What do these four things have in common? Scotiabank is running a commercial advertising their "Get a Second Opinion" campaign with a contest they are running. There are different versions of their get a second opinion on your investments commercials so what makes this one different?
They are bringing their advice to you in the form of tips and to make sure you pay attention they are offering an added incentive; a contest. To enter their contest you need to watch the Women's Network at a certain time and then log on to the Women's Network website to prove you heard the tip.
Unlike other commercials, the viewer has an incentive to pay attention, to hear what they have to say and then you have to take the next step to log on and give them your information. They've partnered with Women's Network to make it into an event, a game of sorts to engage the viewer in their message. The viewer is given a simple call to action message - log on to womensnetwork.ca and enter the financial investment tip heard while watching the commercials. The viewer must pay attention if they are interested in entering the contest.
With this type of commercial advertising Scotiabank ensures they collect viewers information, they can track the number of people responding to the commercial quickly and they are able to create excitement in a stressful financial investment time.
So how can you make sure people pay attention to your advertising message?
Increase Return on Your Advertising by Engaging the Propspect
Do you Track Advertising Results?
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Increase Sales by Engaging Customer Participaction Contests
Sometime ago I wrote about the idea of engaging customers in contests and not just collecting names at a trade show. I was thinking about it more and thought it was worth a second look. Contests are a good way to get a bunch of names of people who aren't really interested in your product, so ask people to do something more then just dump their name in a draw.
Once you've figured out what great prize you can hand out send an invitation to your customers to participate. First they would need to submit a video of them (or friends) using your product in a unique way. They would need to answer the question, why buy your product?.
If you have a good website developer that could enable videos to be uploaded to your site, utilize him. If not, use youtube to upload videos for your consideration that way others could vote for their favorites. Think about it, your customers would be providing testimonials and free commercials of your product to be viewed on a popular video hosting site. So far it's cost you the prize and some time inviting them to participate.
Second, encourage them to invite others to join in their video and to ask family and friends to vote for their favorite videos. Open the contest up to non customers by uploading a video of your own explaining the rules and the prize. Remember, be interesting, energetic and have fun with it.
After a set amount of time choose one of the top 5 videos as the winner.
Even if you think your product can only be used in one way, you'll be surprised what people will come up with. If you take the product I work for, CanPages, its a phonebook, nothing special right? Well search - uses for a phone book - on google and you'll find lots of people coming up with different ideas. People are very creative and imaginative, use it to your products benefit.
For this to be successful you'd need to allow enough time to elapse, the prize would have to be very significant, and you have to have enough of a customer base to invite to participate. You could add other categories for other prizes like the best photo of your product, or the best photo of someone using your product in a unique way. You could utilize flicker as the host for this type of contest.
Whether or not you utilize video or photos the important thing is to find a way to engage people in the products experience. If you have a booth at a trade show, have the prospect use the product or write how he would use the product in his life before he can enter your draw. Use these ideas in your marketing. Get together with other people that sell your product and host a contest together.
Have your clients participate in a photo scavenger hunt, the person who submits the most pictures of your product being used in the world to flicker wins. Have other prizes for the most unique place, or the weirdest way your product has been used.
What other ways can you engage people to use your product and create interest?
Links:
Advertising and Marketing
Once you've figured out what great prize you can hand out send an invitation to your customers to participate. First they would need to submit a video of them (or friends) using your product in a unique way. They would need to answer the question, why buy your product?.
If you have a good website developer that could enable videos to be uploaded to your site, utilize him. If not, use youtube to upload videos for your consideration that way others could vote for their favorites. Think about it, your customers would be providing testimonials and free commercials of your product to be viewed on a popular video hosting site. So far it's cost you the prize and some time inviting them to participate.
Second, encourage them to invite others to join in their video and to ask family and friends to vote for their favorite videos. Open the contest up to non customers by uploading a video of your own explaining the rules and the prize. Remember, be interesting, energetic and have fun with it.
After a set amount of time choose one of the top 5 videos as the winner.
Even if you think your product can only be used in one way, you'll be surprised what people will come up with. If you take the product I work for, CanPages, its a phonebook, nothing special right? Well search - uses for a phone book - on google and you'll find lots of people coming up with different ideas. People are very creative and imaginative, use it to your products benefit.
For this to be successful you'd need to allow enough time to elapse, the prize would have to be very significant, and you have to have enough of a customer base to invite to participate. You could add other categories for other prizes like the best photo of your product, or the best photo of someone using your product in a unique way. You could utilize flicker as the host for this type of contest.
Whether or not you utilize video or photos the important thing is to find a way to engage people in the products experience. If you have a booth at a trade show, have the prospect use the product or write how he would use the product in his life before he can enter your draw. Use these ideas in your marketing. Get together with other people that sell your product and host a contest together.
Have your clients participate in a photo scavenger hunt, the person who submits the most pictures of your product being used in the world to flicker wins. Have other prizes for the most unique place, or the weirdest way your product has been used.
What other ways can you engage people to use your product and create interest?
Links:
Advertising and Marketing
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Using Contests as a Marketing Tool
I am presently watching a documentary on professional contesters and using contests for product marketing promotion. Some people are obsessed with winning contests and are labelled professional contesters. They rely on the lessons of "The Secret" and stuffing the ballot boxes. They spend hours entering as many contests as they can find in an effort to win as much as they can. I remember at trade shows we would end up with lots of names, some people has stamps with their contact info, others brought labels and their names would be in the box more than once.
As a marketer I used contests as a way to get people's attention and in the mid 90s it worked. Today however, people are tired of being on lists and with identity theft being a real issue many people don't want to enter. So what you end up with is a bunch of names of people who are only interested in winning and not in you or your product.
Pepsi, in the bring home the cup contest, they showed how using the power of amateur video and contests can create excitement and more active participation by the entrant and and less useless name collecting by Pepsi. The entrants had to create a video of to win the prize of a visit from the Stanley Cup. This created increased purchasing with product placement, cheap advertising as entries became ads. The entrants became the bullhorn of Pepsi products as entrants would include others in their excitement.
Tim Horton's roll up the rim is a perfect example of using contests to create higher revenue. Every year Tim's promotes their roll up the rim contest and every coffee that is bought during this time is a chance to win something, even a car. A contest like this can boost sales because for the most part people will buy a coffee instead of requesting an empty cup for free. It gets people in the door and with the smell of fresh doughnuts and fresh brewed coffee wouldn't you spend a twoonie?
The ballot type contest only brings lots of names and few leads. If you want to have a contest to promote your product get creative, a ballot box is the lazy way to have a contest. How can you garner interest in your product or service through a contest that will engage the entrant more than just entering their name and number?
As a Latasia Jewelry Designer I could have a contest where the entrant had to come up with the most unique Latasia Jewelry using more than one piece of jewelry. They would need to submit a photo of their Latasia Jewelry creation and photos would become the property of Carennedy Solutions for use in promotion. I could add the pictures to a squidoo lens as a flickr plexo and have people vote on the best combination to determine the winner.
What could you do to create a contest that would engage the entrant and provide you with the most exposure?
As a marketer I used contests as a way to get people's attention and in the mid 90s it worked. Today however, people are tired of being on lists and with identity theft being a real issue many people don't want to enter. So what you end up with is a bunch of names of people who are only interested in winning and not in you or your product.
Pepsi, in the bring home the cup contest, they showed how using the power of amateur video and contests can create excitement and more active participation by the entrant and and less useless name collecting by Pepsi. The entrants had to create a video of to win the prize of a visit from the Stanley Cup. This created increased purchasing with product placement, cheap advertising as entries became ads. The entrants became the bullhorn of Pepsi products as entrants would include others in their excitement.
Tim Horton's roll up the rim is a perfect example of using contests to create higher revenue. Every year Tim's promotes their roll up the rim contest and every coffee that is bought during this time is a chance to win something, even a car. A contest like this can boost sales because for the most part people will buy a coffee instead of requesting an empty cup for free. It gets people in the door and with the smell of fresh doughnuts and fresh brewed coffee wouldn't you spend a twoonie?
The ballot type contest only brings lots of names and few leads. If you want to have a contest to promote your product get creative, a ballot box is the lazy way to have a contest. How can you garner interest in your product or service through a contest that will engage the entrant more than just entering their name and number?
As a Latasia Jewelry Designer I could have a contest where the entrant had to come up with the most unique Latasia Jewelry using more than one piece of jewelry. They would need to submit a photo of their Latasia Jewelry creation and photos would become the property of Carennedy Solutions for use in promotion. I could add the pictures to a squidoo lens as a flickr plexo and have people vote on the best combination to determine the winner.
What could you do to create a contest that would engage the entrant and provide you with the most exposure?
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