Social feeds feel so flooded with giveaways, it’s hard to believe they haven’t run their course. Like any common marketing tactic, effectiveness varies tremendously based on execution. We’ve seen a couple recently that stand out in terms of sheer reach and engagement, and decided to highlight our some of our strategies that lead to those results.

•  Loacker x Giada de Laurentiis limited-edition Gift Box

Sure, this one benefits from Loacker’s partnership with celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis. But that alone doesn’t explain the insane numbers we’ve seen in just the first month of a 100-day run: more than 30,000 entries, and over 130 million estimated earned impressions resulting from our PR efforts + Surprise & Delight program.

And a few tricks based on our learning, for teams involved in planning giveaways:

1. A nicely designed gift box. The experience feels special, even to influencers who receive lots of free stuff.
2. Curation that makes this combination of items exclusive.
3. Cultivating relationship-building over time, rather than transactional one-offs. Many influencers received the gift box as a surprise and delight, on top of personal invitations to other events with Giada, insider looks into Loacker’s sourcing and product quality stories.
4. A prominent QR code inside the box, making it easy to share the link to the giveaway after opening.

Cameron’s Coffee x Matcha Giveaway

A 31% engagement rate doesn’t happen every day. Our tips from this one:

1. The recipe creation and human involvement aspect to this giveaway made it feel authentic to social.

2. It was seasonal, which always helps content feel fresh and relevant to the audience.

3. Matcha is still having its moment, an evergreen reminder to mine search trends to inform content strategy.