Using Contests to Your Advantage

Hi folks! Remember how last time we talked about the basics of social media marketing and its importance in the current commercial environment?  In that post I mentioned that you want to engage your target audience to a degree, so lets pick up the ball from there and keep it rolling:

One of the methods I mentioned was contests.  This not only helps your target audience feel more involved and attached to your product/ service, but can even pull in a new customers who are interested in the promotion and may continue to use or purchase the item after the promotion has finished.

This marketing method grants the user self satisfaction and the belief that they're part of the product and have a lasting impact on it, making them more attached to it and thus more likely to buy or use it.  One of the best examples of this kind of marketing has to be PepsiCo.'s Dewmocracy campaign where users built the final product pretty much from scratch.  Users selected everything from the logo and name, to the flavor and color of the soda.  The top three voted sodas are then released for the public to consume and vote on the one that tastes the best, the winning soda becoming a 'permanent addition to the Dew family'.
Another example would be Capcoms 2008 poll where a list of characters from older games was posted and users could vote for a character to be put into the game.  The old Street Fighter 2 character, Cammy, won the most votes and was subsequently added into Street Fighter 4 (the poll has since been taken down, but it's mentioned in this 1up.com interview).  No doubt pleasing the fans.  This move most likely increased the games initial launch date sales more than they would have likely been had the poll not been run or 'enforced'.

In addition to these two brief examples, there are several minor instances where Facebook and Twitter users have 'bribed' others to follow them, offering something like a sneak peek trailer of an upcoming movie they star in if they hit a certain number of followers.  While this often 'works', it does nothing other than get people to watch a certain account, which can be easily unwatched once the goal is met.  It doesn't really instill in the user a feeling of being something bigger that you want to achieve with this kind of marketing campaign.

It's important to note that with these two 'contest' type advertising campaigns that the participants will undoubtedly notify friends and family through social networking sites of the promotion, potentially gathering additional participants for the event and thus potential clients or consumers in the process.

Posted in: capcom, contests, mountain dew