ABOUT BEST OF NORTHWEST ARKANSAS

OFFICIAL RULES

What is Best of Northwest Arkansas?

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

Do I have to register?

Nomination surveys 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.

Registration may be necessary for the voting phase to promote fair voting. You may be asked for your name and email address.

Can I nominate or vote by paper or in person?

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

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 260 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 nominate/vote once every 24 hours.

Our audience and business owners nominate their favorites in the Northwest Arkansas area by selecting one of 9 topic areas (Agriculture, Eat & Drink, Education, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Motors, Services, Shopping, and Things to Do). Nominations outside of the Northwest Arkansas market area will not qualify for the balloting but are welcome to participate as advertisers in print and our digital destination.

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, November 3, 2023 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.

Nomination is required to be on the final ballot. Business associates and advertisers of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and any other owner-affiliated company are not given special treatment, including but not limited to our presenting sponsor.

Users are not required to nominate in all categories but must submit the nomination form by hitting the "submit" button at the bottom of the page. Users are permitted to nominate a single business in more than one relevant category.

The nomination period begins at 12:00PM Central Time, Monday, October 23, 2023, and ends at 5:00PM Central Time, Friday, November 3, 2023.

Will everyone who is nominated be on the ballot?

For a category to qualify for the ballot, there must be a minimum of 5 separate businesses that are competing for votes. If a category is not qualifying, we will make reasonable accommodations to move the nominee to a relevant category. Once a category is qualified, we will ballot each individual business that has been nominated.

I’m on the ballot, what is required of me?

Businesses, organizations or individuals that are nominated by our audience are placed on our ballot after they are verified. Should a business earn enough votes to be in the top three they may be required to complete a simple online questionnaire with basic business information. Top winners will be asked to fill out a form 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 do 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 in the count.

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.

The regular voting period begins at Noon Central Time, Monday, November 13, 2023 and ends at 5:00PM Central Time, Friday, December 8, 2023.

Business associates and advertisers of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and any other owner-affiliated company are not given special treatment, including but not limited to our presenting sponsor.

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.

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, November 24, 2023 to support@bestnwa.com for consideration.

When will winners be announced?

The names of the winners are posted and announced Sunday, March 31, 2024 on BestNWA.com and honored in our Best of Northwest Arkansas special winners' magazine. In the event of a tie in any category, more than one winner or runner-up may be awarded.

The Best of Northwest Arkansas 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 $1,995 or more. Best of Northwest Arkansas merchandise does not count towards the logo license spend.

Questions about Best of Northwest Arkansas can be directed to our support desk support@bestnwa.com OR by filling out our Contact Form. These are the complete Official Rules. Best of Northwest Arkansas is produced by the Northwest Arkansas-Democrat Gazette. Digital experience is powered by BestOfPrograms.com. Content ©2023 Northwest Arkansas-Democrat Gazette. Technology ©2023 BestOfPrograms.com, part of NERUS Strategies LLC.