The trend of hosting photo contests online as promotions is quickly growing for many reasons; it’s a great way to get consumers involved in your brand, to interact rather than just stand by, and with so many folks owning personal digital cameras, it’s an easily accessible form of engagement. That said, there is still the challenge of coming up with not just good – but great ideas for your contest theme(s). Here’s a few tips to help you out so you can get down to what’s important for your business…promoting it and increasing customer interest! These are some things we tell our PhotoScramble customers…
Make photo contest ideas broad enough to get a great response and reasonable number of entries, while still focusing on a theme that can be applicable to your brand. It also helps to make the theme work for photos that “most” people would already have on hand. This cuts down on the amount of work a potential entrant is required to do and increases the likelihood of them actually participating in your contest. Here is an example of a great contest hosted by Hazelnut Kids. You can see that this e commerce business utilized it’s kid’s toys market to get parents to upload photos of their little ones playing. The winner received a $50 dollar gift certificate to the store. The theme was broad, being that many people have kids, yet still focused on kids & toys for the store’s target market. It also is pretty common knowledge that many people have photos of their kiddos already on their computer or camera for quick and easy upload.
Make your idea fun for and applicable to your target audience. If you are a bed & breakfast, travel photos of the world would be a great theme. If you are a Chamber of Commerce, try a “love your city” contest. It will let others show photos of their city, while you promote your own. You get the idea. So before you create your contest, do a bit of thinking about your products or services, your target audience, and what your target audience would be likely to engage with. If you need ideas, contact us, we’re here to help!
Good luck & happy hosting!