Creative Examples Of Social Media Competitions Under Lockdown Restrictions
Take inspiration from these brands running social media competitions in lockdown restrictions. From isolation mullets to sending prizes to local heroes.
Social media competitions have become a well worn tool in the marketing toolbox for most brands. As the nation begins to settle into our new isolated existence brands are quickly shifting their strategies to adapt with new approaches to Facebook and Instagram contests.
We’ve collected some of our favourite examples of brands running competitions under the restrictions of social isolation. These times can be hard, but tough limitations are often the key to creativity.
So embrace the rules, and work on your own social competition, taking notes from these clever campaigns to get the ball rolling.
Pip & Nut: Give the gift of giving
With our frontline workers giving their all to keep us safe, and stop our basic infrastructure falling to pieces, it can feel a bit self-centred to enter that sweepstake for a new iPhone.
Great social media marketing is all about tapping into the emotions of your audience, and some brands have realised that it’s a good time for generosity and social responsibility.
Nut butter brand Pip & Nut are running a “Nominate A Nut Butter Lover” contest where entrants can nominate a person who deserves to receive a care package of their products.
To enter you just have to tag your nominee and tell them why you think they are a hero. Pip & Nut choose their favourite stories and send the car package.
The Body Shop have run a similar campaign using a simple illustrated graphic, offering both nominator and nominee a voucher prize so that they can share the pleasure of their victory together.
Moondog: Run a social isolation challenge
Melbourne craft beer brewery Moondog clearly knows their target audience inside out. Their irreverent sense of humour and hip but laddish tone of voice is brought to life with high impact graphics in this UGC contest.
Their fans are challenged to “give yourself an iso mullet”. Recognising the social suicide involved in the contest, Moondog are awarding every entry a four pack of beer, and the winner a years supply and epic prize pack plugging some collaborating brands.
The campaign has generated some great pieces of UGC, with some fans even incorporating the branding into their mullet.
Four Sigmatic: Fun for the whole family
When your target demographic is primarily made up for adults, it’s easy to forget that the kids of now could be your customers in the future.
Purveyors of performance enhancing mushrooms Four Sigmatic ran a mushroom drawing contest.
Captivating the need to create a “hygge” atmosphere at home, while acknowledging the trials of intensive parenting under lockdown, the brand encouraged fans and their kids to submit their drawings to win a box of their Chaga Elixir.
What seems like a casual bit of content, is a great way to generate UGC and also connect as a brand with a generation of future customers. Proud parents, and probably some childless adults, might keep their drawing pinned to the refrigerator building a sense of connection and nostalgia with the brand.
Connection and nostalgia? That’s the marketing gold.
Slate & Sable: Collaborate and increase your reach
Teaming up with other brands is a great way to expand the reach of your competition. Plus when many brands offer somewhat one dimensional products, it can be good to diversify your prizes by curating a goodie bag.
We love the punchy graphic used by Canadian clothing brand Slate & Sable that stands out on their Instagram to promote the collaborative contest. While both brands involved have only small followings, they can leverage each other’s audience, and mutually benefit from the growth.
By switching up the collaboration regularly they can keep the expansion rolling while keeping their contributions affordable and the prizes appealing enough to draw a real crowd.
Mountain Dew: Make the competition fast and intense
Performance beverage giant Mountain Dew are popular off the field in the world of competitive gaming, with their GameFuel product specifically designed to keep the thumbs of worlds’ best gamers bashing the competition.
For the remake of Final Fantasy VII they are running an intense competition with prizes given every seven minutes for a full month. With lockdown causing a boom in gaming, both Final Fantasy VII developers and Mountain Dew have realised that it’s time to go hard.
With so many prizes awarded, it would be impossible to manage this in the comments of their posts. Mountain Dew have created a landing page with a form for users to fill out their details and enter. This makes legal compliance far easier to manage, which is especially important for a contest of this scale.
CleanKweens: Run a contest with an Influencer
Why not take the social media contest off your own brand accounts and collaborate with an influencer.
If you want to tap into a different audience, many brands are teaming up with influencers to sponsor giveaways for their fans. This kind of collaboration feels like vintage influencer marketing these days, but it has stood the test of time. Why? Because it works!
Wellness and nutrition influencer duo CleanKweens did exactly that, collaborating with a health food store and fitness brand to offer an isolation giveaway.
The campaign might be on a small scale but it ticks all the boxes. The brands are able to tap into the Kweens larger following, while the influencers can tempt some new followers and engagement while sticking in the confines of social isolation.
Universal Audio: #ShelterInMusic photo contest
Hashtag UGC contests are simple to run and can drive fantastic engagement rates in the right niche.
Music producers are renowned for their obsession with equipment, in terms of both sound and aesthetics. Universal Audio are recognised as some of the best manufacturers of beautiful and top performing gear on the market, making their fans perfect for a hashtag photo contest.
Their home studio contest invites producers to share photos of their home studio featuring UA gear. Winners receive free software, helping to keep the running costs down, while UA collect the content and the fans.
If the prize is appealing enough to your fan base, photo contests can bring in some professional grade photography, which can be shared on your own social accounts. Just be sure to credit the original photographer and ask permission for commercial use.
