Social Media Campaign Review: MoneyGram Ultimate Cricket Fan Contest

With IPL in its last few weeks, a lot of brands are using the opportunity to run cricket-related contests. MoneyGram, the leading global money transfer company is running its annual Ultimate Cricket Fan contest.

Objective:

Through this contest, MoneyGram is leveraging its association as a sponsor of the ICC Champions Trophy, 2013, to engage users at a time when cricket fever is at its peak.

Execution:

In the initial contest entry submission period, users were to upload their picture in cricketing gear along with a 150-word essay describing why they would like to be the ICC Champions Trophy Fan Blogger for MoneyGram. The essay would have to include relevant information about the participant’s skills and background.

From these entries, finalists were selected who then had to upload a video of themselves, of not more than 60 seconds, explaining why they were the Ultimate Cricket Fan and why they should be selected to be the ICC Champions Trophy Fan Blogger for MoneyGram.

The winner chosen by MoneyGram will be announced on 21^st May, 2013, and will win an all-expense paid trip to UK where they will get to watch select matches of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and will have to blog about these matches for MoneyGram.

Each entry and video had to be uploaded via the MoneyGram Cricket Facebook App only. Facebook fans can vote for each of the participants’ entries and videos.

Only one entry per person is allowed and users cannot change or upload a different video once they have already uploaded one.

The contest is open to all residents of Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, UK and USA.

Positives:

The timing of the contest is perfect. In the last few weeks of the IPL, the contest is an interesting way to engage consumers in the run up to the Champions Trophy scheduled to begin in the first week of June.

The fact that there are two phases in the contest is great – participants have to first upload the essay and only if they are selected as finalists, can they upload their videos. This keeps contestants hooked as they will look forward to the announcements about the finalists and then the winner.

The winner will be selected based on a combination of factors such as Facebook fans’ votes, creativity, writing ability, on-camera personality, knowledge and passion for cricket and relevance of the essay and video to the contest.

Scope for Improvement:

The contest is so good that I actually cannot fault the execution.

Conclusion:

Overall, MoneyGram has done a great job at leveraging its association with an international tournament with a fun and engaging contest, executed across several countries.