An article published in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review observed that when a user shares a brand's content to their social network it directly impacts the bottom line. The challenge for companies is how to increase their output from social media with content that is highly shareable, and how to quantify results. This presentation discusses how companies use online contests as a way to capture new leads, encourage word-of-mouth marketing, and to increase Facebook likes. We demonstrate how to measure ROI from running a contest, including how to calculate monetary value and why measuring these results are important to optimizing your future contests. Also discussed are common mistakes made, including: contests on the web are typically simple entry forms with winners chosen by random drawing companies choose to run their contest either on their website OR Facebook tab Find out why these limit contest results and the best practices to amplify outcomes. Finally, the presentation concludes with several case studies that demonstrate how running a contest has benefitted different brands.

1. VOICES HEARD MEDIA
The Leader in User Engagement Applications
Increasing Contest ROI

2. • Why Run a Contest?
• Projecting a Contest‟s ROI
• Common Mistakes
• Best Practices
• Case Studies

3. Traditionally companies run contests on their
website or Facebook page and are looking to
achieve one or more of the following goals:
• Capture Leads
• Increase Word of Mouth Marketing
• Increase Facebook Likes

4. Research
Likelihood of Purchase
A recent article came out in the September
Harvard Business Review. The article is titled
“Better Customer Insights – in Real Time”. Direct Mail
The article analyzed what increased a customers TV Ad
relative likelihood of purchase.
The results may surprise you!
Word of Mouth
Conclusions
Based on this research, the assumption can be Seeing Product Friends Home
made that appearing on a users‟ social network
falls somewhere in between „Word of Mouth‟
Visit to Website
results and „Seeing the Product in Friends Home‟
results.
Visit to Store
Thus, when a user shares a brand’s content to
their social network it directly impacts the 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
bottom line.

5. Measuring the ROI
• Number of New Users to the Website
• Number of Email List Registrations
• Increase in Search Engine Rankings
Calculating ROI:
• Multiplying website new users by average
sale per web user
• Multiplying new email registrations by
average sale per email list member
• Calculating cost of buying leads and then
multiplying that number times the number of
registrations

6. Mistake Number One
Contests on the web are typically simple entry forms with
winners chosen by random drawing.
Why is this a Mistake?
This type of contest accomplishes the goal of capturing
leads. The problem however is that anyone that enters this
type of contest is more likely to win when there are less
entries.
Participants therefore are rewarded for not telling others
about the contest. This is exactly the opposite affect that
the business is trying to achieve.

7. Mistake Number Two
Location, Location, Location! Most companies select to run
a contest on either their website or their Facebook tab.
Why?
If the goal of the contest is to reach as many people as
possible, why should the business self impose limitations?
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The goal is to be everywhere and reach as many
consumers as possible.
When companies run a contest only on Facebook, three
problems will occur that limit the ROI of the contest :
• Facebook Tabs cannot be viewed on mobile phones.
• You never want to send traffic away from our website if
the user is already there.
• There is no way to pull users back to the businesses‟
website!
• If the links do not direct traffic back to the businesses
website then there will be no SEO benefit

8. Winners Based on Number of Votes
Instead of choosing winners at random, ask the user to enter by
adding a photo, creating a video, or (as the example shows) “Tell Us
Why You‟re Alicia Keys #1 Fan”. The winner was determined by the
number of votes.
The participant now has incentive not only to register to win, but to
share their entry to their social networks and recruit friends and family
to vote for them! This has the following effect:
• Dramatically increases sharing
• Increases traffic to the website
• Increases return traffic –
• Participants return to
the site to see where they are ranked

9. Be Everywhere
By placing a contest on a Facebook Tab, a website, and on
a mobile site or app, a business is able to reach the user
wherever they happen to be.
Testing Different Marketing Methods and Messages
Different marketing methods and messages can be used to
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see which location, method, and message provide the
maximum results.
Examples:
• Facebook Ads for the Facebook tab
• Email Blast for the website
• QR codes in store for mobile
Modify Options
The other option you have is the ability to make slight
modifications in how the contest is set up.
Example:
Website – only requires entry form
Facebook tab – requires the participant to ‘Like’ the page
and fill out the entry form

10. Probably the most important item - and least done - is the
measuring of results. This data can be used to optimize your next
contest and compare results.
• Engagement Rate – How many unique visitors that viewed
the page interacted with the application
• Sharing – what social networks and percentages
• Return Visitors from Shared Links
• Location – Which parts of the country or world were
reached
• User Report – Collection of contact information and
agreement to future email newsletter

11. AOL Moviefone - Harry Potter Fan Contest
The Challenge
Spark Magic! Moviefone found it could use the Voices
Heard Media contest as a promotional tool to create a viral
campaign across the web. Among its most successful
social events was a contest inviting visitors to submit a
video (embedded as a YouTube video) demonstrating why
they were the Number 1 Harry Potter fan.
The Results
• 30,000 unique visitors on the page in 7 days
• 18,000 interactions (votes, comments and submissions)
• 300 „shares‟ on external social media sites (200 via
Facebook)
• 37 video submissions
The leading video had 1.3 million YouTube views within
10 days! The winning video was featured on
URLesque, Perez Hilton, and by many other sites and
bloggers.

12. Tell Us Why You‟re the #1 Fan
The Challenge
Create an event to increase website traffic and promote
Alicia Keys‟ concert in New York.
The Results
• 15,000 Shared Links
• 40% of website traffic was from shared links
• Surpassed Alicia Keys own website in search engine
results for the duration of the contest

13. Trivia as a Contest
The Challenge
AOL Canada wanted to get users signed up to their
newsletter.
They set up a VHM trivia product as a
contest, requiring users to sign up for their newsletter
in order to play the trivia game and also be entered
to win a trip to see the Smashing Pumpkins. They
placed the event on their website and Facebook
Tab.
The Results
• 52.71% of unique visitors entered
• 1260 Registrations