A few months ago my children and I entered a YouTube video contest with a company called The Great Wolf Lodge. This is an indoor water slide park and hotel. The premise was simple, you make a video about why you love the Great Wolf Lodge and you win a 4 free adventures to the water park for your family. My kids love the GWL so we decided to go for it and see if we could win. On our next trip we shot some video knowing we would want to enter and when we came home we worked on it together before submitting it to the GWL YouTube channel.
While we did not win the contest we did realize the power of this exercise. We made a video of something we love and then we sent it out to all of our friends and family and asked them to vote for us. Everyone we sent it to viewed our custom made commercial of the GWL, witnessing the purest form of peer marketing there is. It is a true win, win experience. GWL wins by exposing themselves to large multiples of visitors recommended by current and past visitors and the video entrants win by getting a chance to win free vacations.
In the world of workplace giving this same concept could be put to work. Companies could put up a cash donation prize of $10,000+ as a prize to the group or person with the best video of why they support a particular charity. The company will get recognized for the prize donation funds as well as their employees good will in making the video and selecting the charities they select. The charities will get great promotion and one lucky group will get a great donation.
This campaign season WPG Solutions is coordinating several of these YouTube contests, among other great new and innovative ways to get employees involved in giving and volunteering in their communities.
Here is a link to our GWL YouTube contest entrant from my family
