5 Ideas of Christmas contests to promote your brand

The end of the year is the perfect time to boost the digital presence of a brand. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, you got it, your audience will be celebrating a whole lot. As a brand, you need to acknowledge that. Don’t be afraid to get in a festive mood! Promote your brand by organizing different contests and challenges. It will motivate your target to get to know your brand. There are several ways to launch such actions, depending on the nature of your business. Here a few examples that may apply to your company.

1. The Instagram hashtag campaign

if you are a BtoC company that specializes in fashion or beauty for example, get your audience to take pictures of themselves. Also, make sure your product is featured. Pick a specific hashtag that the participants will tag in their picture. This will help the contest to go viral.
Reward the most original/most liked contestant with free products from your company. You can host such contests via Instagram through a social wall via our solution.

2. The Facebook contest

Have your audience go on your Facebook page and comment on a post that you will carefully chose. You can suggest that they also like your page. Encourage them to tag at least one friend in the comment section to promote your brand. Also, to reach a broader audience, don’t neglect the power of paid advertisement to reach as many potential participants as possible. Once you’ve reached your contest end date, pick a winner via a website like randompicker.com.

3. The essay contest

This type of contest is a good way to develop storytelling around your brand while promoting it. First things first, set a launch page on your website to promote the essay contest. Then, have your participants tell a memorable story about using your product/service in a few lines. These essays will be useful to you later, as you can always quote them later to promote your brand. If done properly, this should considerably increase traffic to your website.

4. The video contest

To spice things up, you can always choose to host a video contest. Ask participants to film themselves while using your product. Or you can just ask them to do an action related to your brand, like Go Sport did. This is the easiest way to create user generated content. It will also create organic video testimonials to promote a brand. You can host the contest by using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Vine for example.

5. The vote contest

Have your participants chose between at least two products/services of your company, to know which one they prefer. This can even turn into a mini market study if you ask them to explain why they chose their favorite product. Find out which product got the most votes, and pick a random winner among those who voted for it.

Regardless of the type of contest you choose, make sure it fits with your product/service and area of business. Don’t just copy what you see online, but make it perfect four YOUR company. Also, don’t underestimate the power of influencers, they can truly make a difference. Then can make your challenge go from regular, to viral.