McDonald’s Sports Marketer Speaks on Essay Contests

As the Olympic Winter Games get underway this month in Vancouver, Canada, 10 kids who participated in a McDonald’s essay contest will be headed there to enjoy four days of the events, meet athletes and tour local cultural sites.

The 10 competed for the prize among several hundred by submitting a 200-word essay about how they exemplify the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. They also had to upload a photo of themselves.

The contest is part of McDonald’s Champion Kids program, launched at the Beijing 2008 Games to inspire kids to become more active and to enable kids from across the world to attend the Games.

Essay contests take considerable time and effort on the part of the entrants, therefore the pool of respondents is typically significantly smaller than a contest or sweeps where people simply answer a few questions and push “enter.” So, in the end, is an essay contest worth it?

John Lewicki, McDonald’s USA director of sports marketing, has the answers.

CHIEF MARKETER: How do you determine whether to include a contest as part of a broader marketing campaign?
LEWICKI: McDonald’s sometimes hosts sweepstakes or contests as part of our promotional efforts to offer our customers unique programs and relevant prizes and offers. Each contest we host is different and methods of entering vary. For McDonald’s Champion Kids, since they will be serving as youth correspondents, their writing skills were an important factor and an essay contest was a natural fit.

CM: Does an essay contest reduce the number of entrants?
LEWICKI: It’s hard to know, as this was the only method for entry so we can’t compare, but our goal was to get a number of solid entries and kid participants.

CM: Do essay contests generate a more qualified or loyalty customer?
LEWICKI: The benefit is that the entrants have to put time into it, so there is a goal at stake and you know they want to be part of this. It also gives us the opportunity for them to interact with our brand in a more meaningful way.

CM: How to you determine the ROI of an essay contest?
LEWICKI: ROI for McDonald’s is meaningfully engaging with our customers and in this case, finding 10 great kids to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in Vancouver.