Why I hate Sweepstakes!: Generic Prizes Often Cheapen the Reinforcement of Participation

Written By: Vinayak Ahuja
Edited By: Chris Gampat

A few weeks ago, I found myself caught in an interesting conversation with the owner of my local Pizza shop, a slick talking alumni from my high school who sold me on buying a few slices of his “low carb” Pizza. As I chewed on the gooey goodness of this gourmet lie, he started to ask for my consultation on some ideas he had to promote the restaurant in the fall.

One of them, of course, was the typical, generic, “cuz everyone else is doing it” sweepstakes idea: let people suggest their own recipe for pie and the winner of the random draw would receive a $50 gift certificate and naming rights to the pie they suggested. So basically, I’m going to set-up an impersonal drop-box that separates me from the general conversations I’m known for having with my consumers, then I’m going to pay some random guy, who may just as well be some shmuck from another town that I'll never see again, come in and take a gift certificate that has no other particular value to him other than “free pizza”. I can think of 100 better ways to piss away $50.

Gift Certificates, Prizes, and free services are always a great way to get new consumers involved with your product, and sweepstakes are always a good way to acquire information on potential consumers. But generic rewards add no value to a brand and may even detract appreciation away from your product or service amongst regulars by providing the wrong kind of positive reinforcement - winners of the contest would value the $50 gift certificate and free pizza, but where’s the association to the brand or the pizza place in particular? What’s going to get me to come back once I run out of free pizza?

But there was genius in this idea – “suggest your own pizza recipe”, there was a sense of ownership that a consumer could really appreciate and I encouraged him to build on that alone. In the end, we expanded the original idea by featuring in-store samples of suggested recipes selected by random draw. People coming into the store would get to vote on their favorite flavor, the least favorite flavors being replaced by a new entry every-so-often.

Now, for the price of what would’ve been given up in sales with a $50 gift certificate, is used to rewarding regulars, their friends, and new customers with free samples suggested by people they may know. On top of which, patrons who’ve had their pies selected would, in theory, feel inclined to draw in their friends to try their pies and cast votes. You could even make the experience more interactive by giving finalists to come in and make their own pies.

Try thinking about a community rather than giving away a large amount of free stuff.