Where’s Waldo? How to activate a website with a contest!
I’d like to share a technique once used to activate a new website and get 100% of existing clients to happily switch over to a completely new version of the website.
- First we launched the new website and kept the old site running.
- Next we promoted the new website from the old one using a “Where’s Waldo?” contest.
- If you found an image of Waldo on the new site you could enter a drawing for prizes.
- Every day we would give hints about where to find Waldo – and over a period of time directed everyone to the major areas of the new website.
- Once a week we would announce the latest contest winners, which would bring more clients over to the new site.
- After users found their way around the new site, they didn’t bother to go back to the old one.
- We also discovered that our particular client base loved contests and awards.
I can’t take credit for this idea. My friend (and he paid me to add this: creative genius, wine connoisseur, dog lover, philanthropist, master of irony and all around trend-setter) David Pearson came up with this idea that we used for a large insurance agency portal implementation in 2004. In 2005, the website was awarded recognition by A.M. Best as the top Insurance Agency Portal website in the U.S. Our Where’s Waldo website launch technique was part of the presentation leading to the award.
“Sales reps are coin operated.”
~Mark Vayda