Contests are a great way to expand your brand, and they don’t have to be complicated to be effective. Some of the most successful promotional contests have been both simple and easy to access. These contests increased user engagement across all forms of social media and created collaborations with unexpected companies.
Contests and giveaways are important tools for making brands go viral. By following these basic principles for contest building, you can reach a massive audience and bring new customers to your business. [Read related: Learn how to create a small business marketing plan.]
How to create a viral contest
Contests are a great way to improve your brand’s visibility and help you go viral. To really get noticed, follow these tips:
Offer the right prize
An exciting prize is a requirement for any successful contest. After all, if you can’t get your target audience interested in your prize, you won’t have much hope of going viral. The good news is that, unlike with lotteries or sweepstakes, you don’t have to offer cash to get others on board.
Some of the best prizes include gift cards, free products (perhaps even the full line) or an all-expenses-paid trip to a special event. When a prize has greater monetary value or is viewed as a rare, exclusive item, interest naturally increases. Make sure the prize is relevant to your business in some way to ensure you attract participants who are likely to become paying customers once the contest ends. You also must comply with laws governing social media and sweepstakes.
Incentivize sharing
You can’t make a contest go viral on your own. You need the help of your participants, and the best way to get them to spread the word about your contest is to incentivize online sharing. This is a great way for individuals you might not reach with your own marketing materials to learn about the contest and, in turn, your brand.
Make it easy for participants to share your contest. Even something as simple as adding a social media button to the contest’s main page can increase the likelihood that participants will spread the word.
Limit the time frame
You might think that letting a contest run for a longer period would create more opportunities to generate buzz. This isn’t actually the case. The most successful online contests typically run for a month or less, to take advantage of FOMO (the fear of missing out).
When your audience knows they have a limited amount of time to win that great prize, the perceived value increases. More importantly, it creates a greater sense of urgency that motivates customers to act immediately. That’s why restaurants, auto dealerships and other companies use limited-time offers: The narrow window makes the deal more desirable.
The FOMO concept also applies to multistage contests. Even a photo contest that requires multiple rounds of voting should end after a relatively short period, which ensures that you sustain your audience’s interest.
Harness the power of partnerships
You don’t always have to offer one of your own products or services as a contest prize. Many successful contests involve partnering with media influencers, celebrities or other brands for the benefit of both parties.
Let’s say your entertainment company offers an all-expenses-paid trip to the Super Bowl. By partnering with a specific airline and hotel for the grand prize and keeping them in the loop regarding all contest details, you can quickly double the marketing power behind your contest. Your partners will provide an additional marketing push to spread the word to new audiences, without requiring you to spend more.
By collaborating with another brand for a contest, you essentially double the size of your marketing audience.
People love participating in contests, especially if they think they have a chance of winning a great prize. As you incorporate these techniques into your contest, you’ll put yourself in a better position to reach your target audience. When this happens, even those who miss out on the grand prize can contribute to the rapid growth of your business. [Learn how to receive positive customer reviews.]
Examples of successful viral contests
Find some inspiration for your own viral contests by looking at what has worked for other brands.
SunRype giveaway
Social media posts are often useful outlets for promoting brands and companies. This was evident when SunRype held a contest for its products. The food and beverage business collaborated with a fitness company to offer free workout equipment and healthy snacks in an online giveaway. The contest was a smashing success and was shared over 3,000 times by social media users.
Goldfish’s creative video contest
Goldfish crackers had immense success with a promotional campaign on TikTok. The #GoForTheHandful challenge asked TikTok users to submit videos showing their attempts to break basketball player Boban Marjanović’s record of holding 301 Goldfish crackers in his hands. The winner would be dubbed the “Official Goldfish Spokeshand.” Goldfish’s TikTok video got over 30 million views.
Yeti and Traeger’s photo contest
In collaboration with grill maker Traeger, Yeti held an Instagram photo contest that asked users to post an image of where they liked to barbecue and then add the hashtag #YETIxTraegerBBQ to tag Yeti’s and Traeger’s accounts. The unique hashtag wound up in over 1,000 original social posts. Yeti and Traeger later repurposed these posts on their own social media accounts.
GoMacro’s tag-a-friend contest
Tag-a-friend campaigns across social media platforms can be an effective way to attract new users. GoMacro, an organic protein bar maker, prompted its audience to tag two friends in a comment on one of its photos and follow its account. In return, participants were entered for a chance to win free GoMacro bars. Ultimately, this single social media post included over 450 comments, which may have led to 1,000 new followers.
Funko’s follow to win
When brands showcase a contest with just one rule — to follow their social media account — more users can be included in the giveaway, resulting in a large, unique audience. The toy brand Funko created an exclusive contest for followers of its Twitter (now known as X) account. The campaign proved successful, with more than 7,000 retweets and over 4,000 likes with that tweet alone.
Cadbury worldwide hide event
In 2021, Cadbury challenged people to find unique places to hide Easter eggs. The brand partnered with Google Maps to develop the largest Easter egg hunt of all time. Digital eggs were hidden around the world, with their locations marked on Google Maps. It was so popular, it became an annual event.
According to an
Easy Promos survey, Facebook is the most popular social media network for giveaways.
When should you run a contest?
These are some events that present an ideal opportunity to run a contest:
- When you’re launching a new product: When you launch a new product, you need to spur people’s interest. Contests can help increase buzz around your brand or product launch and generate immediate sales.
- When you’re introducing a new website: The main goal of holding a contest when you’re launching a new website is to drive more traffic to the site. These contests can also generate new email leads, increase engagement levels on social media, and potentially reveal insight into popular products.
- When you’re showcasing an upcoming event: With an upcoming event on the horizon, contests can build interest in promotional material. By creating a unique experience surrounding the event, companies are more likely to retain customers.
- When you’re rebranding: Announcing your business rebranding can be an exciting time to host a contest. Not only will it generate enthusiasm internally, but when it’s utilized correctly, fans will create more user-generated content that can develop customer relationships.
Kimberlee Leonard and Nathan Resnick contributed to this article.
