Iain Haywood from The Competition Agency breaks down why (and how) brands can rely less on incentivisation and its associated pitfalls by concentrating on fun or enjoyment first.
Most Influential HR Leaders Leading the Corporate World, 2024 (Final file).pdf
Making your Competitions Fun - Iain Haywood - Brighton SEO 2015 Presentation
1. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood1
Making your Competitions Fun
Iain Haywood, The Competition Agency
Iain.Haywood@competitionagency.com / @iainhaywood
2. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood2
At the heart of “fun” is Comic Sans MS
Comic Sans MS
is at the core
of everything
fun. This is the
most important
thing you’ll
learn today.
3. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood3
User
acquisition
Retention/
activity
Opt-in
Email/
address/
phone
SEO
Links/signals/
coverage
Revenue
Basket
upsell/sale of
data
Social
Sharing/
footprint
PR
Traditional/
viral
06 01
02
0304
05
What can you run a competition or giveaway for, anyway?
Amongst other things…
4. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood4
Fun
Time
Cost
Yield
Your campaign priorities
What’s the payoff? Quantity of
links, opt-ins etc
Can you still go home at 6pm?
What are you going to have to
spend?
Is the thing you’re making any
good?
5. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood5
A campaign plan is typically knocked out in less than 60 minutes
Though in many cases you can treat this as seconds
20What you’ll
give away
30What you
want out
10How you’ll do
it
6. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood6
Qualitative input
Time
Cost
Quantitative output
Your campaign priorities
Something for nothing?
8. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood8
1: There is more than one type of entrant
• One is interested in winning your competition. They may also be
interested in your brand or vertical secondarily.
• The other is interested in your brand and vertical primarily, and
unless you’ve made a major hash of things, they’re very likely to be
interested in your competition also.
Broadly speaking, there are two
9. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood9
2: Your competition is unlikely to be a panacea
• With the effort 90% of people put in, it won’t be a silver bullet. It
won’t save your tanking sales.
• Don’t get dazzled by vanity metrics, remember from where and why
those numbers have materialised.
It could be, but it’s unlikely
11. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood11
3: Incentivisation fundamentally changes the nature of intent
• You are, in one way or another, changing why someone wants to do
something.
For the worse
13. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood13
Difference between a competition and a giveaway?
Or a contest and a sweepstake for our American cousins
Competition
Skill based Entry
Judged
Giveaway
Non-skill based
entry
Random draw
14. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood14
This is not scientific, this is not scientific, this is not scientific
(but look at the animated bars!)
League of
Legends
F2p
bingo
KenoSpin
to win
Technical
entry
Landing
page
RT and Follow/
Like and Share
100%
75%
50%
0%
25%
Fun/
enjoyment/
quality/
merit
0%
25%
50%
100%
75%
Reliance on
Incentive
16. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood16
Don’t do them
• Zero effort, zero effect
• No terms and conditions typically
• Usually unfairly drawn
• Minimal residual value
17. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood17
They haven’t even made contact
Your brand (surface)
A like or Retweet
Why does the entrant even need
to see or care who you are
Ooh! A prize!
Entrant is incentivized to perform
the required action
18. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood18
Tips (if you have to do them)
• Shorturl Terms and Conditions
• Use inline images effectively
• Use a technical draw like Tweetdraw
• Moderate your expectations
20. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood20
Landing pages
• A landing surface
• Can host competition creative, entry mechanism
• Visible Terms
21. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood21
At least you’re capturing now
Your brand’s landing page
22. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood22
Tips
• Host on a landing page as close to your root as possible (for links)
• Think about barrier to entry/entry mechanism (your filter)
• Is the entry method aligned with your objective? Multiple
methods/objectives?
• Actually promote something
• What is your competition creative? Try video (avoid being ctrl + f’d)
• Include full terms and conditions
• Avoid narrative entry
23. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood23
Eurgh
To enter our competition, do the following:
Simply email ipadcomp@windscreenwashers.com
Follow us on twitter @windscreenwashers
Fan us on FB
Leave a comment below
Share every day
Good luck LOL :)
25. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood25
Why technical
• Properly recorded entries, entrants more confident in entering
• Properly recorded and incentivised sharing, entrants more confident
in sharing
• Options to prioritise entry mechanics, offer more entry obligations
• Possibility of self sustainability or a viral coefficient >1
• Runs on rails/automated
26. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood26
You can get this in a dang box if you want to
• Promotional SaaS available
• Examples include:
–Gleam
–Rafflecopter
–Antavo
27. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood27
You can get this in a dang box if you want to
• Promotional SaaS available
• Examples include:
–Gleam
–Rafflecopter
–Antavo
34. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood34
This is not scientific, this is not scientific, this is not scientific
(but look at the animated bars!)
We’ve broken prize orbit
now.
League of
Legends
F2p
bingo
KenoSpin
to win
Technical
entry
Landing
page
RT and Follow/
Like and Share
100%
75%
50%
0%
25%
Fun/
enjoyment/
quality/
merit
0%
25%
50%
100%
75%
Reliance on
Incentive
36. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood36
F2p bingo – it’s not a leap
• No incentivisation
• F2p with in app purchases – users are paying to gamble for fun
• Extremely prevalent and profitable – check App Annie for f2p
bingo/casino/table games
• Same f2p features prevalent as most f2p games:
» Repeated user obligations
» Social obligations
» Repeated actions with a random result
» Visually exciting, it feels rewarding
» Progressive thresholds and levels
37. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood37
Introduce peers, and…
• League of Legends has 67 million MAU / 27 million DAU (as of
Jan ‘14)
• Most popular PC title/online game in most countries
• Most popular and lucrative eSport
• PvP
39. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood39
Social obligation
Friend grants extra lives, team play
Incentivised share/friend referral
Extra plays for new players
Repeated action – random result
Mystery chest, random drops of in game items
Instant Win
No skill involved, just make sure you enter
Daily Entry
Requirements
Enter every day and
improve your
chances of winning
Recurring in-
game obligation
Mining, farming,
“Grinding”, leveling up
90% of DNA between today’s games and promotions are shared
41. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood41
This is permanent infrastructure
That you can reuse and repurpose
Real Company “Stuff” – Wil Reynolds
• The entries, yield, traffic, new links and signals all end when your 4
week campaign does. If it’s transient, that’s it.
• You can measure CPAs against a sunk cost over years vs weeks
• If it’s good, those entries, shares, links and press snippets grow
themselves, “while you sleep”
42. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood42
You’ll give less stuff away
It’s a pain in the ass to post, anyway
You’ll gain
Passionate users
and advocates
(goodwill)
Better
understanding of
your users
Pull
You’ll reduce
Spend on prizes
over time
Logistical and
compliance effort
Time and effort
renewing
campaigns
Push
43. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood43
You actually know what the hell your users are doing
Registered Active Last played Shares Playtime total Most used
Bigjohn420 14/05/14 Y 09/04/15 3 23,03 Sword
Merknuggitz 11/08/14 N 12/08/14 0 1,01 Fists
LOL_gimp 12/08/14 Y 09/04/15 9 9,00 Mace
Lil_Kimchi 14/08/14 Y 09/04/15 1 30,02 Wand
N00benator 21/09/14 Y 09/04/15 2 66,42 Blunderbuss
Jono Alderson 01/01/15 Y 09/04/15 15 252,07 Kitten Ears
So you can continually improve every aspect of your build
45. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood45
It needn’t cost the earth
• Game engines
–Construct 2
–Stencyl
–Game Maker Studio
–Unity
• All have resource/asset repositories
• Free/low-cost
• Cross-platform publishing
• Buy off the shelf scripts and repurpose
• Want peers but don’t want multiplayer? Just get a highscore board!
• Achievements, leaderboards, social integration, can plug it in
–Clay.io
46. Brighton SEO 2015 - @iainhaywood46
Iain.Haywood@competitionagency.com
@iainhaywood
Contact me!
Happy to clarify anything
Please remember Comic Sans