The Hidden Value of Contests

Whether you're a publisher or a brand — or a publisher selling to brands! — contests are an exciting way to motivate audiences to participate in your narrative and add quality, community-driven content to your mix. In addition to the short-term buzz and potential traffic bump, contests can provide key long-term benefits that help your bottom line.

Discover great content creators in your community. The right topics or incentives will encourage your most thoughtful and creative contributors to participate in the conversation. These engaged contributors can also be your biggest influencers and help build an organic network effect that increases your property's value. RebelMouse provides effective out-of-the-box tools that enable you to promote contest participation systematically and target audiences through strategic SEO, on-site promos, social CTAs, and email outreach.

Get premium content with minimal investment. Contests are a seamless way to generate substantial quality posts that can be yours to keep, repurpose, and promote as evergreen content. More importantly, alternative ways to build such a rich content library require substantial investment for only a fraction of the ROI. To further ensure that your contests align with key strategic goals, encourage participants to use a preferred hashtag to maximize impact and easily keep content organized.

Harness valuable data. Contest participants understand that there's a trade-off for a chance to be featured on your site or receive an incredible prize. Require participants to include an email address or other identifier in order to build or strengthen your relationship with your audience. As a cookieless web becomes reality, data is increasingly becoming the most valuable currency on the internet. Media and brands with access to first-party data and a direct connection to audiences will be in the best position to maximize monetization.

United Airlines: First-Class Content Strategy

United Airlines leverages its dynamic content hub to host contests that bring together a global community through their love of travel. Here's a look at some of the airline's most successful campaigns.

Her Art Here

United Airlines' #HerArtHere contest called on female artists to submit their artwork to be used as designs on two of United's planes, among other perks for winners. It was a fantastic campaign because it didn't just drive a brand marketing strategy for United, it also celebrated a cause that resonates for many: supporting women and giving artists new opportunities to showcase their talents on a grander stage. Sharing values between a brand and an audience is powerful enough to transcend any revenue-focused strategy, and it will quickly build sticky audiences where it matters most.

United Journey

The airline's United Journey contest solicited travel stories from United flyers, who tagged travel photos and videos with the #UnitedJourneyContest hashtag for a chance to be featured on United's content hub and win one million miles.

United received over 40,000 submissions, resulting in a repository of quality, beautiful content that could be repurposed for future company use. The contest also attracted submissions from over 15,000 of United's frequent flyer customers.

Kaspersky + TWELVE: Making the Most of Opportunities

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, cybersecurity company Kaspersky used the crisis as an opportunity to tap into its global audience. TWELVE is an online movement featured in Kaspersky's media hub, Tomorrow Unlocked. The competition called on creatives around the world to send in short video submissions that use the current lockdown limitations to inspire them creatively.

Kaspersky received over 500 quality video submissions, which surpassed expectations and prompted Kaspersky to extend the contest indefinitely. After the winners were selected, Kaspersky turned the content into an interactive experience:

Make the Most of Contests With RebelMouse

Bring your contest idea to life with RebelMouse's powerful design, workflow, and distribution tools. Request a proposal today to get started!

Need contest ideas? Our creative agency is ready to deliver concepts that match your content goals. Either way, we're here to help — contact us or reach out to your RebelMouse account manager to create something new.