The global prize promotion agency
Trusted by brands like:
Specialists in prize promotional marketing campaigns
Creative judged competitions/contests
Contests and competitions where entrants are judged on skill can be powerful campaigns that engage the public at a profound level, and significantly improve awareness and credibility of a brand or organisation.
Instant win prize draws/sweepstakes
Consumers love instant win mechanics, and the opportunity to find out if they are a winner daily, weekly, or at the point of purchase. Engaging visuals, game mechanics, and viral loops keep customers playing and interacting with the brand, without the need to give large prizes away.
Purchase necessary promotions
Purchase necessary promotions remain one of the most popular strategies for retail and ecommerce as they represent a very effective purchase inducement and help products stand out on the shelf and in the wider marketplace.
Interactive games
Interactive games and campaigns need not rely solely on incentives to be successful. Games where the player competes, progresses, or learns something, can be inherently rewarding and generate lasting goodwill towards a brand.
eSports tournaments
eSports show no signs of slowing down, both as a form of entertainment and as a bona fide sport category. Much like the offline sports world, they require rules and governance, infrastructure, sponsorship, events and marketing support.
Events and offline activations
Activations in the real world matter to brands as much as they ever had, and the thrill of competing, trying a product, or simply spinning a wheel to reveal a prize combined with smart social media strategy can provide outsized returns.
Competition/contest and prize draw/sweepstake services
Microsite and landing page design and development
- Stunning landing pages
- Advanced microsites
- Survey and data capture mechanisms
- WordPress, Webflow, Hubspot, and all major platforms and languages supported
- Managed hosting facilities in all major territories
Promotional compliance, terms and conditions and winner selection
- Single territory legal and compliance
- International legal and compliance
- Winner selection and random draws
- Judging panel compliance and independence
- Vote monitoring and voting auditing
- Instant win randomisation and logic
Prize sourcing and prize fulfilment
- Sourcing of unique prizes
- Winner experiences
- Travel and event prizes
- Digital prizes, collectibles and NFTs
- Domestic and international warehousing, packing and delivery
Ideation and concept development
- Creative strategy and business planning
- Performance benchmarking
- Regionalisation
Digital PR
- Celebrity and influencer judging and hosting
- Online coverage and link building
- Reactive and viral PR
Interactive, game, VR and AR development
- Minigames and instant win development
- Free to play games
- Unity, Unreal, Adobe Air and all major engines, platforms and languages supported
Reasons to run a prize draw or competition campaign
Increase product sales and revenue
Purchase necessary prize promotions are very powerful tools to encourage shoppers to purchase promotional products. In a traditional retail setting, promotional products stand out on shelves, compliment retail merchandising, and supercharge sampling and trial activations in store. They are also a fantastic way to survey your customers during the entry process, gathering important shopper, survey and contact details – allowing capture of marketing and communication preferences.
Build powerful customer relationship opt in lists (email, SMS, instant message)
Gathering opt in contact data for existing customers and leads is vital for most businesses, and using an incentive can be a excellent way to do this if executed correctly. It’s important to make sure opt in lists acquired using an incentive are still highly targeted to the vertical and customer profile.
Educate and enlighten
Creative contests and competitions are a very effective educational tool, allowing entrants to learn for themselves through an incentive, or express themselves according to your chosen mechanic. Creative competitions judged by experts can elevate an institution or brand’s reputation and awareness.
Earn press and media coverage
Creative, viral, or “reactive” prize promotion campaigns are increasingly popular vehicles for digital PR, achieving rapid coverage and important inbound links for SEO. Such campaigns can travel around the world in a matter of hours, and can often result in traditional TV and radio coverage if sufficiently popular. Reactive PR campaigns piggyback an already (or soon to be) trending story, so rapid iteration and a keen instinct for could get picked up (not to mention a decent book of press contacts!) is vital.
Give back and inspire
Awards and competitions undertaken by institutions or organisations to offer prizes, grants, or other awards are vital tools to engage with stakeholders, and often present fundraising, partnership or sponsorship opportunities, as well as gaining press and media coverage.
Dominate social media
Contests and sweepstakes are popular on social media, and, if leveraged correctly, be extremely effective. However most brands on social media tend to do whatever they see others do; namely a simple “follow and retweet” or “tag a friend”. These do not engage your audience (or new potential followers) beyond a superficial level, and a good social media prize promotion should stand out and differentiate itself as much as possible.
“Refreshingly honest”
“We were really impressed at not only how knowledgeable they were but also how frank they were about finding ways to simplify, reduce risks and ultimately spend less money.”
“Agency support”
“As an agency, it’s hugely reassuring to have compliance and data support for competitions and sales promotions we run for clients. We’re able to take on larger and more complicated campaigns, and run them in different countries since we rely on Contest PR for the rules and regulations, as well as handling all the customer data.”
“Technical Wizardry”
“Their developers really knew their stuff, from machine learning to shortlist winners, to game development using Unity and Unreal Engine, to sophisticated computer randomisation. I hope we get to work together on bigger and better things.”
Get inspired
25 Prize Promotional ideas
We break down 25 wildly successful prize promotional campaigns from the likes of Doritos, Colgate and Pringles. Get inspiration from a diverse range of prize draw and competition campaigns at both large and small scale.
Do you work with marketing and PR agencies on client campaigns?
Yes, we are regularly contracted by external marketing, design, and PR agencies to assist with client campaigns where a prize promotion or sales promotion is involved. Often agencies will have some internal resources to handle certain aspects of the campaign (e.g. design and development resources), but may lack the critical expertise in compliance, winner selection, prize sourcing and fulfilment, or data handling. We help plug the gaps, ensure a successful campaign, and reassure the client that the necessary bases are covered.
What is the difference between a competition/contest and a prize draw/sweepstake?
It’s important to distinguish between competitions/contests and prize draws/sweepstakes as they involve totally different methods of winner selection. Competitions/contests are known as games of skill, where winners are determined on the basis of merit – such as a high score in a game, or are judged as winner by a panel based on criteria set. Prize draws/sweepstakes are known as games of chance, where winners are determined on the basis of random selection – either at the point of entry (instant win), or at the end of the promotion (prize draw).
How important is the prize?
A prize needn’t be expensive or unique for a successful prize promotion, but it should be carefully considered, and be desirable to your target entrants.
Many highly successful campaigns rely more on the theme and mechanics of the promotion itself, rather than the prize incentive; that is to say, if the promotion is fun and entertaining in itself, the prize is of lesser importance. Campaigns should aim above all to be fun.
How important is it to be compliant in the countries I am running a campaign in?
Compliance is all about treating entrants or customers fairly. Though different countries have diverse rules and regulations around prize promotions, the laws and codes are designed to protect the public from exploitation or deception. If you are targeting entrants or customers in particular countries, it is important to ensure you are abiding by the laws and codes of those countries – be that localising your terms and conditions (i.e. providing them in the native language of that country), registering with a local governmental body or paying taxes on a prize. The good news is, that for both common sense territories, and those that are more strict, with expert advice it is very achievable and generally very affordable to run compliant promotions in the countries you wish, with the reassurance that everything is in order.
Contest PR is a specialised marketing agency for prize promotions. We are ISO 9001 and 27001 certified.