A contest doesn’t have to have a prize

As advertisers struggle to come up with ideas to engage the elusive and fickle youth market, the incentive is always a topic of debate. What do you offer: free iPod, music, Sidekick, game console, cash?

How about… nothing? Or put a marketing spin on nothing and make it “bragging rights”? Here’s an example:
http://obey.msn.com/

Obey is a mobile scavenger hunt. Each week, participants must take a photo of an object and submit it.

The fact that Sprite is the brand behind this is not obvious. The only obvious hint is the lemon-lime theme. (Put that and the name “Obey” together and you might recall Sprint’s old theme “Obey Your Thirst“) Hidden links take the user to more content where Sprite connects with consumers in the offline world via their Urban Games.

What’s most important is engaging your audience in a meaningful way that they will want to participate. A fun challenge without overt branding will be accepted. Allowing marketers and legal folks to muddy the concept with cross-sell messages, pages of legal disclaimers and all around bad judgement will surely lead to failure.

What are your thoughts? Is a prize incentive critical to success?
-Roland

Article: comScore Study Reveals Gamers Are an Attractive Online Advertising Segment

Checkout the first-quarter results of the comScore Networks “The Players” study.

Excerpts:

In-game advertising is an innovative way to reach Gamers, but some worry it might be considered an intrusive form of advertising that could alienate an audience. However, while some Gamers are offended by in-game advertising, the results of comScore’s survey suggest the positive effects outweigh any negative consequences. Specifically, when asked about their attitudes towards games with advertisements, only 15 percent of Heavy Gamers claimed they would be ‘unlikely’ to play games that included such product placements.

In contrast, more than twice as many Heavy Gamers (33 percent), said they would be ‘likely’ to play those games, while fully 52% of Heavy Gamers and 56% of Light/Medium Gamers stated that the inclusion of advertising would have no impact on their likelihood of playing a game.

“Advertisers are quickly learning that Gamers are a highly desirable consumer target,” said Erin Hunter, senior vice president of comScore entertainment solutions. “Gamers are networked and vocal about what they like and don’t like, and the results of comScore’s study reveal that the vast majority of Gamers are not bothered by in-game advertising.”

What do you think? Please post your comments. Thanks.
-Roland