Ultimate Sports Science Giveaway: Over $12,400 in Elite Performance Prizes

Campaign Overview

Science for Sport publishes sports science education for strength and conditioning coaches, sports scientists and physios, including a monthly eMagazine, The Performance Digest, a library of mini-courses called The Coach Academy, and a podcast. In November 2020 it ran its largest giveaway on contest.scienceforsport.com, the Ultimate Sports Science Giveaway. The page headline read "Elevate Your Athletes' Performance And Assess Them With Faultless Accuracy Whilst Amplifying Your Coaching Knowledge," and the sub-headline promised "a combined total of over $12,400 worth of elite sports performance prizes."

The campaign ran from November 16 to November 25, 2020. 6,664 people signed up and 5,757 of them confirmed their email, an 86% confirmation rate, from 95,164 page views. Entrants completed 6,676 bonus actions across 17 tasks.

It was the third of three giveaways Science for Sport ran on the domain in 2020, after a "6-Figure Coaching" business bundle in June and a "Sports Performance Bundle" that opened on November 11. Together the three collected 12,874 sign-ups and 10,825 confirmed entrants.

Campaign Strategy

The prize was equipment most coaches could not justify buying for themselves. First place was worth $8,740 and led with a Hawkin Dynamics bilateral force plate set with a one-year software license ($7,000), plus three months of force plate consulting ($500), a Hawkin Dynamics online course ($350), a year each of The Coach Academy and The Performance Digest, Upper Echelon Nutrition protein, a book and a hat. Second to fifth place and five random winners received smaller bundles of the courses, subscriptions and protein.

The ranking rule mattered. 1st to 5th place went to the top five point totals on the leaderboard, which told a professional audience that effort would decide most of the outcome. Confirming an email earned 50 points, and the 17 bonus actions fell into five groups:

• Audience research: two surveys (350 pts each).
• Product trials: trial The Coach Academy (300 pts) and trial The Performance Digest for free (300 pts).
• Partner brands: read through the Hawkin Dynamics RSI course (200 pts); follow Hawkin Dynamics on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe on YouTube (150 pts each); follow Upper Echelon Nutrition on Instagram and like its Facebook page (150 pts each).
• Reviews: upload a video review (400 pts), review Science for Sport on Google (200 pts), and review it on Facebook or review the podcast (50 pts each).
• Own channels: subscribe on YouTube (150 pts), like an Instagram post (100 pts) and check out the recommended reading list (50 pts).

Viral Mechanics & Growth Engine

Each referred friend earned 80 points. Coaches work in staffs and cohorts, so every colleague they brought in moved them up the leaderboard.

The most-completed tasks were the ones with the most value to the business. The first survey drew 712 responses and the second 589, giving Science for Sport 1,301 survey responses from its target audience in ten days. The partner tasks logged 1,682 completions for Hawkin Dynamics, 703 of them for its RSI course, and 669 for Upper Echelon Nutrition, a concrete return for the brands that supplied prizes.

Milestone rewards gave everyone a reason to keep going. 1,000 points unlocked a free six-part career training course, 1,500 points a $25 discount on The Coach Academy, and 2,000 points a $25 discount on The Performance Digest. The bonus actions were worth 3,250 points in total, so every tier was reachable without a single referral, and each one pointed at a Science for Sport product.

Results & Impact

• 6,664 sign-ups, of which 5,757 confirmed their email (86%).
• 95,164 page views in a ten-day window.
• 6,676 completed bonus actions, led by the first survey (712), the Hawkin Dynamics RSI course (703) and the reading list (644).
• 1,301 survey responses and 969 reviews: 502 for the podcast, 267 on Google and 200 on Facebook, plus 14 video reviews.
• 360 product trials: 240 for The Coach Academy and 120 for The Performance Digest.
• Across three 2020 campaigns, the domain collected 12,874 sign-ups and 10,825 confirmed entrants.

It was the largest of the three by confirmed entrants and page views, and overlapped with the Sports Performance Bundle, which drew 4,442 confirmed entrants from November 11 to 21.

Why This Strategy Works

Professional audiences ignore most giveaways because the prizes are consumer goods anyone would take. Science for Sport chose a prize that only its audience would value at full price, and that filter helps explain an 86% confirmation rate: the people who signed up were coaches and sports scientists who wanted force plates, which is exactly the list a sports science publisher needs.

The task list then turned the contest into a working session with that audience: surveys, trials, reviews and partner engagement, each priced by its value to the business. For any B2B publisher, course creator or equipment brand selling to a professional niche, that is the template worth copying.

Key Takeaways

1. Offer the equipment your audience can't easily buy. A $7,000 force plate set means more to a coach than a gift card.
2. Rank by points when your audience is competitive. Awarding 1st to 5th place by leaderboard position rewarded effort and gave coaches a reason to recruit colleagues.
3. Use tasks to do your research. Two surveys at 350 points each produced 1,301 responses in ten days.
4. Give prize partners measurable results. Hawkin Dynamics and Upper Echelon Nutrition received 2,351 tracked completions between them.
5. Point every milestone at a paid product. The career course and two discount codes turned high scorers into warm leads for The Coach Academy and The Performance Digest.