In every marketing campaign, you have clear goals: to increase sales, get more followers, and so on. But if your brand is aimed at children, then there are other important factors to consider too. You want to show parents that you’re trustworthy and family-friendly. And you want to keep kids entertained! A drawing contest for kids ticks all these boxes.
Seven tips to organize a drawing competition for kids
Here are 7 tips to organize an online drawing contest that will get your audience engaged, provide you UGC, and build brand awareness. Let’s get going!
Safety first
Before we begin, let’s run through some key points for marketing to kids. The internet is a wonderful place – but it can be risky, too. If your promotion is aimed at kids, be it an online drawing contest or something else, here are some ground rules to keep in mind:
- Get parents’ permission. Include a check box so that kids ask their parents before joining the drawing contest. This is especially important if you want to collect any personal or contact details.
- Set age restrictions, if necessary. You can set a minimum age for your drawing contest, as well as limiting it to specific countries.
- Check social network rules. For example, many social networks don’t accept users who are under 13. If you want to connect your promotion to social media, encourage kids to use their parents’ accounts or get special permission. You can also choose to make competition entries anonymous, even if they come from social media.
- Be responsive, be responsible. Keep a close eye on your competition entries and comments. You can pre-moderate entries, and exclude or blacklist people who behave inappropriately.
If you’re active and responsible online, your drawing contest for kids should be problem-free. So let’s move on to the fun part!
An awesome prize will make your drawing contest more attractive
When we researched how people respond to promotions, we learnt that the prize is the most important factor. Choose a reward that kids love, and they’ll be keen to share their drawings and designs with you. Describe the prize in detail, and include photos or videos of it in action.
You could share products from your brand, seasonal gifts, or team up with a co-sponsoring brand. You could offer family prizes, too, such as a family photoshoot or day out. But have a heart – choose something that’s parent-friendly, too. Think twice before you give away a full-size drum kit!
We loved this example from the VarageSale app. They asked kids to share their dreams for the future, with a drawing of them in their future career. The lucky competition winner received a $50 giftcard for school supplies, and a plush toy made from their design!
Keep your drawing contest simple
Because it is organized online, kids will join the contest by sharing a photo of their artwork. But that doesn’t have to be a complicated process!
When you organize a photo contest, your followers have lots of different options. They can upload a photo directly, or they can share it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. When they use your competition hashtag, the app will automatically detect their posts and add them to the contest.
Here’s a contest where the Malley sportswear brand asked kids to design their new kit for Irish Dance. Take a look at the photo captions – you’ll see that some drawings were uploaded directly, while others were added to the contest when they used the #MakeItMalley hashtag.
A drawing competition for children can also help promote your brand values and commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen. Check out this article on how fashion retailer C&A organized a drawing contest for kids to promote their environmental values and sustainability.
Set clear participation and winner selection rules for your drawing contest.
It is very important to set clear rules of participation. As well as how the winner selection will work. If your online drawing competition revolves around a specific topic or must include certain elements, make sure you explain it clearly in the instructions.
When the time comes to pick a winner, a transparent and well explained process is fundamental. For instance, you can divide the drawing contest in two stages. In the first stage the gallery of participating drawings is open so the general public can vote for their favorite. Afterwards, the most voted drawings move on to the final stage where a jury will pick the winner(s).
The Easypromos Voting Contest app allows you to easily configure all these aspects. From the layout of the viewing and voting gallery, to the amount of votes that users can cast, among other options.
Connect on social media
We’ve already seen how parents can share their kids’ competition entries from Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. But you can add some extra features to your drawing contest for kids, too – and double engagement in the process.
When you use the contest app, you can set up a public gallery to show off drawings and coloring pages. Activate the comment and share options, so that people can spread the word about the contest. Finally, you can invite people to vote for their favorites. This is really popular, and a great way to make your promotion go viral.
Take a look at this summer photo contest for kids and grandparents. The brand got ten times more votes than competition entries – and over 17,000 page views.
Use the drawing competition to bring kids and families to your store
You can use your drawing contest for kids as an incentive, to drive traffic to your physical or online store.
For example, you could offer a special “artist’s kit” to help kids complete their drawings. This could be free, or at a special discount. If you want to increase visits to your website, you could create free templates for parents to download.
In this coloring contest, the brand created their own coloring pages for kids – complete with the brand logo.
Channel kids’ creativity back into your brand
Anyone who’s spent time around kids will know that they take their art projects seriously… very, very seriously. Show that your brand respects children by placing a real value on their work. You could use their drawings in your marketing campaigns, or even as product design! After all, user-generated content is a big trend in digital marketing right now – and you’ll save time on creating material in-house.
For example, in 2018, the North American Irish Dance championships asked kids and young people to suggest a new logo design. Once the championship organizers had chosen a shortlist, they asked their online followers to help out by voting for their favorites.
Start your drawing contest online
We hope you’ve found some inspiration in this post. Now it’s time to create your own drawing contest for kids, share some fantastic prizes, and make connections with your followers online. Create your account for free to get started!
