2025 ProcureTech Cup Rules

Note: If you are only participating in the March Madness tournament, you can skip the first “regular season” section.

The “Regular Season”

Objectives

The objectives of the regular season are to:

  1. Cultivate an engaged, habitual viewership of digitally-minded procurement professionals in the lead up to the ProcureTech Cup tournament.
  2. Create short, concise videos that give an overview of software vendors offerings that can be leveraged to support voting during the ProcureTech Cup tournament.
  3. Create awareness, educate potential clients and, ultimately, drive leads for ProcureTech software vendors

Rules

  • The “Regular Season” will run Friday, September 13, 2024 to Friday, March 21, 2024.
    • There will be a 3-week break from December 16, 2024 to January 3, 2025
  • The “Regular Season” is comprised of 25 live stream episodes of “The Road to the ProcureTech Cup”.
  • Each episode will welcome a different ProcureTech brand to present their offering in the lead up to the ProcureTech Cup tournament.
  • The length, format and agenda for each episode will be the same:
    • Each episode will aim to be no longer than 30 minutes.
    • The solution provider will join a live stream hosted by Pure Procurement
    • Standard agenda:
      • Welcome and intros (7 mins)
        • Company Overview
        • Unique Value Proposition
        • Ideal Customer Profile
      • Solution Demo (15 mins)
      • “Let’s Get Real” segment: 1-2 “tough” questions (4 mins)
      • Solution Market Mapping to the ProcureTech One-Pager (4 mins)
  • Within the standard format, brands are in full control of their attendees, key messages, demo scope and execution.
  • Demos can be done live during the stream or pre-recorded and played during the stream.
  • Pure Procurement is there to facilitate the session, keep time, ask clarifying questions and help map your offering to the Pure Procurement Market Map.
  • There will never be more than 2 Pure Procurement attendees on any session.
  • There can be a maximum of 2 representatives of the solution provider.
  • All sessions will be live streamed on LinkedIn Live and The Pure Procurement Newsletter’sYouTube channel.
    • Streams will occur at 12PM EST on Fridays to maximize viewership by considering Europe and the North American West Coast.
  • All session recordings will be made available, at minimum, on LinkedIn, YouTube and on the ProcureTech Cup website.
  • Participants are free to “make media assets their own” (e.g. repurpose) on their own platforms

The ProcureTech Cup Tournament

Objectives

The objectives of the ProcureTech Cup Tournament are to:

  1. Leverage gamification and the network effect to create massive engagement on LinkedIn, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts (i.e. if all ProcureTech brands were to try marketing themselves independently).
  2. Create awareness, educate potential clients and, ultimately, drive leads for ProcureTech software vendors in a relaxed, fun, low pressure atmosphere on LinkedIn.
  3. Create a ProcureTech employee engagement event for participating ProcureTech software vendors.

IMPORTANTE NOTE: The ProcureTech Cup does not have a mission of finding “the best” ProcureTech solutions.

Rules

  • The tournament begins after all 25 “Regular Season” demo sessions are completed.
  • The tournament will run from Monday, March 24, 2025 to Monday, April 7, 2025 inclusively:
DateRound
Monday, March 24, 2025Round of 64, Group 1 (8 matchups)
Tuesday, March 25, 2025Round of 64, Group 2 (8 matchups)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025Round of 64, Group 3 (8 matchups)
Thursday, March 27, 2025Round of 64, Group 4 (8 matchups)
Friday, March 28, 2025Round of 32, Group 1 (8 matchups)
Monday, March 31, 2025Round of 32, Group 2 (8 matchups)
Tuesday, April 1, 2025Round of 16, Group 1 (4 matchups)
Wednesday, April 2, 2025Round of 16, Group 2 (4 matchups)
Thursday, April 3, 2025Elite Eight (4 matchups)
Friday, April 4, 2025Final Four (2 matchups)
Monday, April 7, 2025Championship Round (1 matchup)
  • There are 64 ProcureTech software brands included in the tournament (including the 25 brands who participated in the regular season).
  • Brands who did not participate in the “Regular Season” can submit a pre-recorded demo in the same format/agenda as brands who participated in The Road to the ProcureTech Cup (Demos will be used to support voting on LinkedIn).
  • This is a “single elimination”, 1-v-1, backet style tournament.
  • Initial matchups will be seeded based on historic high score or, if the brand has never participated before, on registration order (no solution categories).
  • In each matchup, LinkedIn users are asked to vote for the brands they want to see advance in the tournament via a comment on the round post (on Joël Collin-Demers’ profile).
  • Each round is open for voting via comment during 23 hours (9AM ET to 8AM ET next day)
    • Exception: Friday rounds are extended to the following Monday at 8AM ET to ensure all participating brands get at least 1 full “work day” to gather votes.
  • Voting Rules:
    • In each round, individual LinkedIn users can vote for multiple solutions, but only for one solution per matchup.
    • Multiple votes for a same solution by a single user within the same round will result in all their votes being discarded from the tally.
    • Participants can solicit votes via their existing marketing channels (e.g. email lists, social media accounts, etc.) only where users have opted-in to receiving marketing communications.
    • Voting must be conducted voluntarily, allowing all participants the freedom to cast their votes without any pressure or obligation.
  • The participant (company) with the higher vote total in each matchup advances to the next round.
  • The participant (company) with the lower vote total in each matchup is eliminated from the ProcureTech Cup tournament for the year.
  • In case of a tie, a 1 hour “overtime” voting period will determine the winner. The “overtime” is announced via comment from Joël Collin-Demers on the original matchup post.
  • Fair Play:
    • Any form of vote manipulation, unethical practices or repeated “unsportsmanlike” conduct can result in disqualification.
    • Use of social media “pods” to gather votes is prohibited.
    • No derogatory comments about fellow ProcureTech brands are allowed and may result in votes being discarded (however, self-promotion and playful banter are encouraged!)
    • Brands may vote for themselves with a single company page. Please do not vote for yourself with dozens of different company pages that you own. These votes will be disregarded and major abuse may lead to disqualification.
  • Round Perks:
    • Brands who participated in the “regular season” will have their demo session referenced in the round post to support voting (voters can watch the demo before voting).
    • Brands who advance to the Elite Eight will have a detailed profile included in the round’s carousel (post).
    • Brands who advance to the Final Four will be invited to come discuss their solution on a live stream on Friday, April 4, 2025.
    • The brand who strings together 6 consecutive matchup wins is crowned the ProcureTech Cup Champion for the year.
      • The brand will be invited to the final live stream “champions announcement”
      • The ProcureTech Cup trophy will be shipped to the software vendor’s head office for display during the following calendar year.
      • The winning brand agrees to send the trophy to next year’s winner.

Other

  • Logo Requirements. Participants must provide high-quality logo files in both light and dark versions and agree to their use in ProcureTech Cup graphics throughout the year.
  • Advertising through The Pure Procurement Newsletter. Every regular season demo session and updates on the ProcureTech Cup tournament will be shared with 10,000+ The Pure Procurement Newsletter readers.