Wildfire Delivers Social Engagement for Enterprise and Consumer Brands through YouTube Video Contests

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Wildfire, the global leader in social media marketing software, today announced it will now offer enterprise and consumer brand customers the ability to run video contests on YouTube, the world's largest video platform. With this announcement, Wildfire is the first social marketing company to integrate with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and now YouTube that enables brands to drive engagement with consumers utilizing YouTube video contests. Wildfire has seen 100 percent annual growth in the use of video contests over the last two years, as brands leverage contests to engage with consumers and to tap the power of user-generated video content. Wildfire customers ran more than 7,000 video contest campaigns in the last 12 months, generating more than 6.5 million visits.

Companies such as Dairy Queen, Mercedes-Benz, Western Union and Sony have successfully run video contests on Facebook. Extension of the Wildfire suite to support video contests on YouTube brand channels makes it easier for brands to engage users on the site that inspires over 100 million people to take social action (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week. Brands can simultaneously publish their video contests across not only YouTube and Facebook but also custom branded microsites. Wildfire Social Marketing Suite provides complete analytics and moderation capability to help maximize the impact of the video contest.

Video Contests Among Most Effective Promotion Types

Video contests are a key method of engaging YouTube community members and inspiring all kinds of users to participate. Budding video directors, attracted by the opportunity to gain visibility, channel their creativity into producing unique brand-reinforcing content. Brand enthusiasts are motivated to create content that showcases the things they love about the brand. And YouTube community members are drawn to the contest sponsor's brand channel as a source of interesting, new, and often professional-quality video content.

"Video contests are one of our top three most effective promotion formats in terms of generating user views, which makes sense because people love to watch, share, and vote on videos that others submit," states Victoria Ransom, founder and CEO of Wildfire. "By extending the Wildfire platform to support YouTube, we are pleased to make the benefits of running video contests on YouTube available to our enterprise customers."

"We had great results engaging with consumers through our 'Mini Blizzard Treatment' video contest using Wildfire," said Nick Blissenbach, Digital Marketing Manager, American Dairy Queen Corporation. "We are excited to leverage the Dairy Queen YouTube Channel to extend the reach and engagement of future video contests."

Best Practices for Successful Video Contests

Based on its industry-leading experience with video contests, Wildfire recommends three best practices for running a successful video contest:

• Share sample video entries with potential contestants. Instead of describing in words what users should submit, show them with an easy-to-follow video example.
• Splurge on appealing, relevant prizes. Because brand loyalists are most likely to submit videos, reward them with prizes that reflect their love for the brand. For example, Beach Body asked fans of the P90X home exercise system to submit their favorite exercise moves. P90X celebrity trainer Tony Horton features the winners' moves in later videos.
• Make it simple for people to shoot entries for the contest. Don't ask for videos that require props, special locations, or extensive editing.

About Wildfire

Wildfire is the global leader in social media marketing software, with over 13,000 paying customers worldwide, including 30 of the world's 50 most valuable brands. Wildfire's Social Marketing Suite combines best-of-breed social promotion and advertising software, robust mobile and desktop page management, messaging and sophisticated real-time analytics in one complete platform. Wildfire's powerful and intuitive software allows creative marketers and non-technical managers alike to create social campaigns and pages, communicate with their social audience and measure social media performance. Brands and agencies such as Facebook, Virgin, Amazon, Target and Ogilvy as well as thousands of small businesses use the Wildfire platform to engage with audiences on major social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The only social media marketing company to receive an investment from Facebook's fbFund, Wildfire has offices in California, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Munich, and Singapore.  For more information, please visit www.wildfireapp.com.

SOURCE Wildfire