Hey, we all make mistakes. It's okay. But it's nice when we can avoid them and be a hero instead of tanking the marketing budget and being crowned with the dunce cap. Hopefully, we can learn from these fatal Sweepstakes faux pas so we know what not to do.
The No DataSweepstakess
These campaign hosts are soooo nice. They know people are worried about online privacy and may not be comfortable providing personal information. Plus, this company just wanted engagement and to raise brand awareness. So, they made it super easy to enter: click the enter button.
It seemed like a good idea... until they picked a winner.
The Too Much Data Sweepstakes
This group of manufacturing equipment sales-people is a bit smarter than the last. They knew that they needed contact information, wanted to add new subscribers to their email list, planned to use their sweepstakes form to help qualify leads, and wanted just a few other pieces of information.
Despite all the expensive ads published, no one wanted to submit all the required info for a chance to win the branded tube-socks.
The Blank Canvas Sweepstakes
As the Marketing Director and Social Media Manager for a regional restaurant chain, Julie has a lot on her plate (ha!). She's got to keep the Marketing Associates in line, report to the CEO, and has a million other tasks. Maybe Julie got distracted in the middle of setting up her Woobox campaign, maybe she thought it was good enough, who knows? But for some reason, Julie went to the Customize section of the campaign to update some copy and even added an image element... but forgot to upload an image or use any of the customization tools available. As a result, their campaign looked like this:
The "Redirect" Sweepstakes
For sharing purposes, it's really handy that you can redirect your "woobox.com" URL to the embedded campaign on your website - unless you're not even sure what that feature is for. Hunter, the fresh-faced, new social media dude at a growing skateboard company saw the field titled, "Where should this offer redirect?" and thought, "Well, our website, clearly." So he plugged-in the site address... even though the campaign was not embedded there.
The Cease-and-Desist Sweepstakes
For some businesses, it can be difficult to find a prize that entices the right audience. Not every company has a tangible product to give away or the means to award an expensive, lavish prize. Since that was the case for a small insurance company, they decided to award the winners of their giveaway with gift cards from a major online retailer, Congo. The insurance company built a nice looking campaign with an image of the prize and text that read "Enter to Win a $500 Congo gift card!".
Just as their campaign started to gain traction, the company received an email marked "Urgent" from "legal@congo.com". Apparently, using Congo's company name and logo was a direct violation of their policies and the campaign hosts were instructed to remove all unauthorized Congo branding. Too bad these agents don't specialize in trademark-infringement insurance.
When setting up your next offer, be sure to avoid these or any similar mistakes to keep your brand out of hot water and ensure a successful campaign. If you're not sure about your setup or just want some advice on running the best promotion possible, email us at support@woobox.com.
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