Creating a Frenzy with Online Video Contests

How to raise brand awareness and gain market share with online video contests

People love winning free stuff. They also have a passion for online videos. Combine the two concepts into a single marketing strategy known as the online video contest and you wind up with an innovative way to attract new customers, retain existing clients and spread the word about your firm and its products or services.

Companies are already catching onto the video contest trend. Intent on getting more people to slip on its plastic clogs and sandals, Crocs™ Philippines recently launched an online video challenge called “Crazy4Crocs.” It’s an interactive multimedia competition that invites people to showcase their playful and fun side on YouTube and gives them their 30 seconds of fame. To entice people to participate, Crocs is offering prizes that include Canon PowerShot cameras and cash.

Online computer and software retailer Newegg is also working the online video contest angle, having already posted success with the strategy in 2008. This year, the company is inviting college students to record a short video that shows how one would spend the money saved by shopping at Newegg. The videos are then uploaded to the company’s site or a YouTube account. The prize list includes $1,000 to $5,000 gift certificates, home theater systems, game consoles and camcorders.

The fact that Crocs and Newegg are using online video contests to their advantage doesn’t surprise Kris Drey, vice president at Emeryville, Calif.-based custom streaming video hosting service Fliqz. “Now that everyone is comfortable creating and watching online video, we’re seeing a lot more firms designing contests to entice viewers to watch and respond,” says Drey. “The strategy is being used by everyone – from small firms all the way up to the big name brand corporations.” 

Not all of those campaigns succeed. Some don’t offer enough of a “reward” for participation, says Drey, while others rely on an unfocused approach that lacks the necessary planning and execution. “If you’re not organized you’ll end up putting a contest out there that doesn’t get any traction, and that doesn’t do anything for your brand,” he explains. “With any type of viral marketing activity, you really need to have a plan in place before you put it out there on the Web.”

Setting time limits and deadlines is also important, lest you end up with a contest that encompasses “everything under the sun” and goes on perpetually. “Let participants know that they have one week to get their videos submitted, and that their files can’t exceed a certain size,” advises Drey, who also encourages follow-up messaging like “You have two days left to submit your videos!” to help nudge participants.

The prizes are also important, and have to be impressive enough to get cybersurfers to pick up their cameras, shoot their videos and upload them to your site and/or YouTube. “You can’t expect to get much response if all you’re offering is a free Microsoft mouse,” says Drey. “If someone is going to put the time into shooting and editing a video, the prize has to be something that people are willing to go after.”

Ariel Ozick, CEO at Newark, Del.-based Internet marketing firm Wired Rhino, concurs, and says the prize is probably the most important aspect of a successful online video campaign. “If you offer a really great prize, or a number of them, and base it on interaction and votes, you'll definitely get a lot more traction from your video contest,” says Ozick. “And don’t forget that people also love fame, and will go to great lengths to be famous, even if it’s just for a few seconds in a video featured on your company’s Web site.”

Big brands tend to run into the greatest challenges when developing online video campaigns, primarily because they get wrapped up in the brands themselves, not realizing that users “don’t care that much, and are more interested in something that’s relevant to them,” says Ozick. Find ways to integrate the brand with that relevant information or offer, he says, and your contest will have a much better chance of success.

Finally, Ozick says the best contests are created with a specific audience in mind, and preferably one that’s “built-in and already rabid about your company.” Crocs wearers, for example, show their support on a daily basis by donning the firm’s colorful, plastic footwear, so why wouldn’t they take an hour or two out of their day to come up with a video that could win them thousands of dollars?

“Unless you’re working with a huge marketing budget, consider the eyeballs that you’re going after with the contest before you spend time developing it and putting it out on the Web,” advises Ozick. “Build an audience first, then institute contest guidelines and monitor the results closely. You may be surprised at the results of this fairly simple viral marketing technique.”

Author of over 175 published articles, Tim Hawthorne is Founder, Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Hawthorne Direct, a full service DRTV and New Media ad agency founded in 1986. Since then Hawthorne has produced or managed over 800 Direct Response TV campaigns for clients such as Apple, Braun, Discover Card, Time-Life, Nissan, Lawn Boy, Nikon, Oreck, Bose, the Heifer International. Tim is a co-founder of the Electronic Retailing Association, has delivered over 100 speeches worldwide and is the author of the definitive DRTV book The Complete Guide to Infomercial Marketing. A cum laude graduate of Harvard, Tim was honored with the prestigious "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) in 2006.