Chatbot contests: variety of choice

Raffles and contests are some of the most popular marketing tools. Virtually everyone organizes them, regardless of the business category. Some run for many months, have several editions, and the value of prizes goes up to millions of zlotys. Other are simply “quick shots” with a lower budget, but exciting prizes. Due to their flexibility, chatbots work perfectly in both cases.
Last year, working with agencies and businesses, we implemented chatbots for brands such as Żywiec, Heineken, Komputronik, Semilac and PEPCO who run contests with their help. Below, you’ll find more information, both in terms of mechanisms and the use of bots in contests. Enjoy reading!
New contest panel: new opportunities
The thrill of competition, a faster heartbeat before the winners are announced and the hope of winning an attractive prize: these are only some of the reasons that drive users to take part in contests, and brands to organize them. Our motivation is to take particular steps to adapt the KODA Bots Platform to smoothly integrate the requirements of both stakeholders.
We have changed the contest panel. We now allow any columns layout and creation for contest entries. There are several specific solutions to choose from:
- text – we can save messages entered by users separately;
- picture – we can create mixed contests, where users submit both a text and other multimedia (not necessarily mandatory);
- video file;
- audio file;
- tagging the winner – we can choose how many places we want to tag, e.g. if we have 5 prizes to give away (then we select 5 columns to tag particular places.)
These otherwise simple solutions help moderators to easily and quickly manage contest entries. The promoters can adjust the panel to their needs and the particular contest rules even before its launch, and decide whether the consents should display all or in a rolled-up form.
Examples of contest chatbots
As part of the best practices and examples, I’ve selected the interesting ones – not only in their form, but most importantly, that have proven themselves and brands keep coming back to them.
Żywiec raffle chatbot
The Żywiec brand organizes a grand raffle every year. Having entered the code from the bottle cup or pull tab, users find out whether they have won one of the prizes. Our chatbot plays a crucial role in this campaign. It facilitates adding codes throughout the process. The fact that the chatbot appears on participants’ messenger contact list makes it always at hand, ensuring high recurrence rate of users. It can also answer all the most relevant questions about the rules, prizes and products participating in the campaign. The entire tool is integrated with the contest website. And even though we still cannot talk about the results, we are proud of its performance achieved so far (which sooner than later will be discussed in a separate case study.)
The chatbot’s success is attributed to its ease of use. Users access the app installed on their smartphones and go through the entire contest process in a few simple steps. This is quick, user-friendly and seamless.

Urban game with MOICO chatbot
With the MOICO chatbot’s launch, the urban game set off with the objective to introduce users to the tool and provide an opportunity to visit creative places in Wrocław. Its leitmotif referred to the urban jungle. To play the game it was enough to enter a phrase in the brand’s Messenger: I wanna play a game. The game was made up of several stages, and MOICObot provided clues to get to the next one. It guided the participants to the right places and suggested where to look for clues with the help of guessing games, coordinates and riddles. The organizer made sure there were plenty of twists and turns. It required cleverness and creativity from the participants.
An example of a clue
You cannot be hungry in the night,
At Tęczowa eat a burger with delight,
It’s a spot with decent food,
Let your hair down there, dude!
Look for a sticker, where the movies are on screen,
Find a password and hurry up to win!
Venue: Night market at ul. Tęczowa

Each of the eight stages commenced two days following the start of the previous one. The game finale took place in MOICO BOK, arranged in a jungle style. Participants had to guess the name of a particular plant in the customer service office and enter it into the chatbot. The answer was “ficus elastica.” Time was of the essence, in line with the principle: “first come, first served.”
Winners received the prizes such as: iPhone X, Go Pro cameras, smartwatches and free monthly Internet packages.
A total of 400 people took part in the game. Participants spent up to four minutes per day in the chatbot. The post about the game reached 70,208 recipients (with 580 hundreds being organic reach!) and aroused significant interest: 138 comments and 1168 clicks.
The number of questions addressed to MOICO on Facebook jumped by 41 percent at the time (excluding questions and answers within the Urban Jungle game). Today, the number of people using the brand’s Messenger is higher by over 20 percent and is growing all the time. At this point, MOICObot answers two-thirds of the questions asked in the messaging tool without any consultant assistance.
Heineken Music contest chatbot
The case of Heineken proves how to engage in a simple way by using appropriate contexts. Who hasn’t been to the Open’er Festival? That’s right! The brand has been a long-time supporter of this world-famous music festival. It organizes a contest where you need to exhibit specific musical knowledge. And the chatbot is its key element. The contest consists in entering into the bot promotional codes from under the Heineken caps and pins, and then providing correct answers to five closed and one open question. Every day during the contest, two winners get prizes, if they answer all the questions correctly in the shortest time possible.
In case you want to know how the contest works in theory, read below. If not – test it in action and proceed to the next example. ?
Chatbot provides information about the rules, prizes and allows users to accept the T&C as well as necessary consents. In the course of the game, those who report other matters than the contest are redirected to the fanpage moderator.
The conversation between the chatbot and the user follows a simple scenario:
- Upon accessing the chatbot, the user selects whether they want to participate in the contest or have a problem to solve (in the latter case, we disable the chatbot and notify the moderator.)
- The user checks the required consents to enter the contest.
- Once the consents are ticked, they see a message prompting them to enter a code.
- They enter the code:
a) If the code is valid, they receive an invitation to continue the game.
b) If the code is invalid, they see the message: “This is not a valid code, check if everything is correct or enter a different code.” - The next stage of the contest involves closed questions:
a) It starts following the users confirmation (clicking the button.) At this point, the clock starts ticking.
b) We display a series of five closed questions with answers and the user selects one.
c) As long as the user answers correctly, the next questions appear.
d) Once the user submits a wrong answer, they are told that they’ve made a mistake and can only start again after entering a new code. - The open question is displayed only, if the user answered all the closed questions correctly. Once the answer is entered and approved (message sent), the clock stops and the time’s recorded, and the participant expects to be informed of the results.

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Orsay contest chatbot
In August, Orsay held a Facebook contest in line with the brand philosophy, which places great emphasis on relationships between women. Divided into five stages, it ran for seven days (one each Monday through Thursday and a weekend phase.) Each day there was a different photo contest task. The best entries won a set of two handbags, two bottles of perfume and a handmade card that the female winner (along with the handbag and perfume) could hand to a woman they considered important.
The contest relied heavily on the use of auto-answers under the posts and one of the participants, who took part in all five contest stages, received also a gift voucher for the Orsay store.

Chatbot contest to crown Semilac storytelling campaign
The Semilac’s launch of a new hybrid nail polish collection provided an excellent opportunity for a special storytelling campaign featured in its chatbot. Each day brought a new episode of the two friends’ story, with users following them on a trip to a European city. The opportunity to influence the story and an incentive of revealing a polish from the new collection at the end of each day brought about quite a response. As it turned out at the end, 80 percent of people who made it through the first day reached the finals. The actual contest, which launched at the end of the campaign and could be accessed only after completing all the days (+only when joining the game for the first three days – we didn’t make it easy :)) attracted as many as 834 participants.
The exchange of half a million messages between users and the chatbot within four days – the was the storytelling outcome, while the CTR of push messages announcing the next day’s story averaged 80 percent. You can read more about in the case study of the whole campaign.
Komputronik contest chatbot
The brand successfully employs the chatbot in communication. So it’s time for a contest. To win laptops and phones, the user first has to type #ideserveit in the chatbot. Then they proceed to consents, and after accepting them, the user answers the question: “Why do you deserve a holiday break?” While this is the contest’s main challenge, participants can add a photo or click the “skip” button to increase their chances of winning. Both entries go into the system, which allows moderators to easily view contestants’ entries and voila! Simple solutions work best.

PEPCO contest chatbot
PEPCO has decided to rely entirely on the bot. It uses our contest module, which provides a quick (up to 24 hours) implementation of the campaign. The participants can submit their works in the form of text, video or photos. Their content can be viewed in a special panel, where you can also send messages to people who have started a chatbot conversation, but have not yet submitted their work and to users who have won a prize. This is where I’ll repeat myself, but I’m not missing the point. Users go through the entire contest process in a few simple steps. This is quick, user-friendly and seamless.

Five advantages of chatbot contests
- This solution is significantly cheaper and quicker to implement than, for example, a landing page designed specifically for a given contest.
- Given the application popularity, it’s easy to access and available to anyone who only wants to take part in it.
- With media support, the contest takes place in the same environment where the ad was shown.
- Entries are easier to manage than in Facebook competitions, which are conducted as part of e.g. fanpage posts. It’s because they can be viewed, flagged or excluded from the contest in a separate content management panel.
- The users who have joined the competition, but have not submitted their entries within 24 hours can be encouraged to participate in the contest at no cost and additionally sent information about the results.
Facebook contests are pretty engaging solutions. But those held directly in Messenger drive up participation rates even more. Because they’re hosted in the user’s natural environment. If you’re not sure how Messenger bots can help your brand communicate, a contest in this tool can prove to be a good initial step towards building a lasting relationship with users. In case of doubts, have a look at how our latest projects work and ask if necessary. We will certainly reply to address your concerns.
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