Elite Insights launches first fully self-serve “Best Of” Platform — making new SMB revenue effortless for media companies of any size

Publishers told us they needed a Best Of solution that didn’t depend on staff time — and didn’t stall when teams were stretched thin. This self-serve platform finally solves that. Advertisers do the work, the community engages, and the publisher earns revenue.”

Shane Brinkerhoff, CEO of Elite Insights

Media organizations that once needed staff time, designers, contest managers, and weeks of coordination to run a “Best Of” program can now launch one with almost no internal labor. Elite Insights today announced the industry’s first fully self-serve Best Of platform, giving publishers a turnkey way to generate new SMB advertisers, capture incremental revenue, and engage the community — even with limited staff and shrinking budgets.

For years, Elite Insights has powered high-performing Best Of programs for broadcasters and publishers nationwide, delivering results like $650,000+ in promotional revenue, 7,000+ businesses participating, and 750,000 votes cast in a single year. With the new self-serve model, Elite Insights brings those capabilities to small newsrooms, lean digital teams, and organizations that never had the bandwidth to run a program on their own.

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"Best of"
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The new self-serve platform lets local advertisers nominate themselves, upload creative, purchase packages, and manage participation — all without requiring sales reps or contest administrators to touch the process. That means even the smallest media companies can now execute a sophisticated Best Of promotion that drives new leads, new advertisers, and net-new revenue with virtually zero operational lift.

“Publishers told us they needed a Best Of solution that didn’t depend on staff time — and didn’t stall when teams were stretched thin,” said Shane Brinkerhoff, CEO of Elite Insights. “This self-serve platform finally solves that. Advertisers do the work, the community engages, and the publisher earns revenue.”

Elite Insights’ data shows that about 60% of Best Of revenue comes from non-traditional advertiser categories, and approximately 10% of new advertisers continue spending after the contest ends — turning a short-term promotion into a long-term revenue strategy. The new self-serve solution is built to maximize those gains, ensuring publishers capture new business with minimal effort.

Key Benefits for Media Companies

• Turnkey revenue: Launch a Best Of program without adding workload for sales, design, or operations.
• Self-serve for advertisers: SMBs manage their own entries, creative, and purchases.
• Immediate new leads: Businesses “come out of the woodwork,” creating warm leads for ongoing marketing sales.
• Community engagement at scale: Fun, uplifting local participation that strengthens brand connection.

For more information or to request a demo of the new self-serve Best Of platform, visit EliteInsights.io.