We’re always looking for the ‘golden ticket’. Free gifts, prizes, are something that no one says ‘no’ to. Well, years before now, marketers realized the same thing. Thus, giving rise to the idea of contests and giveaways. Contests and giveaways have a conversion rate of almost 34%, which is higher than other content types. And great brands have time and again run successful contests and campaigns that we are here to talk about. We have compiled a list of 7 amazing marketing contests and giveaways examples for you to draw inspiration from and hop on that next successful campaign.
1. Lay’s — Do Us A Flavour
We decided to start with one of our favorites. Who among us hasn’t eaten a packet of Lay’s chips? Well, Lay’s Cream and Onion flavour wasn’t the only great thing to happen to the brand. Lay’s launched its ‘Do Us A Flavour’ campaign for the first time in 2012 in the United States. They did so at a pop-up store in Times New Square showcasing the 22 flavors of the snack. They then created a Facebook page that allowed users to participate by submitting a proposal for a new potato chip flavor.
Once submitted, the users received a generated image of a chips’ packet reflecting the flavour that they had submitted. They could then share these images on their social media. PepsiCo (Lay’s) also partnered with Facebook to change their usual ‘Like’ button to ‘I’d Eat That’. The Facebook page cover photo was used as a rotating billboard with the top submissions. After the submission deadline, a panel of judges including celebrity chef Michael Symon and actress Eva Longoria helped narrow the submissions down to the top 3. The three flavors were then supplied in stores for customers to buy and sample. Lay’s then opened the final decision up for a public vote. The creator of the winning chip flavor would win $1 million or 1% of the 2013 net sales of the winning flavor, whichever is greatest.
How Did The Campaign Do?
We can see how the brand was able to customize the entire social media experience of a user to promote itself. It facilitated a social media buzz with personally generated images and offered a good incentive. They included celebrity chefs in the campaign to attract an even larger audience. The campaign managed to offer value to not only its customers but to the brand in itself too!
Now moving to statistics, The campaign received about 3.8 million submissions. They achieved over 22.5 million Facebook page visits and experienced an upliftment in sales by 12% year after year. The campaign helped Lay’s in gathering insight into its consumer preferences and behaviors. They increased engagement and generated positive brand awareness. They were able to launch three new flavors, increase their sales and market these flavours through one single contest!
2. Dove — #InMyOwnSkin
In 2018, Dove launched an Instagram campaign #InMyOwnSkin. It was a step further as a part of their driving mission of ‘Real Beauty’ for almost a decade. The #InMyOwnSkin campaign encouraged real men and women to share their personal stories on how they are redefining how the world sees them. Dove asked these people to share their own pictures with their struggles with the hashtag ‘#InMyOwnSkin’.
They not only offered them a chance to get featured on the Dove Instagram community page. They also created a microsite for the campaign that aggregated and displayed submissions and enabled consumers to upload photos and their stories directly to the Dove #InMyOwnSkin microsite and photo gallery.
How Did The Campaign Do?
Through a campaign that required users to tell their own story, Dove made its users a part of the brand. It allowed its users to define the brand and what it stands for. They chose a strategic and catchy hashtag for the campaign and chose a thought out platform for its marketing. Instagram has mainly been graphic oriented, thus promoting videos and pictures more than worded content. Therefore, Instagram was an apt choice for the kind of campaign Dove wanted to launch. Instagram recorded over 12000 posts with the hashtag #InMyOwnSkin during the campaign.
The campaign was able to boost social engagement for Dove and inspire authentic interaction amongst its fans. The brand elevated the voice of its customers and was able to develop a very healthy image around the brand name.
3. Starbucks — #RedCupContest
Starbucks launched a social media campaign about the #RedCupContest in 2015. This wasn’t the first time that this contest was being held. Starbucks has been improvising with its cups around the holiday season since 1997 but the #RedCupContest of 2015 requires a special mention. Customers were asked to upload a picture of them holding the unique Starbucks red coffee cup and hashtag it with ‘#RedCupContest’. There were five grand prizes of $500 for the best five pictures on the internet.
They used Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to promote their campaign. And the success of the campaign encouraged Starbucks to continue with their tradition of modified Starbucks cups in the subsequent years as well.
How Did The Campaign Do?
The campaign managed to catch the attention of celebrities, talk shows and the rest of the world too! Over 40000 people participated in the contest with a picture being shared on Instagram every 14 seconds in the first two days. Starbucks red cups managed to associate the idea of Christmas around themselves. They became a sign that the holidays were here! Customer-generated content is the key to a successful social media campaign and Starbucks leveraged the very thing. Starbucks contests and giveaways have created their own spot in the market.
4. VideoFruit Contest
Videofruit set out to increase his email list through a giveaway. They decided to offer a $3000 worth 10-year subscription to LeadPages, a brand that he often talked about on their blog. They managed to set up the giveaway in less than 3 hours. And used various strategies to promote the giveaway. They manually reached out to interviewees, round up posts, business contacts, friends, and influencers with small audiences who were likely to have an interest in LeadPages.
How Did The Campaign Do?
VideoFruit ran the contest for a week and managed to score 2239 email sign ups which was huge for them. Bryan had 520 entrants that were already subscribers. So, there were about 1,700 new subscribers and potential customers using the Giveaway Contest strategy. Their total cost per email subscriber was about $1.33, which was worthwhile from their perspective. Apart from this,VideoFruit was able to create a space for their brand and established a better social media presence through the contest.
5. Gray-Nicolls Powerbow Giveaway
Gray Nicolls is an English sports equipment and apparel brand owned by Grays International that specializes in cricket.. In 2019 they decided to host a giveaway for their products. They used the Outgrow interactive tool to create the perfect giveaway. They wanted to gain more qualified leads for themselves and reach a wider audience. Gray-Nicolls offered the entire Powerbow Inferno Kit for the 2020 Season of cricket. This kit consisted of a Powerbow Inferno Bat, Batting Gloves, Batting Pads and Wicketkeeping Gloves.
How Did The Campaign Do?
This giveaway managed to gather almost 5000 visits and delivered more than 2500 leads. They had offered a great prize as a giveaway that managed to attract the right kind of users. The giveaway ran a conversion rate of over 53% which is a great offer. They were able to consolidate their digital presence even further and advertise their products at the same time.
6. Liberty Express Giveaway
Liberty Express is a Venezulan international shipping company that delivers parcels across the world. The company decided to host a giveaway in collaboration with Camila Canabal, a Venezulan TV hostess, currently living in Miami. They used Outgrow interactive content to host a giveaway, offering 2 air shipments of 5 kg each, to any Liberty Express destination. They used their social networking sites to promote the giveaway. Liberty Express also leveraged Camila Canabal’s popularity to reach a wider audience and add more credibility to their brand name.
How Did The Campaign Do?
The campaign helped the company gain almost 1000 leads through a single giveaway. It delivered a conversion rate of almost 60%. They also made the smart choice of offering their services as a prize. This not only helped them gain leads but also lead to an increase in a more loyal customer base. Liberty Express collaborated with a celebrity with a huge fan following that helped their brand image. They leveraged influencer marketing in order to boost their giveaway. Statistics show that 89% marketers claim that their ROI from influencer marketing campaign is better than that from other campaigns.
7. Adidas — #MyNeoShoot Campaign
Adidas launched a new series of shoes in 2012 under the name of Adidas Neo, a new division of trendy, youth-targeted products. In order to reinvigorate its marketing efforts and leverage the new social media craze, Adidas launched a campaign for ‘#MyNeoShoot’ in 2015. It invited both Instagram followers and common people to share Adidas inspired Instagram posts. Adidas then selected the best content creators to model for a professional photo shoot and share their branded content with engaged social media audiences.
Adidas partnered with Selena Gomez to launch an initial promotion of the campaign. Her well established social media presence added to the popularity of the campaign and helped them reach a huge audience. Even apart from the people who directly participated in the competition, Adidas invited the rest of the Instagram community to vote on every element of the ensuing photo shoot.
How Did The Campaign Do?
Adidas experienced an increase in their sales by a whopping 24.2%. The well-worded hashtag helped them attract a higher social engagement from the people in their choice of demographic. The campaign generated over 12000 entries and accrued more than 71000 mentions. The Adidas Neo Instagram page gained almost 41000 new followers as a result of the campaign! The campaign managed to attract and engage a huge young audience and solidify its image as a youth-centric brand.
Conclusion
These are some well-made and strategic contests and giveaways that have managed to achieve what they set out to do. Contests and giveaways have some key elements that make it successful and these did. It’s time to boost your own marketing strategy with a great contest and what more, you can use Outgrow to create it! Click here to sign up with Outgrow and create your first contest!
