Everyone loves the chance to win something. But when consumers are surrounded by competitions, giveaways and promotions every day, how do you make yours the one that actually gets their attention? Finding the right prize ideas for marketing campaigns isn’t simply a case of choosing the most expensive thing your budget allows. A great prize needs to be desirable, relevant to your audience and exciting enough to make someone stop scrolling and think: I’d really like to win that.
Whether you’re trying to attract new customers, increase engagement with an existing audience, generate leads, encourage survey responses or simply create some noise around your brand, the prize you put at the heart of your campaign can make a huge difference.
So, what actually makes an eye-catching customer prize? Let’s take a look.
Why use prizes in your marketing campaigns?
There’s a reason competitions, prize draws and giveaways have been part of the marketing playbook for so long: they give people an extra reason to interact with a brand.
That interaction could mean entering their details, trying a product, completing a survey, engaging with a social post, referring a friend or making a purchase. Promotional marketing can cover everything from instant wins and prize draws to competitions, with the added benefit acting as an incentive for consumers to engage.
But simply attaching a prize to your campaign doesn’t automatically make it compelling. Your audience is giving you something in return for entering, even if that’s only a few seconds of their attention. If you’re asking them to complete several steps, provide information or make a purchase, you’re asking for considerably more.
But simply attaching a prize to your campaign doesn’t automatically make it compelling. The amount of effort you’re asking from your audience matters too. A quick click or simple entry asks very little, while completing a lengthy form, creating content or making a purchase requires considerably more commitment. Entry friction influences participation, so the more you’re asking people to do, the more important it becomes for the prize to feel worth their time and effort. And that’s where choosing the right prize ideas for marketing campaigns becomes important.
Start with your audience, not the prize
It’s very easy to start planning a campaign by saying:
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if we gave away a…?”
Before you know it, everyone in the meeting is getting very excited about a prize without asking whether the target customer actually wants it.
Instead, start with your audience. Who are you trying to attract? What do they enjoy? What would feel valuable to them? What would make them immediately imagine themselves winning? A luxury couples’ getaway might be fantastic for one audience but completely miss the mark for another. Likewise, a family attraction could be hugely appealing to parents but much less relevant to a campaign targeting young professionals.
The strongest prize doesn’t necessarily have the biggest price tag. It’s the prize with the strongest connection to the people you’re trying to reach.
That relevance matters commercially too. A competition that attracts thousands of people who have no interest in your brand might give you an impressive-looking entry number, but a campaign that attracts fewer, more relevant potential customers could ultimately be much more valuable.
Make it something people wouldn’t ordinarily buy themselves
This is where things get interesting. Some of the best prizes have that “I’d love to do that” quality. Think about the difference between seeing:
WIN £100
and:
WIN A HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHT FOR TWO
The monetary value could potentially be similar, but the second instantly creates a picture in your head.
You can imagine being there. You might immediately know who you’d take. And suddenly you’re not thinking about £100, you’re thinking about the memory you could make. That’s one of the reasons experiences can work so brilliantly as customer prizes. A supercar drive, Michelin-star meal, helicopter flight, spa break, afternoon tea or weekend getaway can feel aspirational without necessarily requiring an enormous prize budget.
Research suggests experiences can do more than create great memories. Studies have found that experiential gifts can strengthen the relationship between the giver and recipient more than material gifts, with the greater emotion experienced while enjoying the gift helping to drive that connection. For marketers, that’s another good reason to think beyond traditional merchandise when choosing prizes.
Make your prize easy to understand
You shouldn’t need three paragraphs to explain what somebody could win.
“Win a trip to New York.”
“Win a supercar driving experience.”
“Win £500 to spend on an unforgettable experience.”
They’re instantly understandable.
This becomes particularly important when you’re advertising through social media, display advertising or email, where you’re competing for attention and may only have a couple of seconds to communicate your message.
Try the five-second test.
Show someone your campaign creative for five seconds and take it away. Can they tell you what they could win? If not, simplifying your proposition could make the campaign much stronger.
Think visually
When looking for prize ideas for marketing campaigns, remember your prize also needs to look good. This is another area where experiences really come into their own. A picture of someone skydiving, driving a Ferrari, enjoying cocktails overlooking London or flying in a helicopter naturally gives creative teams something exciting to work with.
And that visual doesn’t simply advertise the prize, it helps consumers imagine themselves enjoying it. You can see this principle in action in campaigns we’ve previously supported at Virgin Incentives.
Big brands, big prizes: Virgin Incentives in action
We’re lucky enough to have worked with some brilliant brands that understand just how powerful the right prize can be.
One great example is McDonald’s MONOPOLY in the UK, where Virgin Experience Days has featured among the campaign’s prizes. It’s a perfect example of an established promotion using a mixture of instantly recognisable prizes and aspirational rewards to create excitement. Rather than the Virgin Experience Days element simply being another physical item, winners get the opportunity to turn their prize into a memorable experience.
We’ve also worked with Candy King, which used the Merlin Gift Card as part of its customer competition. That’s another interesting approach because the prize combines excitement with choice. Candy King is a confectionary brand that targets families, therefore a Merlin Gift Card opens up the possibility of incredible family days out across some of the UK’s best-known attractions.
Both campaigns demonstrate something we regularly talk about with our B2B clients: an eye-catching prize doesn’t have to mean giving every winner exactly the same thing. Sometimes, choice is the prize.
Give your winner some freedom
One of the biggest challenges marketers face when choosing prize ideas for marketing campaigns is trying to find something everybody wants.
Spoiler alert: you probably won’t.
Your customers have different interests, lifestyles, ages and priorities. That’s why gift cards can be particularly useful for campaigns targeting a broad audience.
A Virgin Experience Days Gift Card, for example, gives UK winners the opportunity to choose from thousands of experiences themselves. Rather than guessing whether someone would prefer afternoon tea, a spa day, driving experience or getaway, you can let them decide. For US campaigns, the same principle applies with the Virgin Gifts eGift Card, opening up thousands of experiences across America.
Alternatively, our Leisure Choice Gift Card, both in the UK and in the USA, offers another kind of flexibility. Winners can swap their balance for digital gift cards from a huge range of well-known brands, and can even split their balance across different brands. You still provide an exciting prize, but the winner gets the final say.
Create a prize hierarchy
Not every campaign needs one enormous winner-takes-all prize. In fact, sometimes it’s more exciting to create different levels of winning. For example, you could offer:
Grand prize: A bucket-list experience or getaway
Second prize: Virgin Experience Days or Virgin Gifts gift cards
Runner-up prizes: Smaller Leisure Choice Gift Cards
You could also introduce instant wins alongside a larger prize draw. This can make the campaign feel more achievable because there isn’t simply one winner among thousands of entrants. It also gives marketers more opportunities to communicate winners throughout the campaign and maintain momentum rather than putting everything behind one final draw.
Match the prize to the action you’re asking people to take
This one is easily overlooked. If you’re asking someone to like a social post, a smaller-value prize could be perfectly reasonable.
If you’re asking somebody to complete a 20-minute survey, provide detailed information or purchase a product, the perceived value of the reward probably needs to increase accordingly.
Think of it as an exchange.
What am I asking the customer to give me, and what am I offering in return?
The better that exchange feels, the more compelling your campaign becomes.
Don’t forget shareability
Ask yourself another question:
Would somebody tell their friends if they won this?
That’s a surprisingly useful test.
An unusual experience naturally gives winners something to talk about. They might share pictures from their day, tell friends about it or post it on social media. Suddenly, the prize can have a life beyond the initial competition.
And from a brand perspective, that’s incredibly valuable. Research suggests people are more inclined to talk about experiential purchases than material ones, meaning a memorable experience naturally gives winners a story to tell. Your campaign has gone from “enter to win” to somebody genuinely enjoying and talking about something associated with your brand.
Make claiming the prize part of the experience
You’ve created a fantastic campaign.
Someone enters.
They win.
And then… they spend three weeks emailing customer service trying to get their prize.
Not quite the lasting brand impression you were hoping for.
Fulfilment is every bit as important as the creative idea. Think about how winners will receive their prize, how quickly it can be delivered, what instructions they’ll receive and who they’ll contact if something goes wrong.
Digital gift cards and experience vouchers can make this particularly straightforward, especially for campaigns with winners spread across different locations. The winning moment should feel exciting, not administrative.
And don’t forget the rules
The fun creative bit is important, but so is running the promotion properly.
For UK campaigns, CAP guidance says significant conditions should be communicated in the initial marketing material. Depending on the promotion, these can include how to participate, closing dates, the nature and number of prizes and eligibility or availability restrictions. Prize draw winners also need to be selected using an appropriately random process, and prizes must be awarded as described or replaced with a reasonable equivalent where necessary.
It’s also important to understand what type of promotion you’re actually running. CAP distinguishes between chance-based prize draws and competitions where prizes are awarded based on skill, and recommends seeking appropriate legal advice to ensure promotional mechanics don’t inadvertently create an unlawful lottery.
Not the most glamorous part of your brainstorming session, admittedly, but definitely an important one.
At Virgin Incentives, we work with businesses on customer acquisition, loyalty, partner promotions, referral rewards, prizes and giveaways, helping brands use experiences and gift cards to make their campaigns more memorable. Our range includes everything from unforgettable Virgin Experience Days and Virgin Gifts experiences to flexible gift card solutions, giving businesses plenty of prize ideas for marketing campaigns built around their audience and budget.
Because ultimately, a good marketing prize gets somebody to enter.
A great one gets them talking about it before they’ve even won.
