Promotional Contests:
Handle with Care

Considering a contest to attract new subscribers? Take a tip from an Idaho ISP and take the KISS (keep it short and simple) approach.

by Judy Mottl [December 23, 1999]

Snake River Valley Net Inc. (SRVNet), which opened shop in Idaho Falls in 1994, began as the Internet backbone for its parent company, Scientech, a worldwide engineering consulting firm.

As an ISP, SRVNet now offers four dialup plans to its mostly consumer subscriber base: Casual Cruise is $4.95 monthly for five hours; Joy Ride is $9.95 for 20 hours; Power Trip is $17.95 for unmetered use, with discounts for prepayment. While not a primary business target, the ISP has approximately 50 corporate clients signed on as well.

The challenge
At the end of October 1999, SRVNet had 7,000 dial-up subscribers. With some hefty competition shaping up in the rural area—AOL and MindSpring included—SRVNet management set the goal of boosting that subscriber base to 10,000 by the end of November.

The chosen marketing vehicle was a contest. In consultation with an outside promotions expert, marketing director Hollis Henry mapped out a month-long, Web-based interactive contest, supported by an advertising blitz of radio and print spots.

Participants won points for a variety of silly and serious activities—which include referring potential customers and providing demographic and marketing information. A successful referral, for instance, dropped 5,000 points into a participant's bucket.

Contest tasks ranged from brainteasers to opinion polls to getting involved in community activities. On one day, for example, contest participants were required to go the local Festival of Trees celebration and report back information from the event. That activity, explains Henry, fostered community interaction and support, important values to SRVNet.

When the contest ended, 12 lucky winners received gift certificates to local restaurants. The two top prizes were trips-for-two tickets to Hawaii—an appealing scenario in light of Idaho's harsh winters.

The outcome
Unfortunately, while it was fun for all, the contest fell far short of reaching its goal of a 10,000-subscriber base. In fact, only 1,000 new members came onboard.

"We had been growing decently, but we really wanted to reach that 10,000 mark. We took a risk, went out a limb in doing this; we didn't know what the results would be," says Henry.

The downfall, she says, was that the contest proved to be too complicated, and demanded too much from participants. There were also some external circumstances that adversely affected the campaign's results, she explains.

The ISP was plagued with network and access glitches during the contest period, including a catastrophic server crash and modem troubles—the worst such problems the ISP has ever experienced. To top it off, city workers inadvertently cut one of SRVNet's telecommunications lines smack in the middle of the month.

"If it hadn't been so awful, it would have been almost comic; the timing was so bad and impacted the promotion effort," says Henry, who despite the lackluster results remains sold on contests to draw customers.

The lesson
Bad luck aside, Henry believes that if the contest had been simpler and shorter—about two weeks in duration—and more promotional play had been done up front, the campaign would have been much more successful.

"Based on the fact that this was the first time we did it, the first try was relatively successful because we got good returns in feedback and comments from customers," she says. She also points out that the campaign came under budget, and incurred no losses.

Henry's positive outlook on future contests is based in part on value business tangibles achieved aside from signups. She further notes that new signups have been coming in steadily through December, and believes it was a lag time response to the marketing event.

"While we didn't gain the numbers of referrals we were looking for, we did gain in a lot in other areas and we engaged our subscribers, which is important as well," she adds.

The fact that a local ISP competitor launched a very similar contest soon afterward proves SRVNet had done something right, she points out. "That's the highest form of flattery," she says.

—End