Beatport's Holiday Giveaway 2019

Campaign Overview

Beatport is an online music store built for DJs and electronic music producers. For the 2019 holiday season it ran Beatport's Holiday Giveaway on contest.beatport.com, billed on the page as "our biggest giveaway of the year." The prize list was studio and DJ gear from Moog, Universal Audio, Native Instruments, ADAM Audio, Roland and seven other brands, fifteen items in all.

The campaign ran from December 10, 2019 to January 14, 2020. 7,047 people signed up and 6,114 of them confirmed their email. Entrants logged 32,000 completed bonus actions, and 26,914 of those pointed at partner brands rather than at Beatport itself.

It was the largest of three campaigns Beatport ran on the domain, following a RÜFÜS DU SOL giveaway in September 2019 and an Amsterdam Dance Event guest-list giveaway in October. Across the three, Beatport collected 8,242 confirmed entrants.

Campaign Strategy

The core decision was to build the prize from partner gear. Beatport's customers make and play electronic music, so a prize list of synths, audio interfaces, software and headphones was aimed squarely at them, and every item came from a brand with its own audience. The page invited entrants to "move up the rankings and win all the gear."

• Hardware: Moog DFAM, Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo, Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S3, Roland MC-101, ADAM Audio T5V monitors, Shure PGA27 microphone and SubPac S2.
• Software: Native Instruments Komplete 12 Ultimate, Bitwig Studio, iZotope Music Production Suite, iZotope Elements Suite, and Arturia Pigments with 3 Compressors.
• Headphones: V-MODA M-200, AiAiAi TMA-2 Comfort and AiAiAi TMA-2 DJ.

Entry cost one email address, and confirming it earned 10 points. From there, 38 bonus actions were on offer:

• Engage with the campaign post: share the campaign's Facebook post (200 pts), like it (150 pts) or comment on it (150 pts).
• Partner newsletters: sign up for the Moog or Universal Audio newsletter (150 pts each).
• Follow Beatport and its partners: like 16 brand pages on Facebook, follow 15 brands on Instagram and 2 on Twitter (50 pts each).
• Referrals: 200 points for every friend who entered through a participant's link.

Viral Mechanics & Growth Engine

The referral reward was set at 200 points, level with the single most valuable action and worth four partner follows. With 2,450 points available from every action combined, referrals were the only way to keep climbing the leaderboard once the task list was done.

The partner actions carried the volume. Facebook page likes accounted for 14,930 completions and Instagram follows for 11,764. The most-completed action was liking the campaign's Facebook post (1,548), followed by liking Beatport on Facebook (1,304), the Moog newsletter sign-up (1,266) and the Universal Audio newsletter sign-up (1,185). The two newsletter actions together logged 2,451 completions, a direct return for the brands that supplied prizes.

Every partner could see its own number. Native Instruments collected 1,128 Facebook likes and 878 Instagram follows, and even the least-followed partner drew more than 700 on both Facebook and Instagram. Twitter was the exception: the two Twitter follow actions logged only 16 completions between them.

Results & Impact

• 7,047 sign-ups, of which 6,114 confirmed their email (87%).
• 50,660 page views over the five-week campaign.
• 32,000 completed bonus actions, about five per confirmed entrant.
• 26,914 actions (84%) went to partner brands: 13,626 Facebook likes, 10,830 Instagram follows, 2,451 newsletter sign-ups and 7 Twitter follows.
• 2,839 engagements with the campaign's Facebook post across likes, comments and shares.
• 8,242 confirmed entrants across three Beatport campaigns on the domain.

The two earlier campaigns used the same partner playbook at a smaller scale. The RÜFÜS DU SOL giveaway, September 16 to September 30, 2019, celebrated the SOLACE REMIXED release with concert tickets, a meet and greet, a $1,000 travel credit, vinyl and merch for four winners, and drew 286 confirmed entrants. The Amsterdam Dance Event giveaway ran for three days, October 13 to October 16, 2019, offering 30 pairs of guest-list spots for an invite-only Jack Back and Mark Knight show, and drew 1,842 confirmed entrants.

Why This Strategy Works

A marketplace sits between its customers and the brands it sells. Beatport used that position: the gear brands wanted to reach DJs and producers, Beatport had them, and the giveaway gave both sides something. Partners contributed prizes and received follows and newsletter sign-ups; Beatport got a prize list no single brand would put up and 6,114 confirmed entrants.

The structure also makes the campaign easy to sell to partners. Every brand got a place in the prize list, one or two actions pointed at its own channels and a completion count at the end. For any retailer, marketplace or media brand with a roster of suppliers who want its audience, this is the template worth copying.

Key Takeaways

1. Let partners fund the prize list. Fifteen items from twelve gear brands made the holiday giveaway Beatport's biggest of the year.
2. Give every partner a measurable return. Page likes, Instagram follows and newsletter sign-ups gave each brand its own count at the end.
3. Pay the most for sharing. Referrals and the Facebook share both earned 200 points, the highest values on the page.
4. Match the prize to the customer. Synths, interfaces, plugins and headphones speak directly to people who buy music on Beatport.
5. Drop channels that do not respond. The two Twitter follows drew 16 completions against thousands on Facebook and Instagram.