Why hello there, my name is Dulcie Mae Carey and I study Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. At University I am able to develop my skills as a writer in many different forms, however I find that writing for the internet is always more interesting. Especially for Crowd!
I have been looking into how competitions can help companies promote their brands using social media. Now there are many examples that I have found, such as our friends at Marlborough who recently ran a Christmas Card Competition! Children in Guernsey put lots of effort into creating their own magical cards, and the public voted online to see which one holds the most charm! Sweet, no? The lucky winner received £500 for their school, not bad at all if I do say so myself.
Competition Success!
This particular competition has encouraged the community of Guernsey to get involved and engage with the brand on a very personal level. Humanizing the brand in this way helps to build buzz online around Marlborough and create brand awareness throughout the island, as well as to a wider audience. Though not marketing with the intention of direct sales, this kind of brand awareness exercise can lead to sales by making the brand more approachable and ‘human’.
Not convinced?
Another example would be a competition in Queensland for ‘The Best Job in the World’. This entailed living on a tropical island for 6 months, with the simple leisurely tasks of cleaning the pool every now and again, feeding the dog and writing a weekly blog saying how much fun it is to be there. Oh, and you get paid. Applicants would send in video posts and emails to attempt to secure a placement. Out of the 34,680 job applications, only the most creative were shortlisted by the judges.
How does this particular competition help to promote anything you ask? Well, during the competition, awareness of Queensland, Australia was brought to holiday goers attention. Now, after the competition, most trips to Australia include a trip to Queensland, which has brought tourism in Queensland up by 20%. Tourism helps the local companies and communities, so good times all round. However the campaign was not all plain sailing. The organisers of the campaign underestimated the time, effort and budget needed to sustain the event once it went viral.
How not to run a competition through social media
Not all companies get it right, it is very easy to use social media in the wrong way when it comes to competitions. I ‘liked’ Cushelle’s page on facebook in order to win mountains of loo roll. I lost. Cushelle, like many other brands have similar competitions like this one, where my only involvement is to click a ‘like’ button and wait to see if I have won. It’s safe to say that I quickly forget about these competitions, and probably wasn’t interested in their product in the first place. When running competitions using social media, organisations must remember that people may only be taking part for the competition not because they want to engage with the brand.
Getting customers engaged with the competition and the brand
When creating a competition using social media networks, it’s important to make sure that your applicants are doing more than simply clicking a button. Teaching customers about the products you have to offer, the process of your company and humanizing your brand sparks interest.
A small highly engaged audience is always better then a large audience who don’t care about your brand.