The Impact of Gamification and Social Media Contests

Everybody enjoys a fun game or contest, and companies are paying attention to this realism by integrating these methods of entertainment into their marketing strategies. Whether it’s the NCAA March Madness tournament brackets, McDonald’s Monopoly Board Game, or JG Wentworth’s ‘Live Your Dream Now’ sweepstakes, the added attention can draw new leads and have a significant impact on brand awareness, website traffic, and social media following.

Whether it’s a sweepstakes based on sheer luck or a reward-based loyalty program, the main goal is to generate positive rewards for involved participants while ultimately expanding outcomes with sales or conversions. Social media is a valuable tool companies can turn to for achieving success. Participants often volunteer or are encouraged to share their recent online activity, which helps to boost awareness to the particpants’ networks. It’s viral marketing at its finest.

Many companies run simple contests for users that “like” a post or retweet a tweet. A business owner using a 3rd-party content or sweepstakes application has a favorable opportunity to take advantage of features such as tracking statistical demographics in an Analytics panel, using incentivized share tools, offering a pre-registration option, and including a video clip while also requiring users to subscribe to their own YouTube channel. In fact, Facebook actually requires that you use a 3rd party product to administer a contest or sweepstakes. But in addition to conforming with regulations, these 3rd party platforms provide the tools I’ve previously listed, which can be used to generate more information about a target audience, provide additional follow-up opportunities, or to present more information in a unique way.

Marketing trends are changing every day, but one thing that won’t change is that brands will always be looking for ways to get in front of a large potential audience and to uniquely engage with them to establish a channel of communication and ultimately convert business. Integrating contests and sweepstakes into a marketing strategy is a great way to achieve these goals.

How has your brand seen success by administering a contest or sweepstakes? I hope the engagement you’ve provided has generated positive results!

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