This presentation was given at the 2012 Digital Impact Conference in NYC. Presenters Ben Pickering, CEO of Strutta, and Sandra Fathi, President of Affect, discuss how to develop, manage and promote your online contest.

1. HOW TO RUN A WINNING
ONLINE CONTEST
Sandra Fathi | President |
Ben Pickering | CEO |
@sandrafathi @teamaffect
@bpicks @strutta
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2. SPEAKER BIO – SANDRA FATHI
Sandra has spent the past 15+ years helping technology
companies achieve their communications goals through
public relations, social media and marketing.
Prior to founding Affect in 2002, Sandra led corporate
communications and investor relations for RADVISION, a
provider of video conferencing infrastructure products.
Earlier in her career, she was on the technology team at
Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, where she specialized
in the networking, telecommunications, computer hardware,
software and Internet business verticals. While at Edelman,
some of Sandra's clients included Ericsson, EDS and
Microsoft.
Sandra is the immediate Past President of PRSA NY Chapter and Past President of
PRSA's Technology Section. Her commentary has appeared in PR Week, Marketing
Profs, Bulldog Reporter and DM News, and she has speaks frequently at industry
events.
A New York native, Sandra attended New York University and graduated from
Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a degree in International Relations.
2011 PR News People Awards PR Professional of Year, Finalist
2010 Bulldog Awards PR Agency Professional of the Year
2010 PR Source Code 'Top Tech Communicators' Awards, Honorable Mention
2009 PRSA New York President's Award
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3. SPEAKER BIO - BEN PICKERING
Ben joined Strutta as CEO in September 2009 and has been
involved with online media for more than ten years. Prior
to Strutta Ben worked at Yahoo!, where he held a variety
of strategic roles within the company’s display advertising
business. While at Yahoo! Ben played a key role in the first
large-scale consumer promotion utilizing user generated
content: Doritos Crash the Super Bowl. Now he's thrilled
to be able to offer marketers of any size the ability to
create equally engaging experiences using the Strutta
platform.
As a writer Ben has appeared on Mashable and as a featured contributor to Social
Media Examiner. He has also been asked to speak on the topic of social media
contests and promotions at events such as Likeable Media’s #LikeableU Summit and
the Public Relations Society of America Digital Impact Conference.
Ben holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and an M.B.A., both from Stanford
University.
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4. AGENDA
1. Why run a promotion
2. Common types of promotions
3. Basics of promotional law
4. Planning your promotion
5. Tips for a successful promotion
6. Awesome case studies
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5. WHY RUN A PROMOTION?
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6. THE EVOLUTION
From this... To this
And this
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7. GOING BACK EVEN FURTHER
Napoleon Nicolas
Bonaparte Appert
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8. BENEFITS OF RUNNING A PROMOTION
1. Generate leads and sales
2. Drive traffic online <-> offline
3. Increase brand equity
4. Engage and delight customers
5. Grow fan base, generate opt-ins and subscribers
6. Gain user data and insight
7. Collect consumer generated content
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9. COMMON PROMOTION TYPES
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10. SWEEPSTAKES
Chance based promotion
VS
CONTEST
Skill based promotion
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11. SWEEPSTAKES
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12. OTHER SOCIAL SWEEPSTAKES
Enter, Tweet or Comment
to Win
• Follow @
• RT or #CONTEST
• Blog comment
Winner selected at random
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13. WINNING!
•Good Design
•Clear Call to Action
•Simple Entry Form
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14. CONTEST
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15. UGC PROMOTIONS
Skill Based
•Public voting / Closed judging
•What are the entry requirements
•Collect only information you need
•What is the criteria for winning
•Keep it simple!
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16. REWARDING PARTICIPANTS
•Coupons
•Free Samples
•Other Incentives
•Encourage and Have Fun
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17. PROMOTIONAL LAW
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18. BASICS OF PROMOTION LAW
Promotion containing all 3 deemed an illegal lottery
1. Prize
• Anything of tangible value
2. Chance
• Any random selection of winner, absence of skill
3. Consideration
• Purchase or Payment
• Substantial effort
• Possible with UGC contests but more theoretical than practical risk
• Liking a Page, sending a tweet not “substantial effort”
Must eliminate 1 of 3
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19. FACEBOOK PROMOTIONS GUIDELINES
Don’t
• Administer a promotion directly on your Page or use
Facebook features as an entry or voting mechanism
• Automatically enter someone for Liking, posting a photo
or comment
• Use a Like button for voting
• Use Facebook channels to notify winners
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20. FACEBOOK PROMOTIONS GUIDELINES
Do
• Use a 3rd party application
• You can require a user to Like your page or check-in to a
location provided the promotion is administered through
an app
• Be sure your promotion includes the following:
a. A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
b. Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered
by, or associated with, Facebook.
c. Disclosure that the participant is providing information to (disclose recipient(s) of
information) and not to Facebook.
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21. UNIQUE ISSUES FOR TWITTER
The Twitter disclosure challenge
• 140 character limit makes disclosure of any material terms, rules or privacy
policy challenging
Risk Mitigation
• Reference official rules/URL
• Tweet abbreviated rules in several messages
• Consider use of tiny URL or cmp.ly
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22. PLANNING YOUR PROMOTION
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23. KEY PLANNING QUESTIONS
Do you have time and resources to plan and execute?
Beware the “Field of Dreams fallacy” (i.e., if I build it they will come)
Do you have clear and realistic goals?
Enable it to “go viral” but don’t count on it
Do you know what your audience wants?
Have a premise and prize targeted to your audience
Do you understand applicable rules and regulations?
What platforms are you using and how do you want to administer
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24. ALIGNING WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
1. Crystallize goals & objectives before launching a promotion
2. Design promotion to achieve these goals
3. Tailor program to focus on and attract your target audience
a. Consider safeguards in rules and regulations
b. Raise the barrier for entry
4. Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
5. Build in milestones and triggers for measurement
6. Calculate investment vs. return
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25. CHOOSING YOUR PROMOTION TYPE
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26. TIPS FOR SUCCESS
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27. TIPS FOR RUNNING YOUR PROMOTION
Plan Ahead
One of the biggest reasons promotions fail is due to lack of planning. Plan for
when things don’t go according to plan!
Don’t Over-Complicate
Favor execution over concept - i.e., a concise message, clear call to action, and
good UI will outperform “clever but complex.”
Leverage Partners
Marketing partners/sponsors can expand the reach of your promotion and provide
additional marketing channels. They can also help increase the prize value,
making it more attractive to entrants.
Technology partners with platforms and social media tools can make it easy to
create and manage a promotion.
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28. TIPS TO BUILD BUZZ
1. Make it easy to share
2. Post regularly on Facebook (use “Pinned Post”)
3. Leverage other social networks (Twitter, G+)
4. Promote on your website
5. Email existing customers
6. Enlist sponsors to cross promote
7. Identify influential blogs (or other media)
8. Use UGC entries for content marketing
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29. TIPS TO BUILD BUZZ
1. Make it easy to share
2. Post regularly on Facebook (use “Pinned Post”)
3. Leverage other social networks (Twitter, G+)
4. Promote on your website
5. Email existing customers
6. Enlist sponsors to cross promote
7. Identify influential blogs (or other media)
8. Use UGC entries for content marketing
9. And in case you missed it... Make it easy to share
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30. PROMOTING YOUR PROMOTION
1. Build and budget for effective marketing plan (pre and post)
• Public Relations
• Marketing
• Social Media
• On-site/In-store
• POS
2. Leverage existing and new company assets to achieve KPIs
3. Stack the deck –- seed entries
4. Plan for contingencies
• Additional marketing budget
• List purchase/email marketing solicitation
• Public take-over
• Crisis communications
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31. TECHNOLOGY PARTNER OR PLATFORM
1. Custom vs. Standard Build
2. Expertise vs. Experiment
3. Social Media Tie-ins
4. Budgetary Constraints
5. Time-to-Market
6. Internal Resources
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32. NEW YORK INTERN PROJECT
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33. NEW YORK INTERN PROJECT
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34. GOALS & OBJECTIVES
1. Generate Awareness for the Agency
• Drive public relations
• Increase social media engagement
2. Proof of Concept: Run a Successful Contest
• Gain valuable experience and insights
• Train our internal team
3. Find an Intern
• Summer Internship Slate
• Potential Full-time Employee
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35. CONTEST REQUIREMENTS
1. Student, 18 or over
2. Legal US Resident
3. Upload Photo or Video
4. Fill Out Questionnaire
5. Solicit Votes & Comments
Top 6 Advance to Semi-Finals
Top 3 Flown to NY for Interviews &
Challenges
Judges Pick Winner
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36. Flight Plan
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37. MARKETING PLAN
1. Prompting Action 3. Setting Triggers 5. Analyzing Results
2. Setting Milestones 4. Tracking & Measuring
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38. CELEBRITY JUDGES
1. Lend Credibility
2. Built in Promotional Mechanisms
3. Objective Judging
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39. BRAND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT = MODERATION
1. User Generated Content
• Copyright Issues
• Language
• Comments
• Inappropriate Content
2. Public Voting & Fraud
3. Media Monitoring
4. Social Media Monitoring
5. Communicating Results
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40. MEASUREMENT
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41. MEDIA , SPEAKING & AWARDS RESULTS
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42. RESULTS & ROI
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43. ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES
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44. RESULTS & ROI
Culver’s
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45. RESULTS & ROI
Tourism Newfoundland
!""#"""
$%&'($)
(%*+,*-./')
!"#$%&$'%()*+
,)-'./0
!+*!12$,34'3)$%
!"#"$%&"'
&()*$%'+,*-*.$+#&
./01+2+&3
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46. RESULTS & ROI
Ultimate Wedding Contest
!"#$
%&'(%)*'+,(%-*+.
/+,0*%1&
!"#$%%$&'
()*+",$+-.
!"#$%"%&'##'()
*(+,-%."-+
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47. RECAP
1. Why run a promotion: Engagement, Data, Leads ->Sales
2. Common types of promotions: Contest vs. Sweeps
3. Promotional law and FB guidelines: Know the rules
4. Planning your promotion: Set clear and realistic goals
5. Tips for a successful promotion: Keep it simple, Partner up
6. Case studies: How can a promotion work for you?
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48. THANK YOU!
Any questions?
Sandra Fathi | President |
Ben Pickering | CEO |
@sandrafathi @teamaffect
@bpicks @strutta
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