What are Branded Challenges?

Social media has opened up new ways for brands to reach audiences cost-effectively. The traditional advertising methods before social media were centered around brands paying for publicity and potentially seeing an increase in sales and receiving positive feedback. With social media, brands can now create a domino effect. They can create their own content, or use influencer marketing, to spur a large user response, potentially be seen by audiences around the world, and receive buzz for a sustained period. One of the ways to do this is through branded challenges.

Branded challenges are when brands create social media challenges to try and get users to post their own versions of these challenges. This is particularly viable with TikTok influencer marketing, where content creators are currently spurring new trends. This is a difficult thing to execute effectively, but it can have huge benefits for brands if it works.

Branded challenges occur when a brand tries to get users to post their own content under a specific hashtag associated with a brand. Everyone from Guess to Spikeball and Chipotle has launched highly successful online brand challenges that have yielded significant results. These challenges can circulate across social media and get free publicity for brands, as users post their own content and the challenges circulate across feeds.

One example of a successful version of this marketing style is the #MyCalvins challenge done by Calvin Klein, which got users to show off their branded apparel to others on social media. There is also the #itsfromBooHoo challenge, which was done by the brand BooHoo, that used a special sound and dance and encouraged other social media users to engage with it.

These branded challenges are highly-effective; let’s look at the primary keys to generating ones that work.

How to Launch Your Challenges

If you are looking to launch a social media challenge, you need one critical element: influencers. While some brands launch these challenges from their own branded page, it is very difficult for them to get any traction without the help of popular social media content creators. Unless you are a brand with a large social media following of your own, it makes sense to leverage the appeal and platform of influencers to help get your challenge off the ground.

Most of the brands that have launched a high-performing branded challenge did so by utilizing the services of social media influencers. Brands will pay influencers a set price to create a video using the hashtag and challenge style, and from there, there is a chance it will go viral. People trust influencers, are interested in what they do, and often follow their lead. If an influencer posts a branded challenge video, there is a high likelihood of other users posting their own as well. The key to this is finding the right influencers.

Depending on the goals and budget of your challenge and campaign, different influencers will have differing impacts. Influencers with higher follower counts often cost more but provide a larger platform. If you are a brand specializing in a certain niche, using the services of the influencers that post often within that niche will have a sizable positive impact. A large number of influencers posting a branded challenge will make it far likelier to receive the traction brands are searching for.

Free User-Generated Content

The end goal of a branded challenge influencer marketing campaign is to create a snowball effect that leads to a large volume of user-generated content. User-generated content is valuable to brands because it is completely free yet highly impactful. The more eyeballs that get on your brand on social media, the better. If many users are posting your branded challenge, drawing attention to the hashtag, that is all positive social media publicity directed to your business. This will likely impact sales.

A branded challenge is a great way for your business to have a high impact without paying for a large portion of the publicity. User-generated content is a native, impactful way to reach people on a social media platform, and branded challenges help make this possible. It will require a lot of creativity and planning on the part of brands, but it is worth the effort if done well. Branded challenges require an understanding of the platform they are posted on and the services of high-quality influencers. If deployed strategically, they can generate massive amounts of free user-generated content for brands.

If you are looking for a way to launch your social media outreach to the next level, an influencer marketing firm is the best way to do it. Influence Hunter is a top influencer marketing agency with years of high-level experience helping brands across industries develop customizable, impactful campaigns that deliver on strategic goals. Contact Us Today to find out how we can help your business.