One question we get asked a lot is, “do competitions work on Facebook and what are some good examples?” The answer to that is, success depends on a lot of factors:  

• your objectives (what are you trying to achieve, what message are you trying to send)
• the task (does the effort required to complete the task match the prize offered)
• the prize (is the prize something people would want, is it novel, does it create attention)
• the audience (You may generate 10,000 fans but are they the ‘right’ fans, does it matter)
• the mechanic (is the process of entering easy, clear, bug free)
• the insights and interactions you get back as a result of the competition (what did we learn) 

Here is one example which has generated a lot of discussion about social media marketing in general:  

Westfield ‘All I want for Christmas’ Facebook Campaign

To enter, you had to use Westfield’s’ Facebook app to update your status with ‘All I want for Christmas is a Westfield Gift Card’ and you went in the draw to win a $10k gift card. This was considered a highly successful national campaign. So was it? Let’s have a look.

6734 fans on the competition page, 12,349 Westfield mentions in statuses. 67,423 Westfield mentions in comments. Westfield top of mind in xmas season. Job done. Right?  

VJ says:

Success depends on, well…how you view ‘success’. If Westfield’s objective was simply to set itself apart from the other property giants and strengthen its position as a strong retail brand, then the campaign can be considered successful. A bunch of customers deciding they would like a WF Gift Card for Christmas is pretty good.  If buying a Westfield card was the measure,  then obviously the number of purchases or at least click throughs, would be of utmost interest.  

What about engagement?

I am interested to see what happens next. What have they done to engage these fans?  Pity there is no follow up from the competition page - when you click on the site now its just a placeholder. They perhaps should have updated it with who won, had some pictures/interview with winner etc, just to leverage the buzz they garnered through the campaign.   

And what about the hate groups that ensued? Do they matter? See 1000 strong Facebook group against the promotion and it’s tactics. By its very nature, social media campaigns can generate negative feedback and preparing for it can be pretty fruitless. And it’s hard coming to terms with the fact that not everyone loves your brand the way you do. A bit of negative sentiment could be ok if it means you are trying new things.  Having said that, users had friends notify them that their facebook account had been spammed, i.e they thought someone had hacked facebook and were using Westfield as the spam content… when in reality the friend had engaged with the Westfield promotion! A word of caution perhaps?   

The Verdict?

There is no doubt they did a great job at spreading the word with the Westfield branding dominating news feed everywhere. The question on all our minds though is, is it enough to gather fans? Are ’mentions’ a good measure of success? (just like ‘brand awareness’). Will it convert into sales (I.e. sales of Westfield cards)? Is that what is important at the end of the day? 
A good social media strategy needs to ask, “what now?”.
 
Other competitions worth looking at: 

Dunkin Donuts
They tied in new product release (Vanilla Bean Coolatta) with social media promotions.
Dunkin Donuts have continued to use Facebook with new contests etc. but they don’t seem to be answering to any of the posts which is quite a waste.  The site is quite comprehensive and they have over 1 million fans!  

Red Bull
Redbull have always been spot on in terms of brand in terms of playing into the fact Redbull gives you energy to do random things. The site is maintained well and there is a conversation between the brand and its fans (vs… dunkin donuts) and also links into their influencers under the athletes tab, so you can easily monitor Redbull’s total social media activity.  

Vibe Hotels – Become a Fan of Vibe Hotels and win
A nice simple competition asking people to submit videos on the hidden entertainment hotspot. Anything from your favourite café, to your favourite club. The best entries win great prizes, including: a weekends accommodation for 2 at Vibe Hotels throughout Australia (7 packages to give away). They don’t have a corporate presence on Facebook yet unfortunately (only a competition page) and I am not sure the prize warrants the effort someone would put into this.  User generate content competitions usually require a better prize. Especially with the typical Vibe target audience who would be tourists or busy executives.    

IKEA Malmö – Tag it and win
IKEA  ran a Facebook competition in November to promote its new store in Malmö. Store manager Gordon Gustavsson put up a series of photos of the store display areas and got Facebook users to ‘tag’ themselves over items of furniture; the first person to tag an item won it.  This activity used a profile, the photo album format and the standard Facebook tagging tools.  See the Facebook profile for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson and the The Facebook photo album. User actions were reported in their news feeds further spreading the word. Whether or not the campaign encouraged people to go to the Malmö store – it definitely worked to launch the store on a small budget and personalise IKEA in the eyes of customers. In the long term, this is an important goal to have achieved.