When your target user doesn’t think you’re “Cool”
Parents love Gabb Wireless. When your product is a phone designed to keep kids safe and away from dangers on smartphones, it’s easy to find allies in parental figures. Kids are not so easily won over. “One of the biggest challenges as a brand is that kids sometimes look at us like we are a punishment,” shares Maxwell Hill, marketing coordinator at Gabb and project manager for competitions. So how do you make safe cell phones appeal to freedom-seeking kids?
Gabb recognized that you can’t just tell kids something is cool, you have to show them. With a marketing strategy centering on “Life Beyond the Screen,” Gabb looked for ways to increase engagement with consumers and shift their brand image in young minds. Gabb partnered with Gigg to create and execute a series of social media contests. According to Maxwell, “We were drawn to the contest platform because it was a way to showcase life beyond the screen and get tons of user-generated content.”
Boosting web traffic, extending time on site,
and capturing leads
So how do you encourage kids to live beyond the screen? Skiing, snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, songwriting, and t-shirt designing seem like a good start; these activities served as themes for a six-month series of social media competitions at Gabb. With the first competition, t-shirt design, Maxwell’s team had only a week to pull it together. “It speaks a lot to the Gigg platform that in one week we were able to plan and organize our first contest and able to get over 200 entries. Once we opened it up to the public vote, we immediately saw 3x the amount of web traffic during the submission period than we had seen prior to the contest.”
Maintaining a minimum of 3x the amount of web traffic during submission periods for each contest, Gabb reached 5x web views for the Surf contest, 10x for the Gabb Ambassador contest and 13x for the Singer & Songwriter contest. The latter brought over 78k web views, matching the amount of traffic their parent brand receives.
Gabb shared with the Gigg team their need for a clearer method to capture leads. This spurred the development of the opt-in email marketing feature. Anyone who votes on a contest can opt-in to marketing emails from the hosting brand. Gabb used this feature to capture over 13k leads from contest voters.
Online visit times for t
hese contests ranged from 2-5 minutes, with an average of 2.5 minutes. This is significant considering 55% of people spend fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page. Increasing link clicks and view times creates a higher chance for leads to be converted into sales—you’re making the “Shop Now” button significantly easier to click. While a contestant is learning about skateboard contest requirements, why not check out the phone and see what this brand is all about?
Personal touchpoints and prizes
While a massive push through email marketing provided enough contestants for the t-shirt competition, Gabb needed a more creative source of outreach for future competitions. Based on advice from Gigg’s CEO, Scott Warner, the Gabb team used Instagram as a resource to personally reach out to potential contestants. Instagram allows you to personally DM anyone, so the Gabb team sent individual invites to skateboarders, snowboarders, etc. “It was really important to get high caliber content into our contest, so this strategy ended up being the perfect solution for us. It improved the level of our user-generated content.” Not only did this boost submissions, but it also created a positive touchpoint between potential consumers and the brand. Maxwell shared that 10% of people contacted submitted to the contest. He found people are significantly more likely to interact when given a personal touchpoint.
Incentivizing entries comes down to choosing effective prizes. Gabb used the same method for each contest: $500, a prize specific to the competition, and a Gabb Wireless phone. This combination provided both incentives and product placement. Because Gabb co-branded with relevant companies for their competitions, their partners often provided the competition-specific prizes, such as skis, snowboards, skateboards, etc. Maxwell explained, “It was a really cool opportunity not only for the contestants but for us as a brand; it opened up new opportunities for us to partner with exciting and relevant brands.” In addition to the prize payoff, this partnership invited consumers to connect Gabb with already existing and well-loved brands; a move that undoubtedly elevated Gabb’s status in the minds of young consumers.
The campaign’s parting gift
Even after completion, Gabb is still benefiting from these six competitions. Because most competitions required video submissions, Gabb received new and relevant user-generated marketing material that encompasses “Life Beyond the Screen.” This top-quality UGC demonstrates that your customers are your greatest marketing team, and their content is your greatest marketing material.
Between outreach, site visits, video submissions, and public voting, Gabb created continual opportunities for brand exposure and product placement, as well as increasing opportunities for consumers to make a purchase. Gigg’s platform enabled Gabb to optimize their competition campaign, increasing the quantity and quality of points of contact with consumers.
