sort of related to the product that's cool.

PS: What 'antipodean' and Claus says about competitions is very true. Nothing is less motivating to us Europeans than competitions "only open to US and Canada residents".

I guess this happens because lawyers are lazy and tend to re-use text that they know will hold up in a court or something like that?

J

the addition of gotoAndStop() and gotoAndPlay() to the AV1Movie class :).

but really, Adobe swag is the easiest option, kind of a cop out. $50 gift certs from Amazon for sure.

A good prize would be entry to private betas (if its a survey for developers/designers) e.g. Apollo, Flex 3, Flash 10 Authoring, Flash Player 10 :)

A bit of respect and common sense when it comes to my privacy preferences and a system that has been tested to make sure some programmer has not got their logic twisted the wrong way round - no does not mean yes.
If that were to happen, then I guess prizes would become less significant and I could bask in the sense that I had taken part in a mutually beneficial exchange, not having being taken for granted by a large organisation with lots of lawyers who play fast and loose with the basic concept behind privacy laws.

Nothing gets my attention faster than cold, hard cash.

How about a point system? Adobe "Community Points" are accrued.

You can then use your points at a later stage to get discounts on products, swag, conferences, training, or other items.

You can also use points as a meter of how much community participiation you are involved in.

Everyone benefits from partcipating, and you're not totally bummed out if you don't win that TV or other big ticket item.

Think ebay transaction feedback. Also check out: http://www.experts-exchange.com/

Yes, giving away swag is the easiest thing to do to reimburse people's time ... the tried and true method, so to speak ... but I thought I'd post this crazy idea.

Actually implementing it all, well, that is another matter. Perhaps Ed Sullivan could make it happen ...

hhmm I don't mean to be nasty but maybe if you restrict beta access after not submitting a survey after X number of times...
(ouch)

I concur with a few earlier comments - not limiting the condition of entry to US residents only would certainly motivate me to enter/complete a survey

Books!!! There are so many cool books about Flash.

Coming from Quebec (Quebec has its own particular law concerning contests), we're likely are untitled to prizes. So I feel very disappointed. I like the point accruement system so that we can get discounts from the Adobe store. Assign a points system to our accounts. That would be great.

Wide distribution of smaller prizes and/or points.

I generally prefer smaller prizes with a higher likelihood of winning/earning something. Sure, a hundred million dollar lottery is nice, but the chances are so slim as to make it useless. More smaller prizes would be great.

I really like Scott's point idea. This may be something that could be implemented later, but probably not now. In the meantime, why not do subscriptions to Lynda.com or O'reillys Safari book club. Both have a tangible benefit to your user base, both are inexpensive, and both would probably love your cross advertising. Because both are electronic in nature, if you could get them to issue you say, 1 week memberships, or 48 hour memberships (from first use), you could give them out to all survey participants (limit 1-2 per email address per week? month?) at minimal cost and by giving to everyone, you significantly reduce the legal requirements. (i.e. it isn't a prize/lottery, but a form of 'free trial')

Long term, I like the point system, though this is similar to a commission system and could be considered income and hence run afoul of laws around the world. Sorry to those outside of the US, while we want to give prizes to everyone, our lawyers in the US are greedy...and those who aren't, are frequently employed by litigious individuals who are.

Is this a joke question? Imagine a budget of under US$2,000.

Question should be -

Imagine a budget for prizes "equivalent" to US$1,500.

or -

With prizes worth "over" """" et.

You can't use the word "under" in marketing it has to many negative connotations.

Had the question been asked in this way I'd have thought that a Hardware + software package.

.

.

Subcriptions to macromedia university degrees online

It would motivate me to receive a t-shirt or an Adobe bag etc. I know it is not realistic to give everyone an iPod etc.

Hi,
I'll go a little off topic though (trough pure coincidence) not too far I guess, as I’ll stick to the subject of rewarding:

I work with Flash a lot and for quite a long time, so sometimes I go to the support forums and help others, not too often and I just like to do it for the fun of helping others.

What happened to me today was something I thought someone at Adobe should know and think about:

There are others in that Forum that contribute a lot more than me and help making Flash (The platform!) much better than it would be without their contribution.

I was really astonished to independently and coincedently read of two of them (I only know by their aliases) that they don't own Flash 8, but would like to.

Those guys really do spend a lot of time and competence for free from which Adobe benefits a lot. (One of them has made over 3000 contributions to others, and I haven't seen one not useful).

I'm sure those two and some others dealing with the problems (mostly) of beginners (new customers!!!!) for years could provide input to you in addition to surveys.

And those two really should have earned an upgrade serial number for their great contributions.

(Even if not, Adobe really wouldn't be hurt rewarding those doing such a great job for its cause.
I really thought you should know. I myself have been happy enough until now to spent thousands of Dollars/Euros on your products as I earned enough money using them, so it is not about me at all.
If you feel that I’ve got a point, please drop me a line that I can argue my cause further. Sorry for the way of contacting you, but as I do follow the community of flash deities mostly passively and from overseas I thought I give it a try.
Oh and I did fill out surveys in the past from both adobe and macromedia, and I will in the future ;-))

Adobe certificate run for me...

A nice macbook :)

1. Latest mobile devices which support FL/Flash
2. Invitation to Internal Beta tester to latest Adobe Flash technologies ;)
3. Adobe's software goodies

one more suggestion, in past i noticed MM offered big prizes in contestes. the drawback with big prizes is only few users get them.

i guess it'd be good if you look to setup small prizes in same budget to distribute to many developers. i.e mobile FL enabled devices which developers can use in thier developments or books.

i'd love to participate in any Flash survey, especially for Flash Authoring.

// chall3ng3r //

Good movitators:

1. Beta Tester invitation for new Flash software
2. Knowing my survey answers will actually make a difference to future versions
3. Free fonts from Adobe (like when you register CS2)
4. Other Adobe store credit?
5. Flash without bugs!

Check threadless.com for motivating people to post ideas as part of a community!

Yeah I'd like put some extra votes behind Markus' comments on people in the forums.

It'd be great if Adobe could set up some legitimate and worth rewards for those who help make the Flash software better.

Just giving people some credit and forming personal contacts, that is ongoing relationships within Adobe would be great.

I'm reporting bugs and feature requests on a weekly basis and I never hear anything back, not even if they're being heard (and then you ask me to pay for a new version!).

Here's the best suggestions so far(with some of my own added):

--------------------------
-Mobile phone/device that supports Flash
-Desktop/Laptop and software package
-Other Adobe software(ex. After Effects)
-"Lifetime" free Flash Pro upgrades
-42" Plasma TV and an XBox 360 (j/k)
--------------------------

Wide distribution of smaller prizes will be better, I'd like to have discount to buy/upgrade new Adobe software.

I would take your survey if you gave me...

- VIP access to Adobe events and seminars.
- Some Total Training video of my choosing.
- Access to a self-paced course.
- Tickets to an Instructor led course in my area.

I think, that by offering the prizes I suggested you would attract a more reliable feedback source, one that could be more useful to your objective, rather than some one just looking for free stuff who may not even be reading the questions, just picking and clicking to get through the survey and to the prize.

Personally, I think that any Adobe software, or even books relating to those softwares are good. Also, gift certs for sites that suit everybody (amazon.com, ebay, etc) are also good as somebody mentioned above.

- A wide variety of Adobe goodies would be great
- Latest Flash Lite embedded Nokia Devices
- Free pass for Max
- Adobe store credits.

What about arranging a meeting at one of the next Flash Conferences with the one of top Flash Guru that will be there?

Kind of VIP pass plus having the priviliege to spend the conference with the Flash Guru of our choice (regarding those from the list of speakers at this exhibition/conference)

It will be much more meaningful that having the last adobe mug, tshirt, bag or whatever.
Plus you can still communicate on it.

To extrapolate a little on Bazard's comment above: what about extended consultation with a product manager or other expert? This could include playing with products in beta, learning new tricks, providing feedback...over lunch, if feasible. If that's not feasible (hello, antipodean friends) you might want to throw in some swag (messenger bag or teeshirt) to sweeten the deal, though.

Gift cards and iPods? Adobe con't be righ enough to give that away. How about free five day extentions to trial software.

I am interesting to winner of prize/draw lottoery in world. I will looking for answer the question NUMBERS If you send the question Number. I am very exceting and winnera.Thanks for your intreducting and cooperation.Thaks.

Suggestion for enhancement in Studio 8....

Why not a Studio 8 (and Flash Pro 8) PLUS version with a FULL FEATURED VP6 encoder (2 pass, choice between VBR and CBR, ....) for those that want an EASY way to integrate BEST video quality??????

Now we have to rely on thirth party software. I can understand it has a price but (in my case) it would be a REAL "Studio" or "Pro" product ... and those thirth party products do have a price too... besides the aspects of less comfortable, more time consuming ... Try to look at it from a developers view!

Besides that: Flash 8 is great experience ...

Anything which has a Macromedia logo on it or better a Flash logo on it is worth more than anything for me :)