Here at Wishpond, we’ve seen a lot of contests and giveaways, across industries and budget sizes. Some have been wildly successful, and others – not so much.
What makes a contest really shine isn’t the prize or brand name behind it. Instead, it’s a combination of other factors: the construction of the contest, the entry design, or audience engagement.
A well-designed contest takes into account the company’s goals, the audience’s wants, and how much fun the contest itself will be.
Here are a few of our favorite contests, across industries, to show you how it’s done.
Product Giveaway: Bumpboxx Boomboxes
A giveaway or sweepstakes where the prize is the brand’s own product is a great way to raise awareness of the brand itself among its target audience.
Bumpboxx hit the sweet spot of targeting a niche crowd with a highly coveted and valuable prize, ensuring that it was going to reach the exact audience it wanted to.
Designed brilliantly for their target audience, Bumpboxx’s line-up had something to appeal to every taste, while at the same time showing off the technical specs of the prize.
At the outset, the landing page had a countdown to increase the sense of urgency and a reminder of the value of the prize (a whopping $895). Entry was simple, and potential contestants had multiple potential entry points.
BumpBoxx’s contest was a good way to attract attention to the range of products they had on offer, one way to encourage customers to go clicking through their store.
This is a good example of using a competition as a mini-storefront, piquing a target audience’s curiosity. Notice the strategic choice of product display: the UpRock, Flare and Freestyle boomboxes appeal to very different consumers.
Hashtag Contest: Jean Paul USA
Jean Paul’s Instagram hashtag contest serves multiple purposes: raising brand awareness, curating user generated content, getting them more followers and ramping up their engagement. Users simply had to enter by tagging a photo of them and their instrument with #jeanpaulusa.
The contest caters to user psychology: the contest is easy to follow, with the hashtag very similar to the company name and easy to remember – one of the [key rules to a good hashtag competition].(https://blog.wishpond.com/post/113964795150/instagram-hashtag-contests-examples-and-best)
Even better, visitors don’t have to wait to find out if they won to benefit from the contest – everyone who visits the page gets a code for 10% off!
Entry itself is effortless: once users post a photo with the correct hashtag, they’re in!
It’s a win-win: users get a beautiful additional photo for their feed and a chance to win a $300 gift card, and Jean Paul gets new followers, better engagement, and authentic content from their user base.
It’s important to note their prize choice: the $300 gift card to win a Jean Paul product ensures they’re working with their target audience. Had they offered a $300 product of general interest, like a watch or a spa package, their contest might attract more entrants, but it would be entrants that weren’t genuinely interested in the brand, and who would disappear as soon as the winner was announced: that’s a quick way to waste money.
One: this is a sweet prize (pun absolutely intended). Six months and over two hundred dollars worth of chocolate chips.
Two: This landing page is simple but beautifully designed. The colors are complementary and on-brand, the offerings apparent, the elements cohesive, and the call to action simple and clear.
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Three: this giveaway works on multiple levels. Not only does it promote to encourage one person to bury themselves in half a year of chocolate chips, but it also promotes Bhu Foods’ product.
If you’re watching your health (and the environment’s), you can indulge guilt-free: organic, non-GMO, Vegan, Paleo, Keto. It’d be easy for those to be lost on a product shelf, but on the contest landing page, they’re front-and-center.
A contest is a good way to distinguish yourself in a very crowded market.
Bhu realized this, and won with a great product, great design and great prize.
Product Giveaway: Cilek Kids Room Race Car Bed
This competition’s prize was fun enough to make full-grown adults covet the prize.
Balancing whimsy with practicality (they knew well enough to list the dimensions of the racecar bed for parents who would immediately be wondering if it could even fit in their child’s bedroom), Cilek Kids ran a winning competition with this racecar bed contest.
After catching their attention with the fun and whimsy of the above-the-fold part of the landing page, the interactive scrolling gallery at the end showcases their collection for all interests.
This landing page works by not only attracting potential entrants but parents who are looking for a product that’s as special as their kids are.
For Cilek, the entry method collects emails and names, which gives the company an additional collection of interested (and personalized!) leads for their campaigns. (Tip: Because this kind of entry method takes a few extra steps, the prize should be really worth your entrants’ time if you’re asking for their emails and information.)
Shopping Giveaway: Thalgo USA Beauty
Thalgo’s beauty shopping coupon giveaway is a first-class example of how to use your landing page to act as an engine for lead generation and raising brand awareness.
The $100 dollar investment into their contest also gave them the opportunity to showcase an extensive line of products, making them relevant to a number of consumers, and awards, bolstering their reputation and trustworthiness.
Beginning their copy by presenting themselves as a world leader in the hospitality industry, Thalgo invites users to have a little bit of a professional spa treatment with this competition –
These are only a few ideas for contests you can run. If you’re ready to do your own, here are a few more types you can consider:
Video contests: These can be some of the most compelling forms of user-generated content, as there’s very few forms of content as dynamic as video. With today’s tech, everyone is capable of making high-quality video. (Hint: It’s best if you provide time limits and guidelines for your video to keep entries somewhat streamlined.)
Photo contests: Photo contests have the visual perks of a video contest, with much less effort for participants. Even better, you can have a fun voting aspect, and platforms like Instagram and Facebook are well designed to help share and host these, making them much more likely to spread and become popular.
Referral contest: A lead generating machine, referral contests are one of the most straightforward and effective ways to build your database of contacts and followers. What’s even better is that they’ve been in the market so long, consumers are accustomed to them, and the right prize will have those referrals rolling in!
Vote contest: Give the people what they want! And what better way to do that then let them decide? These are one of the most popular types of contests, and one of the easiest ways to boost engagement with followers.
Leaderboard contest: Appeal to your followers’ competitive streak. Great for especially big prizes, or long-term competitions, and to drive long-term, loyal engagement.