Customer Success Story: What Brisbane City did to collect thousands of leads and Instagram Follows

Instagram is the perfect fuel for a travel junkie’s addiction. As someone who loves to travel, scrolling through my Instagram feed is like looking at a digital issue of Travel + Leisure or AFAR. Like many social media users, I use the posts from companies I follow as inspiration for my upcoming trips and to help inform my itinerary when I’m there. The same is true for the city I live in: I wouldn’t know half of the exciting new restaurants to try or the events going on if I didn’t follow businesses and people who know the city inside and out.The way people use social media to choose vacation destinations and free time activities is why it’s so important for travel destinations to have a strong presence on Instagram. However, it doesn’t matter how stunning your photos are or how many helpful tips you post if nobody sees them. So how do you earn a coveted spot on someone’s Instagram feed? By providing folks with some incentive for following your Instagram account.

‍Brisbane City is the go-to source for everything Brisbane. Curated by people who live in and love Brisbane, the site is full of events, restaurants, activities, shopping, tips and more, with the goal of showing visitors everything they can enjoy while there. Brisbane City is part of Brisbane Marketing’s initiative to raise awareness of the city. For Christmas, Brisbane City created a giveaway to promote Brisbane and increase their visibility on Instagram and Facebook. However, this wasn’t just any giveaway. The “12 Stays of Christmas” gave entrants the opportunity to earn extra chances to win one of 12 prizes if they followed Brisbane City on Instagram or visited the Brisbane City website. In this post, we’ll discuss the campaign, Brisbane City’s results and how they used ShortStack’s Points for Actions feature to reach their goals.

Contest Basics

From December 2-23, 2019, Brisbane Marketing ran their “12 Stays of Christmas” giveaway. Kobi Lagana is the City Marketing Manager for Brisbane Marketing. He said the goals of Brisbane City’s campaign were to “increase [their] Facebook and Instagram follower base and engagement over Christmas” and “position Brisbane City as a destination to shop, play and stay at Christmas time.”

When visiting the campaign, it’s obvious that the prizes helped Brisbane City to reach their goals. The prizes consisted of 12 “staycations” around different themes. For example, the “For Music Lovers Package” included:

• An overnight accommodation for two people including breakfast;
• A gift card to the performing arts center;
• A gift card to a local record store; and
• A drink voucher at a favorite bar.

The 11 other staycations were:

• For Food and Wine lovers;
• For Those Who Like to Indulge;
• For Adventure Seekers;
• For The Sartorialist;
• For Couples;
• For History Buffs;
• For Shopaholics;
• For Families;
• For Fun Loving Friends;
• For The Pampered Pals; and
• For Art Lovers

The value of these staycation packages ranged from $647 AUD for the “For Art Lovers Package” to $2,063 AUD for the “For Families Package.” Overall, the total value of prizes distributed was $12,008 AUD.People could submit one entry to the contest. However, they could gain up to three bonus entries for completing other actions. One bonus entry was awarded for each of the following actions: following Brisbane City on Instagram and visiting the Brisbane City website.

Campaign Elements

To start building the campaign, Brisbane City used our Points for Actions template. The template provided them with the ability to collect entries through a form, as well as extra points for actions they specified. Plus, the template allowed their team to concentrate on the design, messaging and promotion to make their campaign a success, instead of the code required to award extra points for actions.

Beyond the form and the Instagram follow and visit website buttons, the campaign included:

• the option for visitors to share the promotion on Facebook or via a link;
• a link to the official rules; and
• logos for Brisbane City’s prize partners.

The ShortStack Share Widget was used to implement the sharing options, while a Links Widget was used to show the official rules in a PDF when clicked. Prize partner logos were added with an Image Widget.

The Results

According to Lagana, Brisbane City was thrilled with the success of their campaign. They expected about 1,500 entries. However, they received a whopping 7,285 entries -- that’s almost 5x the number of entries they expected to receive and quite the boost for their marketing list! These are powerful qualified leads because the participants are interested in spending time in Brisbane. Lagana said that they will continue engaging with the entrants in the future.The campaign was viewed 15,103 times, 10,891 of which were unique views (72%), and the campaign was shared 177 times via the share icons.Best of all, 4,040 extra points were awarded to folks who clicked the “Follow Us On Instagram,” meaning their social media profile had thousands of new views. By the end of the contest, Brisbane City gained 2,521 new Instagram followers.

Brisbane City gained 2,521 new Instagram followers and 1,990 new Facebook Likes.

Essential ShortStack feature for Brisbane City’s success: Points for Actions template

The most crucial ShortStack element for growing Brisbane City’s Instagram followers was the Points for Actions template. Without this template, Brisbane City would have needed to write their own custom code to award extra entries for taking these actions. Alternatively, they could have provided the option to follow them on Instagram without incentives for performing those actions. However, it’s unlikely thousands of people would have visited their social media profiles in such a short period of time if there wasn’t an incentive to complete the actions. The template made it possible for Brisbane City to focus on the design and promotion of their campaign which saved them time and money.

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Giveaways aren’t the only way to promote your travel destination

Instagram is a powerful tool for promoting travel ideas and free time activities. However, it can be hard to earn new followers. Brisbane City created a smart campaign that leveraged a buzz-worthy prize and incentivized people to follow its Instagram profile for extra entries to win. This contest not only earned Brisbane City new followers, it also increases the chance that folks interested in Brisbane will see a Brisbane City post in their feeds in the future, thus inspiring future travel plans.

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