Bombay Sapphire Integrates Online Contest and Blogs

Now that I've been blogging here for almost a year and a half about interactive promotions I've made the list of a few PR firms who have been sending me information about their clients' latest promotions. Most of them I have found interesting and try and write about. This one I received from the folks over at Terpin Communications that I just couldn't pass up for a few good reasons: 1) They have an awesome promotional website 2) They've got a separate contest just for us bloggers! 3) I love a good Bombay Sapphire Martini!

Bombay Sapphire's "The Spirit of Exploration" contest is sending a lucky winner on a trip to the Sky Bar in Bangkok, Thailand! Once you get through the regulatory website pages and tell them your birth date and country you're told that "the most extraordinary brand introduces an interactive experience like no other". You're then greeted by the bartender of the Sky Bar, an exotic spot located on top of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the second tallest building in Bangkok.

To enter the contest, consumers need to write a 50 word essay saying "What the Spirit of Exploration means to them". They may also include photographs and/or videos to go along with their essay or insert a link to their Flickr, MySpace, Facebook page that contains them. A panel of judges will review all the entries and choose a winner based on the persuasiveness of the entry, their ability to communicate their explorative spirit and their relevance to Bombay Sapphire. Entries are accepted up till July 15th.

The grand prize winner receives a 7-day trip to Bangkok along with some tours and an English-speaking sightseeing guide. The winner get to fly on Cathay Pacific airlines either out of New York's JFK airport, Los Angeles' LAX or San Fransisco however, they need to find their own way to one of those airports on their own expense. Either way, the trip is valued at $8,000, so it's worth it.

Now the Spirit of Exploration blogger's contest is asking for blog posts that focus on the same question of what the spirit of exploration means to you. So, that's not really what I'm writing about here. I guess I'll have to come back to it and write about it in a different post if I want a shot at this. But what's really cool about what they've done here is created a blog in which they're generating content for it by the promotion itself. You can read all the posts that have been submitted (and accepted) and then vote for which one you think should get the title of "the Spirit of Exploration Blogger"!

The bloggers can't win the trip to Bangkok just by posting, but they can take their blog post and also enter it as an essay in the contest. Each blogger can submit a link to their actual blog which gets added to the Bombay Sapphire blogroll. They also supply the blogger with a downloadable badge that they can place on their own blog which invites their readers to vote for them. I counted 11 posts on the blog as of today. Soon to come will be a Sapphire Explores Community on Facebook that I guess they don't have up yet.

So, if you read my previous post here on the reported growth online promotions will be experiencing in the next five years I also did my own forecasting. I stated that integrating social media, especially blogs, with interactive promotions is one of the ways in which I think this growth is going to happen. The Bombay Sapphire promotion is a great example of how they've brought the two mediums together. Stay tuned for my Spirit of Exploration post. I really want that martini now!

Comments

[Tabitha Grace Smith]

Wonderful article! Thanks so much for the write up. We're really enjoying reading all the entries that have been coming in for the blog. I think you're right, we'll just see more of this as time progresses. Integrating social media and online promotion is just a logical step.

[Donna DeClemente]

Thanks Tabitha. Glad you like the post. I'll be keeping up with the blog and would love to hear some of the final results once this promotion ends.