The recent Powerball of $550 million has a lot of people excited, fantasizing about what to do with all that money. That excitement also has more people than ever participating. Who doesn’t like to win?
It’s part of the game brands play with consumers to attract, engage and convert new customers, fans and advocates.
Social Media contests in particular have gained in popularity and can be a powerful catalyst for spreading a brand’s message where it matters most. Online marketers are finding that social media are great for holding online contests that boost awareness and engagement for consumer brands.
To help you tap in to some of the opportunity with contests on the social web, here are four examples of B2C social media contests that boosted brand visibility. We’ve also included one example that was popular, but not without risk.
1. Lay’s Do Us a Flavor Facebook
When Frito-Lay developed a new potato chip flavor, they bypassed focus groups and instead turned to Facebook to connect directly with the customers who would be eating them.
Visitors to the Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” Facebook app were asked to suggest new flavors and appetizing treats such as beer-battered onion-ring flavor and churros flavor gained popularity.
While the voting is done, the contest isn’t. Next February 2013, three finalist flavors will be available in stores for people to buy and try. The app will email participants when the chips are in stores, and even offers users $1 off their chip purchase. Currently, this contest app has about 740,000 users which could turn into a lot of bacon chocolate flavored chip sales.
2. Sheikh el Carnival is Taking You to Rio Facebook
The Frito Lay company’s Facebook page has 2.3 million fans giving them a distinct advantage for attracting contestants. But what if you’re a little travel company, with only 4,000 Facebook fans?
Travel Sheikh used the power of imagery and social media marketing to spread its brand message. It held a social contest where entrants were invited to upload photos inspired by the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Then contestants were encouraged to ask their friends to vote for the best photos. Friends could upload their own photos and encourage others to vote, creating some virality to the contest. The prize for the lucky contestant with the most votes? A trip for two to Rio for the real event.
Within 30 days, Travel Sheikh had gone from 4,000 fans to 16,000 new fans.
3. AMC Giveaways Pinterest
AMC Theaters has found that social media and contests are a great combination and have dedicated an entire Pinterest pinboard to AMC Giveaways.
All users have to do is follow the pinboard to stay up to date on the latest AMC contests. When they see a prize they want to try to win, they can click on the image which takes the visitor to a landing page that collects the contestant’s basic information and preferences. They win if their name is drawn.
Prizes have ranged from movie posters to an autographed director’s chair, but who are we kidding? The real winner is AMC. This Pinterest contest setup is a gift that keeps on giving in the form of increased brand engagement and customer data.
4. Doritos Party Twitter
One of the most tempting types of social contests for brands to run is the “Retweet to Win” style contest on Twitter. For these contests, a brand will ask followers to retweet a post and choose a winner at random after a specified amount of time has passed. There have been many of these types of contests on Twitter, including a recent example from Doritos UK.
Doritos tweeted a message that said:
“Fancy winning a whole host of BRILL PARTY PRIZES? Simply RT to be in with a chance of winning stuff to make a #DoritosParty.”
That tweet was retweeted more than 500 times in a single day. Of those 500 entrants, seven winners won products that ranged from Doritos (of course) to a 32-inch widescreen HD TV.
Now for the DOWNSIDE of RT contests on Twitter: These kinds of contests are a big no no according to Twitter’s Guidelines. You’ll have to focus your Twitter contests on using an @reply to your brand Twitter account in their update, which by the way, should include relevant topics to your contest but not be duplicates. An example using the Doritos brand might include asking followers to suggest the best situations to eat Doritos, interesting uses of the product or curious flavor suggestions like Lay’s did with their contest. It’s not the same as a RT contest, but you’ll stay out of hot water with Twitter.
5. Vera Bradley Style Share Instagram
Vera Bradley is fantastic at visual social media marketing as highlighted in this post from a few months ago, B2C Pinterest marketing superstars. Now Vera Bradley is ruling at Instagram, too.
The contest asked people to post as many Instagram photos as they liked showing them wearing or carrying a favorite Vera Bradley bag. Submitting was as easy as including the #VBStyleShare hashtag when posting images to Instagram.
The Vera Bradley Instagram contest was short just about 4-5 days. At the end, 10 winners received a free wristlet. Though figures aren’t available for how many followers the contest garnered, this contest was great for all involved. Contestants and bystanders could follow the hashtag and get their own fashion ideas. Vera Bradley staff could view the photos and get an idea for how consumers were pairing their products with other fashions. That’s a win-win-win situation!
Social media channels aren’t just for status updates and conversations. They can be used to fuel contests that can propel a brand into more followers, wider reach and greater chance for success. Take the ideas included above and think about how you might benefit from holding your own social media contest.
If you have run a social media marketing contest for your consumer brand, what advice would you share with someone that is new? Please, share your success and challenges in the comments below.
This post was also contributed to by Sara and Ashley from TopRank.
Author: Lee Odden
Courtesy of www.toprankblog.com
