When deciding to run a promotional marketing campaign, it can be difficult to decide on whether to run a Sweepstakes or contest. Not sure what the difference is between a sweepstakes and a contest? Check out our definitive guide.
Both sweepstakes and contests have their own unique benefits. It is important to take into consideration these benefits to find which suits your goals best. In this blog post we will dissect both a sweepstakes and a contest campaign to demonstrate the unique advantages of each type of marketing promotion.
Driscoll’s Share the Berry Joy
Challenge:
Driscoll’s was looking for a way to excite their most loyal customers in addition to growing their target audience of busy family shoppers and expand their brand awareness.
Solution:
MRi worked together with Driscoll’s to bring their consumers a sweepstakes that would help increase excitement and awareness of their brand, while using the collected data to increase their mailing list and personalize their communications with their customer base. Driscoll’s wanted a convenient, wholesome, brand-focused promotion for their fans to participate in, therefore, the grand prize was FREE Driscoll’s berries for a whole year! Fans could enter the Share the Berry Joy sweepstakes by completing an online form (with an email opt-in). To keep participants engaged with the promotion, and thus the brand, fans could enter the promotion for a chance to win the grand prize one time each day.
Results:
- ~770,000 Total entries
- 60,000 Total users
- 20K+ total opt-ins
Why you should run a sweepstakes
As you can see with Driscoll’s Share the Berry Joy, sweepstakes are great tools for increasing brand awareness with your consumers. This is because typically sweepstakes have a lower barrier for entry then a contest, so more people participate and share it.
In addition, If your marketing goal is to gather data, a sweepstakes or contest is your solution. With a promotional sweepstakes, companies can gather valuable data with each entry. From consumer information (names, emails, address, etc.), to data on your brand. You can grow your email list by adding an opt-in checkbox at the bottom of each entry form (as seen in the Driscoll’s sweepstakes above). You can see which prizes consumers are interested in most for future campaigns. You can discover where consumers were best engaged with your program; mobile or computer. The best part about sweepstakes is the data you collect from each campaign can be used to create an even better promotion next time. Whether it’s a more elaborate sweepstakes, with a value added offer or a “second chance” entry added to a contest, an instant win game, a code program or a collect to win game, each option will be more effective and personalized by using the data gathered from your first sweepstakes!
Interested in seeing more sweepstakes examples? Visit our case stories page.
MTN DEW Major Melon
Contest:
Challenge:
To promote the recent launch of their new flavor — MTN DEW MAJOR MELON — the Dew team wanted to go big! And what better way than doing something that’s never been done before, during literally the biggest event in American sports – the Super Bowl. MTN DEW wanted to “own” the conversation and share of voice during the game and on social media. Working closely with DEW and their creative partner, TBWA/Chiat/Day, the idea of creating a Super Bowl commercial that not only entertained and created a buzz around the new product, but challenged consumers to put their skills to the test was finalized to launch and air on Game Day!
Solution:
MTN DEW’s Super Bowl ad, starring John Cena, asked consumers to watch the Major Melon Super Bowl commercial, aired during the game and then posted on the Mountain Dew Twitter handle. Consumers were asked to count the exact number of Major Melon Mtn Dew bottles found in the commercial, post the number with @MountainDew and #MTNDEWMAJORMELON and @MyPromotionEntry, and the first person to Tweet the right answer could win $1 Million dollars!
Results:
- ~275,000 entries on Twitter
- 49% increase in Twitter followers for the MTN DEW brand
- #2 trending topic on Twitter (behind only the official #SuperBowlLV)
Why you should run a contest
Since contests have higher barriers to entry (such as a photo contest, essay contest, etc.) participants are more likely to be engaged in your brand than with a sweepstakes. When you break it down, the best reasons to run a contest are: High customer value participants, more brand engagement, and gathering user generated content (UGC) for future marketing.
The MTN DEW contest was a major success, and is a great case story on how to increase participation in your contest. By running the promotion around the Super Bowl, MTN DEW was able to piggy-back off the game day audience. In addition, the contest had a unique entry method that is less time consuming than your standard essay, photo, or video contest. And finally, the DEW contest had stunning creative that grabbed attention and increased program recognition.
Interested in seeing more contest examples? Visit our case stories page.
Choosing between a sweepstakes or contest for your brand
With these case stories in mind, we hope you feel more equipped to choose which promotion is best for your campaign: a contest or a sweepstakes. If you’re interested in more promotional marketing insights like these, visit our blog page for more useful articles, added weekly.
