The best prizes for a competition
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You can’t have an online competition without a prize, and if you want your competitions to capture people’s imaginations, not just any old prize will do!
That’s why we have categorised the most popular types of prizes for you to maximise the chances of your online competitions and prize draws being successful.
The three main categories of prizes and rewards are:
- Flash gifts for a first purchase
- Experience gifts to reward the most loyal customers
- Material rewards
It might seem like an obviously important aspect of setting up your contest or competition, but it’s easily overlooked. Obviously, the most important element of running your contest is knowing your objective, then it’s planning the mechanics and details of how it’ll work, taking into account duration and promotion, but ultimately the big attraction that gets people to enter a competition is the prize.
The most effective prizes to encourage participation
The data from numerous marketing studies managed by game developers on prize trends has helped us gain a little more insight into the best practices to adopt to improve the chances of running successful campaigns utilising online competitions.
- In third place, we are unsurprised to see high-tech products (smartphones, computers, smart technology…) are very fashionable, which encourages participation and has delivered conversion rates of 77%. The latest premium high-tech products are always high on people’s want lists, so if you make a contest giving them a chance to win one instead of buy one, you’re giving them a huge incentive.
- In second place with 80% conversion rates are rewards concerning travel or invitations to events (weekend away for two, subscription boxes, premium festival package tickets, preview invitations, etc.).
- And in the hot seat it’s gift cards and vouchers, or even discount codes which give purchasing power back to the consumer. According to studies these sorts of prizes persuade at least 82% of an audience to participate. For the winners, these prizes are useful, whether they are redeemable on products or services from the organising company, or their partners or sponsors.
Top 3 types of rewards and prizes for your competitions
Remember that to enhance their acquisition and retention strategy on various levels, the organising company must adapt the details of their competition to the tastes, sensibilities and expectations of their audience, and this includes their rewards programme.
So let’s break down the three main prize groups:
1. Flash gifts for a first purchase
For a first competition, regardless of the type of competition you’re running, flash gifts (low value) will offer purchasing power to participants that can help to create initial interest in the brand. The goal of this prize is to make the brand’s products or services accessible, to initiate first contact for a sales opportunity, and ultimately lead to a first purchase and ensuing customer relationship. Many brands also decide to incorporate contests as part of loyalty programmes, and continue increasing the value of prizes that can be won, so the more points (or in some cases badges) the user has, the greater the value of prizes and rewards they could win (or exchange for).
That is exactly what Microsoft does with their programme, Microsoft Rewards, which lets you earn points with Bing searches by connecting it to your Microsoft account. The rules state that once you move up a level, you earn points more quickly, and it is also possible to accumulate points by purchasing games, films, and more on the Microsoft Store. These accumulated points can then be used to buy streaming content or even an Xbox and other Microsoft devices at a lower price to encourage purchasing.
2. Experience gifts to create excitement among loyal customers
The brand’s goal with a higher end experience gift is to enhance their reputation by rewarding loyal and passionate customers with a big ticket prize draw. This type of reward amplifies the impact of a competition by offering novel and higher-quality prizes.
That is what Netflix did with its Stranger Things competition in the form of 6 cinematic questions and a prize draw, with invitations to the Stranger Things season 3 premiere in Paris as the top prize. This was a great example of a logical and enticing reward related to the organising brand.
3. Material rewards, and so much more
A material prize, such as the hot new tech item or latest iteration of sneaker X with its cult following is the kind of prize people want to win – it’s an incentive in itself to try and win something they either would buy, or would like to buy. This kind of top tier prize can attract broad audiences to take notice of your brand, enter your online competition, and expose themselves to your messaging and content, and potentially even opt-in. By coupling such a prize with promotional codes for all participants who don’t win the top prize – flash gifts – you make all participants a winner in some respect, and they are then incentivised to purchase something they might not otherwise have bought.
Gifts are not necessarily just material goods. In gamification, a reward must be a fond memory above all else. So, by transforming a reward into an experience, the competition inspires brands and the organising company to turn their customers into individual ambassadors. By detaching themselves from the material aspect of the prize, brands will get to meet their winners.
For example, you could create a competition to discover the most loyal customers through a casting process to be cast as the main character in your new brand advertisement. Anything is possible and imaginable as long as you explain the terms of participation and the rules to the public. Nothing is more frustrating for the user than wanting to take part in a competition but not understanding the rules or details, and not knowing the exact arrangements. For a good example, think of phone-in prize draws on television that advertise after the competition has closed. While an online competition or prize giveaway is a relatively simple concept, like anything, the devil is in the details.
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