Boost Your CPG Brand: 4 Game-Changing Sweepstakes and Contest Ideas

In the fiercely competitive world of consumer packaged goods (CPG), making a lasting impression is crucial. Sweepstakes and contests are powerful strategies to engage your audience, amplify brand awareness, and drive sales. Ready to create a buzz around your brand? Here are four innovative ideas designed to elevate your CPG promotions.

 🍳 1. Stir Up Creativity with Recipe Creation Contests

Engage your audience by putting your products in their hands—and on their plates.

What better way to showcase your food or beverage products than by inviting customers to create unique recipes? A recipe creation contest not only drives product usage but also generates rich user-generated content (UGC) that can be shared across your marketing channels.

Example: Host a contest asking participants to submit their best breakfast recipes featuring your cereal brand. The most creative and delicious entry wins a grand prize and gets featured on your website and social media. This approach not only highlights your product’s versatility but also taps into the community’s love for cooking.

Why It Works: Consumers love to experiment in the kitchen, especially when they can show off their creations. This contest encourages ongoing engagement and provides your brand with a treasure trove of shareable content.

 🎉 2. Create Instant Excitement with Instant-Win Sweepstakes

Immediate gratification leads to immediate engagement.

Instant-win sweepstakes are a surefire way to create excitement and drive rapid participation. The allure of instant prizes motivates customers to engage with your brand and spread the word, expanding your reach exponentially.

Example: Launch an instant-win promotion where customers can enter by purchasing your product and uploading their receipt online. Prizes can range from branded merchandise to larger rewards like kitchen gadgets or a year’s supply of your product.

Why It Works: The chance to win something instantly is a powerful motivator. This type of sweepstakes not only drives product sales but also creates a sense of urgency that encourages immediate participation.

 📲 3. Amplify Engagement with Social Media Hashtag Contests

Leverage social media to turn customers into brand ambassadors.

Hashtag contests are an effective way to harness the power of social media. Encourage participants to share their experiences with your product, generating a wave of organic, user-generated content that boosts your brand’s visibility on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Example: Create a contest where participants post a photo or video using your product with a specific branded hashtag. The most creative or popular posts win a prize, giving your brand valuable social proof and enhancing its social media presence.

Why It Works: Hashtag contests are easy to enter and highly shareable, making them perfect for driving engagement and increasing brand visibility. Plus, they provide an ongoing stream of authentic content that resonates with your audience.

 💎 4. Reward Loyalty with Exclusive Sweepstakes

Turn your most loyal customers into lifelong brand advocates.

Loyalty-based sweepstakes are a fantastic way to reward your repeat customers and deepen their connection to your brand. By offering exclusive sweepstakes entries based on purchase history or participation in a loyalty program, you incentivize continued engagement and drive sales.

Example: Offer loyalty program members a chance to win a grand prize for every certain amount they spend on your products. The more they purchase, the more entries they earn, creating a win-win scenario that boosts both sales and customer loyalty.

Why It Works: Loyalty programs foster a sense of belonging, encouraging customers to keep coming back for more. By linking loyalty with the excitement of a sweepstakes, you enhance the value of your program and strengthen customer relationships.

 Ready to Elevate Your CPG Brand?

These four contest ideas are more than just promotions—they’re strategic tools for creating unforgettable experiences that resonate with your customers. Whether you’re looking to run a photo contest, social media giveaway, or instant-win sweepstakes, Votigo has the expertise to ensure your campaign runs smoothly and achieves its goals.

Let’s bring your next sweepstakes or contest to life. Contact us today and let’s get started!

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Why Social Media Promotions Are More Relevant Than Ever

In today’s digital age, customers expect more than just a product—they want an experience. Back in 2008, when MySpace was the dominant social media platform, we at Votigo recognized the immense potential of social media for brand engagement. That’s why we coined the term ‘Social Media Promotions‘—to capture the idea that brands could create meaningful, interactive experiences through these emerging platforms.

As Facebook opened its doors to the public and businesses began leveraging Facebook Pages, we were one of only 20 Facebook Preferred Developers, helping brands harness this new opportunity. When Twitter opened its APIs for sweepstakes, we were there with a solution. We then expanded our offerings to include Pinterest, Instagram, and now TikTok, always staying ahead of the curve as social media evolved.

Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of working with world-class brands like Sharpie, Corona, Michelin, KFC, KraftHeinz, NBCUniversal, and State Farm.

Social media promotions have provided these brands with numerous benefits, including increased brand awareness, deeper customer engagement, and valuable user-generated content. These promotions drive customer loyalty, amplify reach through social sharing, and provide measurable results that tie directly into broader marketing strategies.

These social media platforms have transformed the way brands interact with their audiences, making social media promotions more relevant than ever. It’s not just about driving sales; it’s about building lasting relationships through interactive, value-driven experiences that resonate with consumers long after the campaign ends.

The big question now is: What’s the next big social media platform? While the landscape is constantly changing, one thing remains certain—social media promotions will continue to play a crucial role in how brands connect with their customers. And at Votigo, we’re ready to embrace whatever comes next.

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How to Run an Amazing Facebook Sweepstakes or Contest in 8 steps

A Facebook Contest or Sweepstakes is a great way to generate more ‘likes’ for your brand, engage your audience and spread brand awareness. And the good news is, it doesn’t have to be complicated! Follow these 8 Steps for Running a Successful Facebook Contest or Sweepstakes and watch the entries roll in!Screenshot 2017-04-04 13.22.59

Step 1: State Your Objectives

Having a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your promotion will help determine if a contest or a sweepstakes is right for your brand. For example, if a high number of entries is your goal, an enter-to-win sweepstakes is probably going to receive the most entries, since they have the lowest barrier to entry on the social promotions spectrum.

Step 2: Outline The Promotion Details

This includes defining the timing of your campaign, how winners will be determined, what your prize is, and a variety of other considerations. For example: What information do you want to collect during registration? How do you want to use that information down the line for future marketing purposes?

Step 3: Follow The Rules

When running a Facebook promotion, it’s important to follow their guidelines. The team here at Votigo makes it a point to stay completely on top of all of Facebook’s rules and regulations, and we’ll always make sure that the campaigns that you run with us comply with them. In addition to Facebook’s promotional guidelines, you’ll also want to make sure that you create your own contest or sweepstakes rules and make sure that you are compliance with any relevant state or federal regulations. This is also something that Votigo can help with so just let us know if you need that!

Step 4: Design Graphics

Depending on your specific promotion and what time of features you are using, this can vary from a simple header graphic to more advanced design and customization. Either way, a few general rules will always apply: Make sure the imagery is eye-catching and inviting to the user and make sure it conveys the important details for the campaign like how to enter, what you can win, etc…

Step 5: Launch!

Once your promotion has been designed and set up, it’s time to launch! Make sure you test the user flow to make sure it’s exactly how you want it, and that it’s clear for users to understand. Once all of these pieces are in place, it’s time to publish your promotion to your Facebook page and start getting more engagement with your fans!

Step 6: Promote Your Campaign

You’ll want to actively promote your promotion in order to get entries and votes. Rely on all the channels you typically use to communicate with your audience (like social media, email newsletter etc…) in order to let them know about the campaign.

Step 7: Moderate and Manage

After your promotion has launched, you need to continue to manage it. This will depend on the format of your campaign but for example, if you’ve asked people to submit photos in order to enter, part of your campaign management will involve pre-screening these photos to make sure they’re appropriate. You’ll also want to keep an eye on entries to make sure that they are coming in steadily, and adjust your promotion efforts accordingly if needed.

Step 8: Use the Results

Running a Facebook contest or sweepstakes is a great way to get leads and quality user-generated content, so make sure you use your results! Nurture new leads with an email campaign or another promotion. Get creative with how you use any photos or videos that were collected during the campaign. Use the information you collect during registration to learn more about your audience and tailor future marketing activations based on this knowledge.


Ready to put these tips into practice with your next Facebook promotion? Click here to speak with an Account Representative today!

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New Live Campaigns – Blue Buffalo, Walmart, AARP, Ovation TV, Florida OJ, and FujiFilm (photo contest, video contest, facebook contest, facebook sweepstakes)

Blue Buffalo Shelter Stars – UGC Photo Contest Microsite

This is the place to show off your buddy and share your pet adoption success story photo contest. With so many homeless pets across the country, it’s pet parents like you who are making all the difference in the lives of the animals that deserve a second chance. Open your heart, open your home, and share the love at BLUE Shelter Stars.

Walmart Associate Talent Search – Video Contest Microsite

We’re looking for all kinds of talent in this video contest: dancers, musicians, comedians, magicians and more-any performance-based talent that showcases the amazing talent and unique abilities of Walmart associates. So be thinking about how you will highlight your talent in a fun video that isn’t longer than two minutes. Feel free to perform your talent to a cover song.

AARP Superstart Contest 2015 – Video Contest Microsite

AARP wants to help you achieve your dreams! We’re looking for the next American singing sensation – and no kids allowed to enter this video contest! Contestants must be age 50 or over at the time of contest conclusion on May 15, 2015 and possess a voice that will make crowds jump to their feet with excitement.

Ovation TV American Canvas Travel Sweepstakes – Facebook Sweepstakes

For its all-new series American Canvas Ovation TV is asking you to enter the Facebook Sweepstakes for your chance to win the ultimate art adventure in San Francisco, Austin or Miami!

Enter this facebook sweepstakes for your chance to enjoy flavorful 100% Florida Orange Juice while you discover our state’s sun, fun and family attractions. This exciting Spring Break family getaway includes a stay in an Orlando hotel, roundtrip transportation for four and a $1,000 gift card to make the most of what the area has to offer.

Enter this photo contest and show us your most impressive landscape photo for a chance to win an Adventure Canada Mighty Saint Lawrence voyage for 2 (www.adventurecanada.com/trip/mighty-saint-lawrence/) and a Fujifilm X-T1 camera kit with XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens. X Photographers Dan Bailey and Patrice Halley will be on board as well! Contest runs from February 13 to March 31, 2015. North American entries only (excluding Quebec and Hawaii, see rules for details. Trip must be taken on dates specified).

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Video Contests

A great way to engage your customers and fans is to run a user-generated video contest.  An online video contest will encourage your fans to create videos about your brand and products, giving your brand tons of great new video content that can virally spread brand awareness and increase your Facebook audience.  By inviting fans to create video content about your brand you will strengthen the consumer’s connection to your brand and inspire their creativity.  The consumer will feel involved in the process of generating content and will see his/her own work being displayed.  Branded video contests create a positive association with your brand that can be helpful when launching new products and generating awareness.

It is important to motivate users to share with friends and inspire interactive viewing, commenting, and sharing.  A great way to do this is to create a video gallery where fans can view, share, and vote on their favorite videos.

It is also important to consider that creating a video is time consuming and requires a good amount of effort from your fans.  With this in mind it is a good idea to allow an appropriate amount of time for fans to upload entries.  There is often a last minute flood of entries because fans will take their time to come up with an idea and then execute the video.  In order to ensure that these last minute entries are a part of the viewing, sharing, and voting process, you can allow a separate voting period after the contest has stopped receiving entries.

Video contests have the ability to be offered cross-channel on Facebook, a microsite, your own website, and on Youtube. They have become a great way to establish a relationship with your fans while collecting content and information about your fans and consumers.  For more information about video contests contact us today!

 

 

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VTech Toys Facebook Video Contest

VTech Toys recently launched a Facebook video contest. They wanted to engage their audience and get children to interact with the brand in a fun and meaningful way while promoting the Switch & Go Dinos products. Votigo created a custom Facebook app that requires users to “like” the page before entering and allows fans to easily upload and browse through entries.

The Show and Tell with Switch and Go Dinos video contest asks fans to create a dinosaur and upload a video of their creation.  The child can choose 1 of 3 ways to show off their art project:

Draw: They can use markers, crayons, pencils and pens to sketch their creation on paper

Build: They can use foil, paper, cardboard, or any non-branded household items to build their Dino

Customize: They can update their own VTech Switch & Go Dino with accessories and fun props to give them a new image!

Fans can enter through the end of September, with voting taking place between October 8th and 19th.

For more inspiration and promotion ideas, follow @votigo on Twitter and follow the #bestofvotigo hashtag.

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