Whether you work in your town’s economic development department, you’re part of the local businesses association or want to boost your business’ sales, you are most likely aware that promoting local businesses has advantages that should not be overlooked. It contributes to developing and protecting the local economy and employment. Hence, we believe that promotional actions to give visibility to points of sale can be part of the solution to revitalizing the local economy. Furthermore, in the case of brands, new or seasonal products can be promoted easily and in a fun way.
This said we propose taking advantage of holidays or season changes to promote a store window contest with online voting. Ask your local establishments to sign up for the contest, choose a theme or products to display in the windows and let customers decide and vote on which one is the most appealing. Easy!
Let’s take a look at some real-life examples of store window contests and the prizes that both establishments and customers won.
Vote your Favorite style store window contest to showcase a new collection
Red Point came up with a very original way of promoting their new ECO swimsuit collection, and simultaneously promoting their shops. The brand did it with a Vote your Favorite display contest, and posting them on a public online gallery where users could vote for the one they liked the most. To promote participation, the brand offered the winners a swimsuit of their choosing as a prize. This action achieved a high level of engagement as it gathered over 2,000 votes and 100,000 visits to the website.
The public gallery can be displayed in two ways: Vertical gallery, which shows the options in a column. Ot tile mode, which shows several options per row.
Two-phase store window contest of a local business association
The local business association La Via T from the Spanish city of Tarragona organized a flower decoration contest to celebrate the arrival of spring. The action consisted of two stages: In the first stage, local establishments decorated their shops or streets. The second stage consisted of popular voting to determine the most liked decoration.
There are several kinds of contests in which users can upload their photos, videos, or texts. The gallery is configured to support all these formats and to optimize visualization on any kind of device.
Store window contest organized by the City Hall
The City Hall of the city of Navas in Spain, organized a store window contest to promote and increase the visibility of local shops. The organizers created a survey-mode contest in which participants had to answer a question mentioning their favorite store window. To promote participation, participants entered a final prize draw of 10 credit vouchers worth €100 to be spent on participating shops, which in turn contributed to their sales figures.
Customize the survey using the questionnaire editor. Include as many questions as needed, choose a layout, and customize the buttons’ colors. All changes in the design are immediately visible in the editor.
B2B Store Window contest in the pharma sector
B2B (business-to-business) promotional actions are becoming increasingly popular. They generate sales for the organizers and provide advantages to the brands that benefit from them. Let’s take a look at an example for a better understanding. Heel Spain launched a store window contest among pharmacies to promote its products among pharmacists. Pharmacies would participate with a photo of their window display using Heel products to get votes. The winners won a course in Visual Merchandising, Sellout, and Display Windows. Additionally, in return for casting their vote, participants participated in a final prize draw of a Heel product bundle.
Feature participating photos in a public gallery. Choose a template to showcase the photos, customize the color palette, draft the message to share the photos, and activate the voting system to viralize the action. Tools to moderate and control the content are available to administrators.
Here’s another example of a store window contest for pharmacies by Neopeques. In this case, the brand took advantage of the back-to-school campaign to promote its products in pharmacies’ windows. The dynamic was similar to the previous example: every pharmacy submitted a photo of its window decorated with Neopeques products in hopes of getting the most votes.
The platform offers tools to filter, moderate, and choose the contest finalists, assign additional participations depending on the number of votes, and select winners either by popular vote, jury vote, or random prize draw that includes a certificate of validity.
Generating engagement among local businesses or a chain of your product vendors is always a good idea to help achieve your marketing objectives. Offer prizes both to the participating establishments and to voters to ensure your action goes viral.
If you’re thinking of launching a store window contest and need additional advice or have any doubts, contact us via live chat. Our customer support team will be happy to help.
