Marketing competitions are an essential part of the panoply of advertising levers available to brands. Above all, this type of animation creates new opportunities to interact with audiences.

From the simplest scenario to the most immersive and entertaining, these interactive marketing experiences can provoke an emotion in participants, helping them to retain the information better. Visit gamification is a powerful process that firstly provokes amusement (through the game), but also more subtle emotions such as appreciation (with a scoring game) and pleasure (the fact of winning something). These emotions are more readily present thanks to the active nature of advertising, unlike traditional, passive advertising.

The marketing competition must be designed and organised around the brand’s key issues. Here’s 10 reasons to launch a marketing competition.

SUMMARY

1. Gain visibility
2. Creating virality
3. Getting a message across
4. Promoting a product in an original way
5. Mark an important event
6. Supporting a promotional period
7. Finding new customers
8. Get to know your audience better
9. Building customer loyalty
10. Leading your teams internally

Marketing competitions are highly effective tools for enhancing a brand’s image, raising awareness or simply communicating about a product, service or event.

The operation dissemination stage is crucial, as it is here that companies will be able to reach the widest possible target audience. The main advantage of a competition is that it can be broadcast very simply via any channel, thanks to a simple URL. It can also be integrated directly into a web page, for an even more immersive effect. By using several advertising channels at the same time, the process of promoting the operation is even more effective.

Here are the different channels through which a competition can be broadcast, with the aim of increasing its visibility:

• Email campaigns (in a banner for example)
• Media coverage on social networks (Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Instagram Ads etc.)
• Via display advertising

Widely-distributed competitions help to raise brand awareness via a wide, multi-channel distribution network. But it’s also interesting to bet on the target audience itself to spread the operation virally.

Certain types of marketing competitions allow for this, such as the Social Gauge.. Cette mécanique incite les participants à partager le jeu sur les réseaux sociaux. Plus il y a de nouveaux inscrits, plus les parrains ont de chance d’être tirés au sort pour gagner des récompenses.

Organising and promoting a competition gives brands the opportunity to spread different types of message in a creative, original and effective way.

A variety of scenarios can be put in place to suit the audience and convey the specific message that the brand wants to share with its target audience.

Here are a few examples of marketing competitions to get a message across:

• A fun quiz can be used to communicate interactively about a service or a new product, or even to educate people about the world of the brand and its history.

• A Blindtest immerses participants in a world, the ideal way to get audiences going and leave a lasting impression.

Brands can broadcast messages via each stage of a competition. The home page, for example, highlights a theme, prizes to be won or a new product. The gamified mechanics or the results page encourage people to visit the website or a product page to find out more about the offers.

To increase the chances of participants visiting the site at the end of the operation, it is possible to give away promotional codes via an instant prizes system. By taking part, players can immediately see if they have won something, and can use the promotional code directly by visiting the site.

Here are a few examples of competitions to promote a product:

• The Gift Finder asks participants to fill in a personalised questionnaire. At the end of the operation, they find out which gift or product is ideal for them.

• The voting mechanism makes it possible to highlight products while collecting product preferences from its audiences.
  

Marketing competitions can support a communication campaign around a major brand event. To ensure that the operation performs well and achieves its marketing objectives (lead recruitment, engagement, conversion, etc.), the various stages of communication surrounding the operation must be respected.

First of all, it’s important to tease out the forthcoming operation to ensure that it attracts traffic at the time of launch.

Then it’s a question of animating your audiences during the event. There are several ways of doing this, depending on the type of event:

• For an annual highlight (Christmas, Easter, etc.) or a sporting highlight, the brand can offer an Advent Calendar-type mechanism, or a scoring game such as Prediction during sporting competitions.

• For a trade fair or festival, the company can offer tickets to be won beforehand by means of random drawing, but it can also offer prizes to be won on the spot with a Wheel of Fortune, for example.

• Is a brand celebrating its birthday? Now’s the time to delight its customers and fans with a fun event that makes a lasting impression by offering prizes to be won over a given period.

Are the sales, Black Friday or exclusive private sales days for loyal customers just around the corner? This is the ideal time to launch an operation to boost sales and maximise conversions.

Marketing competitions can serve several purposes:

• Attract customers to the website by offering them the opportunity to take part in a game on the theme of sales to win discount vouchers via their social networks.

• Doing drive to store (in-store use of discount coupons won online)

Get even more sales by stimulating post-purchase (participants can earn additional discounts by uploading their proof of purchase).

Marketing competitions and lead generation go hand in hand. In fact, this objective, which has been widely pursued by brands throughout the year, is now a sensitive one, against a backdrop of the end of third-party cookies and the protection of personal data.

Marketing competitions are an effective way of recruiting qualified leads and attract new customers. By offering attractive prizes, the brand encourages prospects to get involved.

On the other hand, competitions increase brand visibility by encouraging participants to share the competition with their network, which can attract new prospects and potential customers.

Marketing competitions are an effective way of collecting qualified data on participants.

By asking participants to fill in a registration form to take part in the competition, it is possible to obtain valuable information about their preferences and interests. By including optional questions, you can gather more specific data about their consumer habits. customer database is enriched. It is also possible to personalise future marketing campaigns and better understand the needs of your target audience.

Please ensure that you comply with data protection laws and clearly inform participants about the use of their data in accordance with the confidentiality policy.

Marketing competitions can also be an effective tool for building customer loyalty. By offering exclusive competitions to loyal customers, the brand encourages them to stay involved and continue interacting with its products or services.

Competitions can be designed to reward loyalty by offering exclusive benefits or free products, for example. This can help to strengthen the relationship by creating a sense of belonging and mutual esteem.

Competitions can also encourage customers to share their experience with their network, which can lead to greater visibility for the brand and attract new customers.

Marketing competitions are not just for brands and companies selling products or services. They are also very useful in internal communication. En effet, ils permettent de :

• Training employees using quizzes
• Boost group cohesion (like digital team building) through a participative game or team game
• Encourage productivity by challenging people via an open poll, such as an idea box.

Taking the temperature of well-being at work via a survey

Conclusion

In conclusion, marketing competitions offer many advantages to brands. They can increase visibility, go viral, get a message across, promote a product or mark an important event. To find out more, discover 8 tips for a successful interactive campaign!