MARKETING
10 Inspiring Instagram Contests That Caught Our Attention
Instagram is huge.
It has more than 1 billion users and is the third most popular social media site today.
But Instagram isn’t all about pretty photos and clever art.
In fact, it’s becoming a huge marketing platform where Fortune 500 companies are stepping into the scene.
With all these big companies vying for the attention of users, how can you put your brand forward in the feed so it receives acclaim and attention on Instagram?
The answer is through running an Instagram contest.
Why Run an Instagram Contest?
There are many ways you can advertise on Instagram. You can buy ads. Write copy. Post photos of products.
But nothing comes close to running an Instagram contest.
Why? Because of user engagement.
When you run an Instagram contest, you make a way for users to engage with your brand. They take photos with your product, tag friends, and spread the word about your company.
What’s the best way to run an Instagram contest?
10 Inspiring Brands That Did Instagram Contests Right
Instead of coming up with a generic how-to, let’s look into 10 successful Instagram contest campaigns.
Ready to be inspired?
1. Love One Today’s Avocado Contest
Love One Today promotes a delicious way of life through eating avocados.
To gain buzz online, it launched the AvoFruitFull contest.
Instagram users were encouraged to submit a photo of their own beautiful avocado creations.
Users who got the most likes on their photos won great prizes such as themed water bottles, a food processor, and even a Vitamix blender!
Tip: Offering giveaways that resonate with your followers’ interests (like a Vitamix blender for health-conscious people) is a great way to get your contest going.
2. Stoka Bar’s Boatload of Giveaways
Who wouldn’t grab the chance to win 40 free treat bars?
Stoka Bars are crunchy, delicious, and best of all – low on carbs.
Here’s the contest Stoka Bar did to gain more followers.
Tip: If your Instagram page is new, a contest is a great way to gain new followers.
3. Pink Lime Look’s Good Hair Day Contest
Pink Lime Look gave contestants the chance to be themselves in their entries.
To join the contest, users submitted photos of themselves sporting their favorite hairstyles.
They could choose whatever background they liked for the entry.
All contestants had to do was use Pink Lime Look’s hashtag for the chance to win.
Pretty simple, considering the prize was a $500 makeover!
Tip: If you’re giving out a valuable prize, make sure to mention how much it’s worth for the chance to grab more attention.
4. Lifebox Food and Punks and Chancers Collab Contest
Organic materials and ingredients are essential to anyone who’s health-conscious or vegan.
Take a look at how Lifebox Food and Punks and Chancers ran their collaboration contest on Instagram.
All users had to do was follow the two companies, like the post, and tag a friend.
The prize?
A cool sweater, a tote bag, and a delicious box of vegan food.
Tip: Collaborating with another company for your Instagram contest is an effective way to gain more followers. It’s great if the company you collaborate with already has its own strong base of followers.
5. How to Make Trouble by Simon and Schuster
Unique contests that ask users for stories almost always steal the show on Instagram.
Here’s the perfect example of how it’s done.
The contest encouraged users to comment with their own personal “troublemaking” strategies.
The prize?
Cecile Richard’s new book, a tote bag, cute pins, and a bookmark.
That’s a lot in exchange of a story!
Tip: One of the reasons people are on Instagram is because they love to share their lives with others. If you ask for their stories in exchange of cool prizes? You’ll have a sure hit.
6. Valdo Prosecco’s Trip to Italy
Who wouldn’t want to win a spectacular trip to one of the most beautiful countries in the world?
With its contest, Valdo Prosecco made the trip an enticing prize.
All users had to do was take a photo of a cocktail they’d made with Valdo Prosecco.
They then shared their secret recipe as a caption with a hashtag.
The winner was picked out of the 25 top-voted photos.
Tip: Whenever you can, encourage contestants to be creative. Also, letting users vote for top photos is a great way to promote engagement with your brand.
7. Melissa Corser’s Makeup Giveaway
Makeup and nails are the perfect combination for girls who love to get glamorous.
Melissa Corser gave Instagram users the chance to win both with her contest.
What made this contest different was that users could enter as many times as they wanted.
The result?
More tagged friends, engagement, and exposure.
Tip: Who says contestants can only enter a contest once? When you give them unlimited entries, you get massive engagement in return.
8. Fushi’s New Product Launch
When Fushi launched its Biovedic skincare solution, it took to Instagram with a contest.
The prize?
A full set of Ayurvedic skin products for healthier, more beautiful skin.
Tip: If you’re launching a new product, running an Instagram contest and giving the product away as a prize is a huge way to promote it.
9. Shockingly Healthy’s Contest for Free Tickets
For those into the healthy lifestyle, there are few things as exciting as a Green Living Show.
What Shockingly Healthy did was capitalize on that interest with two sets of free tickets for the show.
Tip: Are there any events in your area that would interest your followers? If so, offering free passes or tickets as prizes is a great way to increase engagement with your brand.
10. Domino’s Super Fan Contest
Domino’s contest offered a huge prize to users who could prove they were “super fans” of its pizza.
The prize? $10,000!
To add to the fun, the contest allowed users to be creative.
They had to prove they weren’t only fans, but super fans of Domino’s.
Tip: The more creative your contest is, the better! If you can give a big cash prize, it won’t hurt your chances of getting thousands of engagements, either.
How to Create an Instagram Contest That Goes Viral
Instagram is huge, and it opens the door to massive marketing opportunities for you.
Also, running an Instagram contest promises you user engagement, attention, and interest.
All you need to do is find out what works and how to set up your Instagram contest.
Remember, allow users to be creative and tell their stories.
Keep in mind why people use Instagram at all: to take stunning photos, be spontaneous, and share their lives with others.
There’s a ton of prize ideas you can select as giveaways. These can be cash, new products, unique knick-knacks, and anything related to your business.
When you’ve set up a contest that follows these cool tips, all you need to do is sit back and wait for the follows and shares to start pouring in!
Image Credits
All screenshots taken by author, November 2019
MARKETING
A Recap of Everything Marketers & Advertisers Need to Know
When rumors started swirling about Twitter changing its name to X, I couldn’t believe it at first. But then, in July 2023, as I searched for my favorite blue icon on the phone, I found a black icon instead. It had actually happened!
MARKETING
The key to correcting the C-suite trust deficit
Take a moment to search “CMO tenure” and you’ll find a wide variety of content discussing the short tenure of CMOs and how it’s among the shortest of roles in the C-suite. If you dive deeper, you’ll find that CEOs don’t seem to trust CMOs.
Boathouse’s CMO Insights study (registration required) noted several sobering conclusions:
- 34% of CEOs have great confidence in their CMOs.
- 32% of CEOs trust their CMOs.
- 56% of CEOs believe their CMO supports their long-term vision.
- And only 10% of CEOs believe their CMO puts the CEO’s needs before their own.
If these statistics also apply to the CMO’s entire organization, then it’s clear we have a trust problem with marketing leadership.
If you haven’t read Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” I consider it required reading for anyone in any leadership role. In his book, Lencioni builds a pyramid of dysfunctions that need to be addressed for a team to succeed. The foundational dysfunction — with which one cannot build a successful team — is “absence of trust.” We see it at scale with marketing organizations today.
Introducing objectivity through data
In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare writes, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Each organization that makes up a company looks at the company from a different perspective. What marketing sees as positive, finance may see as negative. But who’s right? No one.
Usually, there is no objectivity because leadership comes up with an idea and we execute it. It’s like the fashion proverb “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Unfortunately, we’re going to struggle to run a profitable organization if it’s run like a fashion show.
Therefore, we need to introduce objectivity to how we work. Leadership needs to come together to agree on goals that align with the goals of the broader organization. One element of this conversation should be an acknowledgment that this is turning a ship.
Often leaders — especially those without marketing backgrounds — are likely to expect instant gratification. It’s going to take time to turn the ship and you and your team would do well to set reasonable expectations right away.
Dig deeper: KPIs that connect: 5 metrics for marketing, sales and product alignment
Aligning goals and metrics across the organization
With goals in hand, we need to assign metrics to their progress and agree on the source(s) of truth. Once these objective measures are in place, perspective doesn’t matter. 2 + 2 = 4 regardless of whether you’re in HR or accounting.
Every public road has a speed limit and whether you’re in compliance with it has nothing to do with your perspective. If you’re above it, you’re wrong and subject to penalties. Referring to the fashion example, it’s not a fashion show where some people like a dress and others don’t.
By using data to objectively measure marketing’s progress within the organization and having the rest of the leadership buy into the strategy, we build trust through objectivity. Maybe the CEO would not have chosen the campaign the marketing team chose.
But if it was agreed that a >1 ROAS is how we measure a successful campaign, it can’t be argued that the campaign was unsuccessful if the ROAS was >1. In this example, the campaign was an objective success even if the CEO’s subjective opinion was negative.
Data-driven campaign planning
Within the marketing organization, campaigns should always be developed with measurement top of mind. Through analysis, we can determine what channels, creative, audiences and tactics will be most successful for a given campaign.
Being able to tell the leadership team that campaigns are chosen based on their ability to deliver measured results across metrics aligned to cross-departmental goals is a powerful message. It further builds trust and confidence that marketing isn’t run based on the CMO’s subjective opinions or gut decisions. Rather, it’s a collaborative, data-driven process.
For this to be successful, though, it can’t just be for show, where we make a gut decision and direct an analyst to go find data to back up our approach. This would be analytics theater, which is a perversion of the data. Instead, tell the analyst what you think you want to do and ask them to assess it.
For the rest of the organization’s leadership, ask questions when the marketing team presents a campaign. Find out how they came up with the strategy and expect to hear a lot about data — especially the metrics you all agreed would support the company’s overarching goals.
Dig deeper: 5 failure points of a marketing measurement plan — and how to fix them
Data literacy: Building credibility through transparency
Building trust doesn’t happen overnight, but a sustained practice of using data to drive marketing leadership’s decisions will build trust if the metrics ladder up to the organizational goals and all of leadership is bought into the measurement plan.
Over time, this trust will translate into longer tenure and more successful teams through building the infrastructure needed to tackle Lencioni’s five dysfunctions.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
MARKETING
How Tagging Strategies Transform Marketing Campaigns
As a marketer, I understand how today’s marketing campaigns face fierce competition. With so much content and ads competing for eyeballs, creating campaigns that stand out is no easy task.
That’s where strategies like tagging come in.
It helps you categorize and optimize your marketing efforts. It also helps your campaigns cut through the noise and reach the right audience.
To help you out, I’ve compiled nine ways brands use a tagging strategy to create an impactful marketing campaign.
Let’s get to it.
How Brands Use a Tagging Strategy
Tagging involves using keywords or labels to categorize and organize content, products, or customer data. You attach tags to specific items or information to make searching, sorting, and analyzing data easier.
There are various types of tags, including meta tags, analytics tags, image tags, hashtags, blog tags, and more.
So, how do brands use a tagging strategy to make their marketing campaigns stand out?
Improve Social Media Engagement
With over 5 billion users, social media provides an easy way to connect with your audience, build relationships, and promote your offerings.
Use a tagging strategy to boost social media interactions. Consistently use hashtags that align with current trends and topics. This encourages people to interact with your content and boosts content visibility.
You can also use tags to monitor brand mentions of your products or your industry. This allows you to engage with your audience promptly.
Consider virtual social media assistants to streamline your tagging strategy. These AI-driven tools can suggest relevant hashtags, track mentions, and automate responses. Implementing them can save time and resources while ensuring consistent engagement across your socials.
Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 1 billion members across 200 nations. It offers excellent opportunities for individuals and businesses to build and nurture their brands.
However, simply creating a professional profile isn’t enough to build a personal brand on LinkedIn.
Use various tags to increase your visibility, establish thought leadership, showcase expertise, and attract the right connections. For instance, use skill tags to showcase your expertise and industry tags to attract connections and opportunities within your industry. Use certification tags to help showcase your expertise and credibility to potential employers or clients.
Facilitate Customer Segmentation and Personalization
Personalization matters—more so in today’s data-driven world. In fact, 65% of consumers expect your brand to adapt to their changing preferences and needs.
To meet this expectation, consider using a tagging strategy.
Segment your customers based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, interests, purchase history, cart abandonment, and behavior.
Here’s a summary of the steps to customer segmentation.
With your customer segments ready, use tags to tailor your marketing messages and offerings to specific segments. Imagine sending targeted email campaigns based on what your customers need. That’s the power of segmentation and tagging in action!
Enhance SEO and Content Discoverability
Tagging content can have a profound impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and content discoverability. When users search for specific topics or products, well-tagged content is more likely to appear in search results, driving organic traffic to your website.
Additionally, tags can help you analyze the most popular topics with your readers. Then, the results of this analysis can help you adjust your content strategies accordingly.
And get this— certain AI tools can help analyze your content and suggest relevant tags and keywords. Using these tools in addition to a tagging strategy can help optimize your SEO strategies and boost content discoverability.
Partner with the Right Influencers
Influencer marketing has become a go-to marketing approach for modern brands. Recent stats show that 85% of marketers and business owners believe influencer marketing is an effective marketing strategy.
But how do you find the perfect influencer for your campaign?
Utilize tags to identify influencers who are relevant to your niche. Beyond this, find influencers who align with your brand values and target audience.
Additionally, look for influencers who use hashtags that are relevant to your campaigns. For instance, fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni uses #adv (advertising) and #ghd (good hair day) hashtags in this campaign.
Monitor industry-specific hashtags and mentions to discover influential voices and build profitable relationships with them.
Track Hashtag Performance
Tracking your hashtag performance helps you understand your campaigns’ engagement, reach, and effectiveness.
To achieve this goal, assign special hashtags to each marketing project. This helps you see which hashtags generate the most engagement and reach, enabling you to refine your tagging strategy.
Here’s an example of a hashtag performance report for the #SuperBowl2024.
This curated list of hashtag generators by Attrock discusses the top tools for your consideration. You can analyze each and choose the one that best fits your needs.
Categorize Content Accordingly
The human attention span is shrinking. The last thing you want is for your audience to have difficulty in finding or navigating your content, get frustrated, and bounce.
Untagged content can be difficult to navigate and manage. As any marketer knows, content is important in digital marketing campaigns.
To categorize your content, identify the main categories by topics, themes, campaigns, target audiences, or product lines. Then, assign relevant tags based on the categories you’ve identified. After that, implement a consistent tagging strategy for existing and new content.
Organizing your content using tags can also help streamline your content management workflow. Most importantly, readers can easily find the content they’re looking for, thereby boosting overall user experience, engagement, and conversions.
Boost Your Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing remains a powerful marketing tool in today’s digital world. It’s also another area where brands use a tagging strategy to directly reach their target audience.
Use tags to segment your email list and personalize your marketing messages. Then, you can send targeted emails based on factors like purchase history, interests, and demographics.
Personalization can significantly improve open rates, CTRs, and overall engagement and conversion rates. It’s a simple yet impactful strategy to make your email marketing strategy more effective.
Plus, you can use tags to track how well your emails perform with each group. This helps you understand what content resonates best with your audience and provides insight on how to improve your emails going forward.
Enhance Analytics and Reporting
Every marketer appreciates the immense value of data. For brands using tagging strategies, tags are powerful tools for gathering valuable data.
Analyze how users interact with your tagged content. See which tags generate the most clicks, shares, conversions, and other forms of engagement. Gain insight into audience preferences and campaign effectiveness.
This granular data about your marketing efforts allow you to make data-driven decisions, allocate resources effectively, and refine your marketing strategies.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t a single correct way for brands to use a tagging strategy in marketing. You can use a tagging strategy however you see fit. However, the bottom line is that this strategy offers you a simple yet powerful way to create attention-grabbing and unique marketing campaigns.
Fortunately, tagging strategies are useful across various marketing initiatives, from social media and email marketing to SEO and more.
So, if you’re ready to elevate your marketing campaign, build a strong brand presence, and stand out among the competition, consider employing effective tagging strategies today.
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