How “I SAY” Used UpViral to Get 60,340 Leads and Promote a Tourist Destination

How “I SAY” Used UpViral to Get 60,340 Leads and Promote a Tourist Destination

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!

Table of Contents

Start Using The World's Most Complete Viral Referral System

Generate traffic, grow your list and convert subscribers into customers.

Viral Sweepstakes

Whip up a frenzy of social shares and new referrals with UpViral’s fully - featured sweepstakes.

Viral Rewards

Host giveaways to create a huge buzz and generate leads on demand, with no need for paid traffic.

Viral Waitlists

Get the ultimate edge with a viral waitlist that builds your customer base before you launch.

Getting Started Is Easy.

3 simple steps and your business is ready to go viral.

01

Design

Your Business. Your Way.

UpViral gives you the flexibility to create the right contest for your business goals.

And the campaign wizard will walk you through process with ease.

Your Funnel. Optimised.

Choose from templates that've generated millions of leads and millions of dollars in sales.

Then make simple customisations to match your offer.

02

Template

03

Publish

Your Leads. Anywhere.

We can host your viral campaign or you can embed it on your own site.

When you're ready to start collecting leads, press publish.

GABE SCHILLINGER Testimonial Image

42,000
Leads!

"Because of UpViral, we were able to pull it off and did over $200,000 in sales! Which helped me realize that the ceiling on what I thought was possible in our industry is actually so much higher."

GABE SCHILLINGER

Abdel Mussa Image

"Upviral Has Easily Paid For Itself!"

"Before buying UpViral, I didn’t know what to expect, too many marketers promise big and under-deliver. I purchased UpViral and tried it out. UpViral has easily paid for itself. If I compare its results to what I would have had to pay on Facebook to get those same leads! Definitely a good investment."

ABDEL MUSSA

United Kingdom
Michael Cooch Image

29,478
Responsive Leads

"UpViral has proven to be the simple, effective and affordable viral contest app we were looking for. It helped us build a responsive 30,000+ list in a new market in less than six months."

MICHAEL COOCH

Judy Jong Image

"I'm A Newbie At This!"

"I had the privilege to be on of the beta testers of UpViral... So far I've already added 450 leads to my account... This may not seem like a lot, but I am a newbie with this by no means a Facebook guru... Getting 450 from my small niche websites is a LOT harder, so I will definitely continue building my list using UpViral!... You have a fan Wilco and I am sure other people will love UpViral too... Keep up the good work!"

JUDY JONG

The Netherlands
Steven VD Peijl Image

"740 Organic Leads in 2 Weeks!"

"UpViral has a huge impact on 2 of my projects! On the first project I used it to build up an early bird list which got us 740+ leads in just 2 weeks (all organic) with a 289.2% compound conversion rate!... When applying the same strategy to our second project it generated 1000+ leads!... I highly recommend using UpViral in your business. Wilco's products are always top-notch!"

STEVEN VD PEIJL

Arthur Jansen Image

"The Results Are Amazing!"

"UpViral is a wonderful tool that enables you to reach skies of online marketing. The results are amazing!"

ARTHUR JANSEN

The Netherlands
Paul Kutilin Image

"9000 Leads in 2 Weeks!"

"We used UpViral to promote our congress (local event) and the results were... shocking. We got more than 9000 leads through this tool in two weeks! We will definitely use UpViral for our other projects in the future. Thanks a lot for this tool!"

PAUL KUTILIN

Austria
Faruk Barber Image

"Viral Referral Marketing At Its Best!"

Thanks yo Wilco, even guys like me can start building huge lists!

FARUK BARBER

The Netherlands
Nikolai Leuveld Image

"UpViral Rocks!"

"UpViral Rocks! We spent a little less than €200 on ad spend to promote our UpViral giveaway, resulting in 4,339 subscribers and €16.320 in revenue within 6 weeks (and from there it kept on going). Been using it ever since!"

NIKOLAI LEUVELD

Aldo Novak Image

"I HAVE To Tell You How Impressed I Am!"

"After one of your videos I decided to give it a try. The results? Well, 10 minutes after publishing the link at Facebook, I received 20 new leads. Now, I have got 718 leads with ONE campaign! Wow!! THANK YOU!"

ALDO NOVAK

Brazil
Travis Luedke Image

"Well Over 15,000 Leads!"

"I have found UpViral is more effective than any other giveaway software/platform I've tried... It's my "go-to" lead collecting tool for all my giveaways. It's so versatile, with so many options, I'm still playing with it to learn new ways to use it. To date, I've collected well over 15,000 leads with UpViral."

TRAVIS LUEDKE

Brazil

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