If you’ve watched and read our case studies here at UpViral, you know that our users have successfully launched campaigns in various niche industries:
- Home improvement
- Sports and outdoors
- Music
- Food
- Children’s books
- Event planning
And definitely a lot more! This shows how powerful contests and giveaways are, especially with a tool that enables you to do it from start to finish.
We want to show you (again) that ANYTHING is possible with UpViral. 🔥😉
That is why, this time, we are going to share I SAY’s amazing results.
We had a chat with Ralph Di Segni, I SAY’s CEO and co-founder. He revealed that in just 1 month of doing an UpViral contest, they got:
- 60,340 total leads
- 40% conversion rate
- 66,000+ social media shares in total (Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, etc.)
- 73,899 emails sent with an open rate of 54.4%
- 487,498 campaign visitors
Crazy, right? It’s clear that this campaign went viral. Here’s proof of those numbers from I SAY’s UpViral dashboard:
If you’re looking for ways to market a tourist destination, one of the best strategies is by running a referral contest or giveaway. It doesn’t matter what place or culture you’re promoting. Because, when done right, your campaign can get the kind of results that I SAY got.
What’s more surprising about I SAY’s campaign was that it used a simple structure. Their contest participants didn’t have to perform extra tasks except to share the campaign.
Find out more about this contest in detail by reading below. Let’s first get to know I SAY and their main goal for choosing UpViral!
What is “I SAY”?
I SAY is a PR and communications agency based in Rome. They help businesses with marketing by running creative, social media, SEO, and SEM campaigns. Trusted by valuable companies in Italy, I SAY’s clients range from embassies to airlines to national tourism organizations.
Why Did I SAY Use UpViral?
I SAY chose UpViral to address a problem: To boost the visibility of the Tibet region and culture in China. Tibet was one of the places in China that they wanted to promote as a safe place to travel.
We were curious about I SAY’s previous marketing strategies before using UpViral. Ralph told us that they tried to involve people using social media and digital PR; however, they found that these methods were not as efficient as viral marketing.
Destination: Tibet Contest (How It Worked)
The idea was to create a 1-month contest where people could increase their chances of winning by sharing their unique invite link across social platforms. Participants would fill out the contest form with their personal details to enter.
Choosing What To Give Away
It’s no secret that the right prize helps you attract hundreds to thousands of people into your contest. But more importantly, you attract a highly relevant audience – people who want to do business with you.
I SAY picked a great prize which was a 10-day trip to Tibet, China for 2 couples. Ralph attributes the results of the giveaway to the prize itself.
We think this prize was a perfect choice because it was relevant to the audience. I SAY’s target audience were tourists and travelers who were likely to be interested in Tibet. An opportunity to experience Tibet for free, with a partner or spouse, was something that enticed them.
In the travel and tourism industry, it’s also possible to give away physical products like backpacks and other accessories. However, such prizes would only be best if the end goal was to increase sales to these products.
Contest Landing Page
Let’s have a look at I SAY’s dedicated landing page made with UpViral:
Image of the prize
To the left of the landing page is a beautiful, massive image of one of the highlights of Tibet – the Potala Palace. It’s a great choice for a destination image. Most travel enthusiasts probably know that this is the highest place in the world and was built as a gesture of love.
Ralph told us that using captivating graphics like this one helped build trust and understanding of what the contest was about.
Copy
The next winning element of this contest landing page was the message. I SAY made sure to convey it in a clear and simple way.
When people arrived on the landing page, they could immediately see the headline “DESTINAZIONE: TIBET” or “Destination: Tibet.” Right below it was a subheadline that read “VOLO 8 + NOTTI ALL INCLUSIVE” which meant “Flight + 8 nights all included.”
Participants knew that they’d win this amazing trip without having to pay for any additional costs.
Forms
Most companies that run contests ask participants to enter only two details: Their name and email address. This is an effective strategy for increasing your number of leads because it removes friction from signing up.
However, I SAY did the opposite. Notice that they asked for the person’s name, surname, phone number, date of birth (at least 18 years old), and email.
Considering that there are five form fields, we were surprised at how participants were motivated to join the contest by taking time to fill these out.
I SAY’s strategy makes us realize that adding more forms, while limiting them to necessary information, helps weed out unqualified leads. Prospects who make a good fit for your business will reveal themselves by completing your form. This saves you a lot of time and effort.
Promoting the Contest and Keeping Everyone Engaged
An essential part of your contest plan is how you promote it. The easiest way is to share it on social media.
I SAY posted the campaign on their social media profiles and spent a small budget to further boost its visibility on Facebook and Instagram. Ralph noted that among all the social platforms, Whatsapp garnered the most interactions – 27,585 shares.
💎A Tip from UpViral: If you’re going to run a contest in the future, take notice of your best-performing social media platform. This is where people share and interact more. Leverage that to connect with your leads! A lot of businesses assume that they’re going to do well on one platform. But you’d be surprised at what you’ll find.
On top of social media marketing, I SAY used digital PR and traditional media focused on tourism.
From day one until the contest winner announcement, I SAY kept their audience engaged by keeping in touch on social media and through email.
💡For more contest promotion ideas, you can check out this article.
Announcing the Winner
There are many ways to announce your contest winner. Some of our successful UpViral users have done it through live Facebook videos while others posted them on their profiles. I SAY created a Facebook post and emailed their participants. It’s simple and it got the job done!
Final Thoughts
Was I SAY’s contest a success? Absolutely. In fact, we were extremely pleased to learn that through UpViral, an agency was able to do a contest – this time, in the travel and tourism industry.
Ralph agrees that indeed, contests can effectively promote anything. The key is to make sure that every part of your contest is taken care of. That includes your copy, images, follow-up emails, and more.
To quote Ralph, “the UpViral platform worked perfectly and was easy to set-up.”
We also asked him what I SAY would do better if they did another contest in the future. He told us:
“It will seem crazy that I say this: But what the hell could one want more than 60,340 leads and half a million views on their landing page on a low budget?
Next time it would be enough for me to repeat the performance! Without UpViral all this would not have been possible, or at least with these numbers.”
Thank you for checking out this case study. 🙌
We hope it helped you, whether you’re looking for inspiration as a beginner or as someone who wants to run a better contest.
You can get started with UpViral today for just $1!
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