In the last few years of running echoVME, I’ve observed that following a pattern doesn’t work all the time.
The consumers get bored and expect their minds to be blown away with something amazing and that’s when I decided to hold contests to use them to reach out to the target demographic.
Who doesn’t like a bit of competition in everything?
There’s an old saying that a competition is the only place where everyone else pushes you to excel! Hosting them can always create excitement in an already engaged audience and when it’s something where people can participate right from where they’re at through Facebook, all the more audience you have engaged.
Remember, contest drives excitement in an already engaged community! Hosting a contest has been historically a great idea for brands. By hosting contests:
- you make people spending time for your brand.
- you get access to innovative ideas, as you start crowd sourcing.
- you invite influencers to talk about you, to win something in return.
I thought, I should compile all those ideas that has worked for the brands I work with at echoVME – digital marketing agency based out of India.
12 of these Facebook contests have been personally tested and they definitely drive great engagement.
Please feel free to try these ideas for your brand.
Top 25 Facebook Contest Ideas for Brands to Get Quick Entries
1. Caption Contests
Caption content is one of the best facebook contest ideas in this year for quick entries.
I have first-hand experience in conducting Caption Contests and have realised that they are possibly one of the best ways to keep the audience fixated on to our page.
It tends to provoke their creativity and the contest engagement does not stop here.
Supposing you have left it to the audience to complete the caption by providing a solution to something, people come swarming in to read how other people have made it work.
Case Study: We held this contest for Chuchu TV with the caption ‘Top tip to console a crying baby is__________’
We received about 132 entries for this contest and ended up with a winner.
Budget Spent: $30
2. Tag A Friend Contests
Tag a friend contest is another azaming Facebook giveaway ideas you should try for your brand.
I have given this a shot for some of our own clients at echoVME and found that this contest is where you get a good number of new audiences.
You make a post and ask your page’s fans to tag whomever they find relevant.
The posts could be anything from tagging a person who has inspired you to whoever simply can’t stop taking their faces out of anything edible.
Case Study: The ‘Tag a Vegetarian’ for VegPlanet brought in a phenomenal number of new audiences and reach, with about 197 entries for the contest in total.
Budget Spent: $15
3. Trivia Contests
Here, we formulated and posted location specific contests on our clients’ business pages.
General Knowledge junkies pour in to answer the questions.
Winners could be announced for individual questions or an event could be created where a series of questions are asked for a particular period of time, coinciding with a local festival or event, and the overall winner could be awarded.
Case Study: South Indian Shelters’ trivia question which was based on their own city brought in about 253 entries.
Budget Spent: Rs. 3,000
4. Selfie Contests
This is my favorite Facebook contest idea in this year. Selfie Contests have all the potential to take your audience by a storm, I’m personally quite a fan of this as well!
If you’re a product based business, you could ask your followers to post selfies of them using/consuming your product.
You could also invite for group selfies with how their group has set squad goals with your product.
Case Study: The Wink selfie contest turned out well with 132 entries and a number of new audience being tagged in the comments.
Budget Spent: Rs. 1500
5. Biggest Fan Contests
Invite your audience to show who’s your biggest fan ever! This could also be your big event with even bigger give aways!
It’s also an opportunity to identify exactly what type of demographic is a fan of your brand or product.
Case Study: Chu Chu TV’s Biggest Fan Contest brought in an unbelievable number of entries with a staggering 800 people.
Budget Spent: $50
6. Fill in the Blank Contests
Pick your own brand or product as the theme and write an incomplete sentence.
Let your fans flex their creative muscle and fill up the rest of the sentence.
Winner gets his prize and you just might end up getting a new idea for your brand/product.
Case Study: This was another one for Wink where we left it to the audience to tell them what they’d do if they were a lipstick. We got about 234 entries with pretty quirky & witty replies.
Budget Spent: Rs. 1700
7. 360 Video/Photo Contests
Virtual Reality, although in the game for the last few years, still manages to amuse me, every single time.
There is no better tourist attraction than VR.
You could host events with VR by posting 360 video/ photo contests for your audience.
This is also an opportunity for you to boast your brand or office space.
Case Study: The 360 photo contest to count the number of butterflies in it, for Lokaa developer, had about 103 entries with over a thousand people having reacted to the post.
Budget Spent: Rs. 400
8. Special Day Contests
In my years of experience where I’ve experimented with numerous marketing strategies, I’ve concluded that the only way to stay relevant is to move with the trend and stay dynamic.
Identify all the special days/ festivals/ events and find how people commonly celebrate it and hold events that are related to the celebration.
Your prizes would be another reason for them to celebrate.
Case Study: We roped in all our Kolam enthusiasts for Urban Tree Infrastructures. We had about a 100 entries and almost two thousand people reacting the post.
Budget Spent: Rs. 600
9. Brand Based Contests
Stick to your band! Whatever post that goes up, has to help in making your brand’s name last in people’s memories.
While the posts should be relevant to your brand, the game doesn’t necessarily have to deal with the technicalities of your product/services. It could be simple vocabulary games with words related to your product.
Case Study: A vocabulary game based on Vijay Shanti Builder’s brand brought in about 152 entries. We used the word ‘Boulevard’ and asked them to form as many words as possible with it.
Budget Spent: Rs. 1000
10. Puzzle Contests
At times I break the monotony by moving away from the conventional verbal games for a while and start using puzzles.
People will find it interesting and there is also a chance of them promoting your brand to someone else, while they help them out with the puzzle.
Case Study: Giving something new for our Chu Chu TV viewers was an enriching experience on both ends. A puzzle was out of the usual and got an unbelievable 794 entries.
Budget Spent: $40
11. GIF Based Contests
There is nothing more satisfying than pausing a GIF at the exact place you want it to.
This is a contest that could keep your audience glued to their screens until they get it right because, trust me, this game is addictive!
Case Study 1: Another one for Lokaa Developers, the GIF contest brought in 240 entries, for stopping it at the most prestigious address.
Budget Spent: Rs. 500
Case Study 2: We also made a GIF contest for another one of our clients- Wink.
The audience were given gifts corresponding to the number they stopped the clippers at.
We got about 560 entries and very good engagement for the post.
Budget Spent: Rs. 1000
12. Photography Contests
This contests brings in a fewer entries in comparison to the others.
But, what it lacks in quantity, it makes up in quality.
It ropes in the creamy layer of your audience and photographers who are usually quite active on social media.
So, when one of them gets an award, he’s going to let everyone know!
Case Study: We got about 143 entries for the food photography contest for Urban Tree Infrastructures. As expected the post received a huge audience and the winner got a meal for two at an exotic restaurant.
13. Voting Contests
A voting contest again is another place where people share it with their network to pull in some votes.
The voting being real-time, enhances user experience and also makes it more lively and fun.
Case Study: Pictures of pets have always managed to steal the show and especially when it’s pictures of puppies, you simply can’t resist!
This voting contest for pets brought in about 2354 entries and a world-wide audience. This is an ad we came across and certainly did like the idea!
14. Story Contests
Who doesn’t like stories?
We all have our own favourite genre of stories but a lot of us haven’t ventured into writing them.
So, go ahead and give your audience a platform to come out of their shells and work their magic!
Case Study: The story contest on Sanjeev Kapoor’s Facebook page brought in 184 entries and pulled in a good crowd of avid readers as well.
15. Sweep Stakes Contests
Contests like Sweep Stakes create a lot of excitement and buzz among your audience.
When you’re holding a contest, why not do it the best way possible?
Case Study: The OnePlus5 Sweepstakes by Book My show got about 138 entries.
16. Share and Tag
This is one of the most common contest posts, yet very effective in terms of engagement and results.
The contestants are supposed to like and share the post using the specified hashtag.
The catch for this type of a contest is that the give-away must always be big, only then will it give maximum engagement.
Case Study: Sangam Lifespaces conducted the contest, as shown in the screenshot below, with an Apple watch as a give-away.
The people on the top 50, 25 and 10 were shortlisted and the posts were made in weekly intervals before coming down to the last winner.
17. Hashtag Contest
Hashtags when used right can get you trending on the social media platforms.
I’ve observed that contests that have their own hashtag pretty much grab the attention of their audience.
Case Study: This contest by Zomato called for the participants to post their food snaps on Instagram with the hashtag #zomatocontest.
The contest brought in about 1267 food shots and about 100,000 impressions.
18. Quiz Contests
Quizes always manage to keep the audience engaged and intrigued. It also aids in content marketing when done strategically.
Below is an example of how Flipkart took advantage of quiz contests.
Case Study: Flipkart first published 5 articles on their blog, which spoke about their employees, work culture and other Flipkart related content.
Then they ran the quiz which asked 10 questions from the articles that were posted. 10 lucky winners got an award of Rs. 1500.
19. Trending Topic Contests
Current affairs always give a boost when contests are made based on them.
It immediately strikes a chord with the audience as it communicates about something that is already on the top of their mind.
Case Study: The screenshot below shows a contest run by fullyfilmy which was based on the Avengers movie that had quite swept the crowd.
The contest called for fans to name all the superheroes on the t-shirt and the give-away was the t-shirt itself.
20. Riddle Contest
Like quizzes, riddles are also quite intriguing and keep the audience engaged.
You can make them in connection to your products, especially when you run an e-commerce store.
Case Study: The participants were supposed to crack the riddle and which will lead them to one of their products with a coupon code, on the brand’s online store. A series of riddles was posted, with each one having one exclusive winner.
21. Leveraging your audience
Contests work on mutual benefit; both the brand and the audience must have a take-away.
This type of contest comparatively has more benefits to the brand than the other contests.
They can call for the audience to subtly promote their products to stand a chance to win the prize.
Case Study: Godrej invited the contestants to bust myths about microwave cooking.
This would act as an eye opener to everyone who has been mislead by the myths.
This contest is suitable for brands that sell such products that are surrounded by rumours.
22. Social Awareness Contests
Every brands has a responsibility to the society. When they are raising their voice for a cause, they can spread the word with the help of contests. Here is an example of one such contest.
Case Study: This contest highlighted the aftermaths of deforestation and how animals are losing their way into the cities from the forests.
This post had a baby elephant asking the people to help him find his way home. This immediately struck the sentimental cord among the audience.
The lucky winners got their goodies in the form of the products the brand sold. The contest also demanded the contestants use the hashtag #BridgeTheirHome
23. Parenting Contests
If your brand publishes content or sells stuff that appeals exclusive to parents or toddlers, then this is the best way to go about it.
Case Study: The contest called for mothers to comment on the post about which toy brings back their most cherished memories. They used hashtags which aimed at promoting Shumee, a brand that sells wooden toys.
24. Guess the Personality Contests
This type of contest is something any brand can use.
The personality on the image can be someone who is related to your brand, bought your products recently or influencers who promote your brand.
Case Study: Urban tree made the following contest post this year, in light of women’s day. This contest required the audience to figure out the woman celebrity in the picture. The post gave way for a lot of engagement and one lucky winner was given a gift voucher.
25. Guess the Product Contests
For brands that sell multiple products, this is the perfect kind of contest.
One of the spaces is left blank for the audience to guess the product.
A one-line hint was given and whoever guessed it right stood a chance to win the product itself.
Case Study: The below contest was run by iVOOMi India. The brand had a display of their products and left one place blank.
They also gave a hint to what the product was. A few lucky winners, who guessed the product right got the same as the prize.
I guess I’ve jotted down every contest I’ve held and come across. Tell me what you have in plan to keep your audience engaged, in the comments section below!
