A couple of weeks ago I entered into a drawing that offered a 1st prize of $10,000, 2nd prize $100, and 3rd prize free games for life. I really liked the marketing idea that went around the contest and wanted to participate. I work in sales and my wife works in marketing and good marketing ideas always catch my attention.
The contest was held by IUGO games, they make games for the iPhone. They have a popular iPhone game out called “Toy Bot Diaries” that they have made two sequals to, they also have a free trial version available at the app store. I had the free version on my iPhone that I had been playing but I did not want to pay $3.99 for the full version until IUGO had their contest. To promote the contest they lowered the price on all three versions of the “Toy Bot Diaries” games to .99 each. To enter the contest, you needed to buy all three games and collect 25 “data pads” in all three games and you basically had 1 month to get it all done.
I really enjoyed all the extra twists to the contest and walked away impressed with the overall concept of the marketing plan. I know that there was good timing involved because I was currently playing the free version of the game, but I am impressed by the fact that they got me to purchase a game that I really did not want to purchase to begin with. Not only did they get me to buy one of their games, they got me to buy them all. On top of that, they required me to actually play all three games over a certain time period.
I was impressed even more by the fact that I did all of this and walked away from the whole experience happy that I made the purchases in the first place. I also admit that I now have the IUGO brand name stuck in my head for future referrence. I will be sure to check out any of their future products. This, to me, was a great sales and marketing plan done right. Bravo.
… this just in … As if the whole experience wasn’t good enough as it was, I actually won a prize (2nd) in the contest.