HOW SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CREATED COMPELLING VIDEOS BY RUNNING AN ONLINE VIDEO CONTEST

HOW SOUTHWEST CREATED VIDEOS USING AUDPOP

April 19, 2022

Online video contests are a great way to have creators express themselves and their creativity. 

Through these contests, you can see the different ideas people offer that can help tell the story or imagine what best represents your brand’s image.

We all like the feeling of winning, or even the process of just joining a competition can be enough to excite you. When there’s a great price up for grabs, entering a contest gets our attention and participation.

Why you should run a video contest

You might be asking yourself, “are online contests worth the effort?” Here are a few reasons why online video contests can help your business.

You Gain the Attention of Potential Customers

Even with a list of loyal customers, gaining the attention and interest of new potential ones is never a bad thing. More so, it’s a great benefit for growing your business. When you decide to launch an online video contest, you get a chance to show what your business has to offer to a new crowd of potential customers.

You See an Increase in Sales

When you host an online video contest, your customers get to see more of what your business has to offer them. Your clients’ engagement with your business or website significantly benefits your sales. When your customers are attracted to your site or social media accounts, they are more likely to engage with your products or services.

You Know More About Your Customers

It’s good to note what trends and platforms your customers are interested in, especially ones that you can involve your business with. You can give your customers a more interactive role through online video contests aside from being just a consumer. When you see how people react to your online video contest, you can learn what things you can add that would help you improve your business. 

CHALLENGES IN PUTTING UP AN ONLINE VIDEO CONTEST

When looking for new ways to gain online traction and new customers, hosting an online video contest can give you the boost you need. But even a well-prepared, produced, and organized event can have its struggles. These are a few challenges you might encounter when planning your online video contest.

You Never Know How Contestants Might React

Participating in a contest can be exciting and fun at the beginning of the event, but once it’s time to pick a winner, everything turns serious. Not everyone can be the winner, and one challenge that might happen during the contest is when someone can’t accept that their entry didn’t win. You can never be 100% sure about how the public might behave during and after the contest.

You’ll Put in Time and Money

To get ahead and make any business prosper, you need to invest a lot of effort, money, and time. It takes time to run a successful contest. You’ll need to answer questions, review each submission, and ensure that the prizes are given to the winners on time.

Regardless of the size of your business, you must have a team dedicated to taking the time to plan, organize, and e your online video contest.

Another important element when running an online video contest is your budget. You have to make sure your budget is enough to set up and organize anything your contest needs. Aside from the makings of the contest, you’ll need to reserve some money for the prizes.

Whether your prizes are monetary or physical, it’s best to ensure that you can afford to award the winners.

There are Chances Your Contest Won’t be Successful

Everything comes with a risk. That’s how you find out what works for your business and what doesn’t. You might expect the online video contest to go successfully, but sadly there is a chance that it might not.

It’s possible that your customers might not be interested in joining or that you don’t have enough visibility to gain the public’s attention. But if you think that an online video contest is what your business needs, then the risk is worth your efforts.

HOW AND WHY USER-GENERATED VIDEOS CONVERT MORE CUSTOMERS

UGC (User-Generated Content) is original and specific content created by customers that can be posted on your website or social media accounts. User-Generated Content comes in all types and is used to help boost your business’s visibility and credibility. Here’s how UGC can be used to your advantage:

Increases Your Brand’s Reputation

When people see User-Generated Content on your site or social media accounts, it gives potential customers a chance to see authentic reactions from real clients. The more credibility you have, the more online traffic your business gets.

Attracts and retains the attention of new customers.

You’ll know user-generated content is effective when you see a rise in new customers visiting your website. With UGC, you’ll see a 20% increase in return visitors and up to 90% of time spent on your site. Effective user-generated content ensures that word about your brand and services reaches new customers and results in more engagement, leading to more sales.

Saves Time and Money

Quality content takes time, and producing said content costs money. An advantage of using user-generated content is that it allows you to outsource content from creators. When your customers are happy with your services or products, they’ll spread the word, which is a great way to advertise your brand. Customer reviews and comments give new potential clients an honest look into what your business offers, saving you the time and money it takes to create your own advertisement.

Learn How Customer’s Feel About Your Services And Products

At the end of the day, your customers are the most important thing. UGC provides you with honest feedback from your consumers. Ads featuring user-generated content garnered 73% more positive comments online than traditional ads. Customer reactions can help your business improve by taking note of what they like and what things need to improve.

Improves Trust in Your Brand

The first thing customers often check when trying to learn about a product or service isn’t the description but the reviews. According to statistics, 92% of customers trust honest user-generated content compared to traditional advertising. New consumers are more likely to trust your business when they can see other customers’ experiences.

HOW SOUTHWEST AIRLINES LAUNCHED AN ONLINE VIDEO CONTEST

1. They Determined Their Goal For Launching An Online Contest

When hosting an online video contest, the first thing you need to decide on is what you want your contest to be about. Southwest Airlines, for example, wanted their video entries to tell a traveler’s story in 3 minutes. The theme of your competition is how you plan the criteria needed for contestants to join and for you to judge which entry should be the winner.

2. They Created Their Story Brief

Once you have decided on the goal of your contest, the next step is to come up with your story brief. When Southwest Airlines submitted their creative brief to AudPop’s crew, their goal was to find the best traveler story. The more detailed and specific your brief, the better since this serves as an outline for all the requirements you’d like your participants to take note of.

Aside from the participants, a creative brief is beneficial to the crew you’re partnering with and gives them the complete outline of what you would like your online video contest to be. Paired with the right video platform services, launching an online competition would be a breeze.

3. They Developed Clear Criteria For Judging

Setting a list of criteria is a must for any competition, especially if you want a fair and honest result. A set of criteria isn’t just for judging the winning entry, but it is a way for you to monitor which entries are accepted into the contest. Southwest Airlines was able to find its winners by this set of criteria:

  • 40% for adherence to the assignment
  • 35% for quality of work
  • 25% for reading and compiling with the rules

4. They Offered An Irresistible Incentive

As much as participating in a contest is fun and thrilling, we can all agree that the prizes are what get us to join. To launch a successful online video contest, you need to have a reward worth your participants’ efforts. The more enticing the prizes are, the more people are likely to join in. When Southwest Airlines launched its contest, the incentives were captivating and ranged from several flight e-passes to gift cards worth $500. 

5. They Partnered With The Right People

The whole process of planning, organizing, and running an online video contest can become overwhelming, especially if it’s your first time hosting one. But if you partner up with the right team, the journey of launching your contest can be a hassle-free experience.

When Southwest Airlines chose to partner with AudPop, the video platform services provided ensured that Southwest’s vision came to life. Here’s how they did it:

Step 1: Submit Brief for Online Video Contest

When creating their creative brief, Southwest Airlines specified that the goal of their contest was to look for the best traveler story. AudPop’s video platform services can connect you with over 75,000 creators from far and wide to make your ideas a reality.

Step 2: Notify Filmmakers for Online Video Contest

Sometimes your customers aren’t comfortable joining your online video contest, and it can be a challenge to get people to participate. AudPop has a network of filmmakers and creators who are notified when a new opportunity is available. You can easily find participants and entries for your online video contest through AudPop’s video platform services.

Step 3: Creation Begins for Online Video Contest

After being notified of the contest and getting the story brief, the filmmakers set themselves out to create videos that fit the criteria set by Southwest Airlines. Through the quality video platform services provided, participants can create content that aligns with the vision Southwest had in mind for their contest.

Step 4: Southwest Picked the Winners for Online Video Contest

Once filming and editing are done, the entries are then submitted to be reviewed and judged by Southwest’s team. All they have to do next is to watch and choose which videos are their favorites. Through AudPop’s video platform services, you can skip the process of looking for contestants and just proceed to the judging portion of the competition.

Step 5: First Place for Southwest Online Video Contest

The main goal of hosting an online video contest is to have different filmmakers create content that matches your vision and shows your customers a different side of your brand or business. After all, entries had been judged and selected. Southwest received the right to distribute and share the top videos however they deemed fit. On top of that, the chosen winners received grand prizes of travel and had their creations shared with the public.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Though online video contests come with their challenges, they are a great way to engage with your customers and promote your business. If you think your business can improve and advance by hosting your own online contest, the risk is worth the try.

However, launching an online video contest is not an easy task to handle on your own. It takes a lot of effort, time, and money just to plan out how you want the event to go. To successfully run an online contest, you will need the right kind of team that can help make the process a little easier on your end. Finding good video platform services is a must when you want to run a successful video contest.

When you partner with AudPop, you get the quality video platform services needed to help you with your goals. Get in touch with AudPop to learn more about the services they offer to video marketing agencies to launch an online contest similar to Southwest Airlines.

[AUDPOP CTA] The AudPop Agency Partnership Advantage

 

ABOUT AUDPOP

At AudPop, we’re filmmakers, designers, marketers, strategists, and writers. But mostly, we’re dreamers! Dreamers who believe stories can change the world. Our mission at AudPop is to connect partners with creators. Filmmakers with partners. Audiences with authentic stories to facilitate collaboration and change.

How do we do that exactly? It’s simple.

We’ve got you if you’re a partner or agency looking to create original premium video content. We can connect you with over 75,000 diverse and talented filmmakers. Are you a filmmaker ready to share your stories with the world? We can connect you with partners and audiences hungry for quality, authentic content. Do you want to watch quality video content with real stories? We have over 12,000 videos from filmmakers from 190 countries. All with unique stories to tell.

Dreams start here—and together, we can make them come true. Check out AudPop.

AudPop

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