2022 RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS
ELIGIBILITY
If you’re a U.S. or Canada vision care business with six or fewer locations and have not previously been featured in America’s Finest, you are eligible for the contest. Previous winners with multiple location may enter other store locations only if those locations differ substantially in aesthetic, design and online presence form the location that has been featured. Past winners may re-enter if they have relocated, opened an additional location (see previous rule about additional locations) or their winning location has been substantially renovated, modified or expanded since being featured as an America’s Finest in INVISION. Businesses must have been open for at least one year prior to entering (ie. March 2021 to March 2022).
TO ENTER
Visit invisionmag.com/afor and follow the link to our contest page to create an account. The contest page will allow you to save a draft of your entry and update it later as needed. (To access your entry after creating an account, use your email address and password under Login.) In order to be considered for the competition, entrants must complete all required fields in the entry form (general information, online presence and store stats) and submit the following materials:
1. Story: Store history / bio.
Entrants are required to answer one question — “Tell us your business history”, in which you share the basic details of how your business came to be.
This year, entrants can choose which additional questions they’d like to answer about their business — with a MINIMUM of 3 of 8 questions required. Here are the questions:
- What’s cool about the physical design of your business?
- What’s cool about your staff? What cool things do you do for them?
- What’s cool about your digital presence? (Including website, social media, online ordering, texting, etc.)
- What’s cool about your marketing?
- What’s cool about your community presence?
- What’s cool about the operational or structural part of your business?
- What’s cool about your customer/patient experience?
- Tell us one out-of-the-box idea you have implemented in your business in the past year.
Finally, there’s an extra credit question which allows you to answer one question about your business that we haven’t asked.
2. 3-12 color images of the store’s exterior. (JPEG files only, up to 20MB in size.)
3. 6-12 color images of the store’s interior. (JPEG files only, up to 20MB in size.)
4. 1-3 photos of your business’s owners. (JPEG files only, up to 20MB in size.)
5. Marketing samples. 3-12 samples of print, radio, billboards, stationery and collateral. (Image files should be JPEG or PDF format, up to 20MB in size.)
6. Radio spots and videos (optional). Provide up to five YouTube (or other similar Web-based audio/video hosts) URLs on the lines provided. Note that the entry form will not accept audio or video files directly this year.
Until March 22, 2022, you may log in to edit your entry by going to invisionmag.com/afor and clicking on “LOGIN.” If you forget your password, click on the link in the “LOGIN” page to request it.
JUDGING METHODOLOGY
Step 1: From all initial entries, finalists in each division will be selected by INVISION’s editors.
Step 2: Our panel of industry-expert judges will rate each finalist from 0-100 in six categories: story, exterior appearance, interior appearance, advertising and marketing, store website and overall individuality.
Step 3: Total scores are calculated weighting the categories according to importance: story 50 percent, exterior 50 percent, interior 100 percent, advertising 50 percent, online presence 50 percent and individuality 100 percent. The top five stores in each category are then determined.
WINNERS
Winners will be notified in early June. The top 12 businesses will be named in the July-August issue of INVISION and featured in the magazine through June 2023. Entering the contest indicates an understanding that a reporter will interview the business’s owner, manager and staff and that the store is expected to provide high-resolution images of the store and owner(s) for publication. Winners will be permitted to use the America’s Finest logo in their promotional materials, indicating they have been chosen as such by INVISION magazine.
MEET LAST YEAR’S WINNER
Read our online profile of One Hip Chic Optical of Rochester, NY, winner of 2020’s America’s Finest Optical Retailer contest. Or check out INVISION’s July-August 2019 issue, which features owners Robbie Johnson Weinberg and Michael Weinberg on the cover.
