How We Got 285 Entries in 3 Days!
During the Chinese New Year festive season, Kobe decided to engage its influencers in an unprecedented way by getting them to participate in KobexCNY Instagram post entry contest. Within merely three days, Kobe garnered a whopping response of entries from its followers, 285 to be precise. Here are 5 reasons how we nailed it:
#1. “HUAT Are You Waiting for?”
Yes, you heard us right. That’s how we caught the attention of our influencers when we first announced about this contest through direct emails – a subject email that is succinct and elicits curiosity. Not only was it catchy, the subject email also captures the essence of the festive season at one read too. Attention-grabbing subject email is important in establishing the first connection of response from your potential participants to take part in your contest.
#2. Drop the Hard Selling
We could probably easily recall of contest that seemed only concerned about the brand’s own image through hard selling, without actually considering much of the participants’ point of view. Our company took a shift from this because we believe that people are the greater form of word-of-mouth marketing, hence precisely why we are Kobe (口碑) and are certain that creating awareness of our brand will be taken care on its own.
Kobe is moving into a brand that is relatable by our consumers, which means that a positive experience by our participants is key. The necessary bit is in how we facilitated an almost effortless involvement of the contest to our participants, so they would remember us and share this affirmative experience to their circle of followers.
#3. Simple Call-to-Action and Attractive Prizes
Firstly, we create an effortless involvement for our contest participants. Secondly, we also ensured that we utilised a platform that is at our influencers’ fingertip – Instagram. With just one platform for them to upload their photos on, the contest remains uncomplicated; and coupled with the ease of #hashtag that filters and collects the theme of the contest, submissions are automatically compiled.
It would excite participants to take part in the contest more so if they could quickly follow the instructions required. The power of an easy content mechanics can sometimes be easily overlooked. Hence, it is important to place ourselves in the shoes of participants when coming up with the contest mechanics. Furthermore, attractive prizes call for greater enthusiasm, especially when attributed to the significance of the festive season like the prosperity that $88 brings forth.
#4. Understand Your Participants’ Psychographics In and Out
Sure, taking part in a contest would mean we have to do something to fulfil the requirements set out. But, to be remembered as a company that organises the contest in a memorable way spells a deeper understanding of your participants’ psychographics. In this contest, we demonstrated it by being fully aware that OOTD is a must-have for many Instagram users during CNY festive season, especially the savvy ones like our influencers.
Hence, we capitalised on such crucial trend to ensure that a cultural and festival habit of showcasing one’s outfit during the first few days of CNY is aligned to the contest’s task. This was definitely something that our influencers would have done nonetheless, and it was pivotal for your brand’s image to not ask an extra favour that is causing inconvenience for your participants.
#5. Do More Than What You Promise
As mentioned in our e-poster, the ‘top winner would be richer by $88’. We appreciate the overwhelming responses from our participants and we want to acknowledge them for that. Taking the extra step energize our participants to take part in our future contests. Remain fun and relatable – this is how we have shown it:
First up, the 4 categories!
1. #TheMinimalist
2. #couplegoals
3. #familygoals
3. #wahsoREDah!
And our winner is…
(drum roll….)
@jananlim for the heart-warming photos centred around CNY!
Prizes will be mailed to all winners individually, do stay tune for some surprises in your mailbox! We were greatly inspired by the submissions received, thank you for making our Chinese New Year incredibly refreshing – truly appreciate all the efforts and thoughts put in!
