UPDATE: TripAdvisor reached out to Tnooz to share that the company actually boosted the winnings from $1k to $10k for all runners-up due to the quality of their submissions. Quite impressive jump in prize money!
User-generated marketing campaigns are a mixed bag - sometimes they produced magical gems that are far better than a company can produce on its own, and other times the campaigns are nothing but duds.
TripAdvisor recently tested the waters of UGC, offering a $25,000 grand prize to the TripAdvisor user submission that most captivated the essence of the brand's recent slate of "Don't Just Visit" TV commercials. These 15 second short commercials were structured in such a way as to showcase how a trip can be differentiated by the TripAdvisor service (for example, here's the one on "Don't Just Visit Miami").
The advantages of engaging users for submissions are threefold: 1) the contest extends the awareness of the original advertising campaign, thus increasing the overall return on investment of the expensive TV investment, 2) the contest offers plenty of additional marketing opportunities, and 3) the grand prize is generally far less than the actual cost of making a professionally-produced TV commercial.
The grand prize winner took home $25k, and had an amusing take on a trip to Fargo. The winning selection will actually be played on national television, offering an additional windfall to the new production company created by the winning team.
Jason Graisa, winner of the TripAdvisor TV Ad Contest, said:
I’m thrilled our ‘Fargo’ submission won the grand prize – it’s one of the first films we produced after starting our production company. It’s great that TripAdvisor tapped into the creativity of its members, and it will be amazing to see our commercial on TV just like the other TripAdvisor ‘Don’t Just Visit’ ads. I’m planning a trip someplace tropical with the money we’ve won!
Here's the winning submission:
Other runners-up received $1k, and had takes on misrepresented hotel rooms, unfinished hotels, trips with pets, and different stays in Paris and New York.
TripAdvisor was pleased enough with the results and quality of submission to extend another $25k award for the best, most creative submissions. This time the travel company is asking for video content that showcases how TripAdvisor made a difference in a user's trip experience. More information here.