Over the last week , I’ve been researching how social media tactics can be integrated into online contests. As is often the case I tend to find more interesting applications in Europe than I do in North America and particluarly in Canada. Nontheless, the latest example comes from Northern Europe where the airline SAS has launched an online competition that takes advantage of Facebook Connect to give away flight tickets to a series of destinations around the world. Facebook Connect is smoothly and smartly integrated into the game mechanism and the whole thing seems to have a pretty good viral potential.
The mechanism is pretty simple. You select your departure airport served by SAS, you spin the globe to find out your destination and then the system connects to your Facebook profile to randomly pick a friend you will travel with. But the game isn’t over yet: in order to actually win the tickets you have to write a short story on why you and friend should travel together.
Using Facebook Connect gives viral marketing new face by playing with your friends for a chance to win something and as we have seen with successful online contests, using a game mechanism significantly increases contest participation by 2-3 times.
Tags: Facebook Connect Contest, online contests, SAS, social media contest
