Topaz Labs Ultimate Photo Giveaway

Campaign Overview

Topaz Labs makes AI-powered photo and video editing software, including tools such as Sharpen AI. In the second half of 2019 it ran the Topaz Labs Ultimate Photo Giveaway on giveaway.topazlabs.com, asking photographers: "Ready to win the photographer's dream kit?" The grand prize was the full Topaz editing suite, a Chrome photography backpack and a DJI drone.

The campaign ran from August 20 to December 2, 2019. 44,852 people signed up and 21,010 of them confirmed their email, and the page recorded 230,565 page views. Entrants completed 34,467 bonus actions, including 3,973 downloads of the Topaz trial.

It was the first of six campaigns Topaz Labs ran on the domain, a series that continued through Black Friday giveaways in 2023 and 2024. Across all six, including a small test page, the domain collected 78,407 confirmed entrants.

Campaign Strategy

The prize was built around the software. The Topaz suite is what Topaz Labs sells; the backpack and drone are the kit a photographer takes into the field. Together they spoke to exactly the people who would buy Topaz software, and the most valuable part of the bundle to that audience was the company's own product.

Alongside the single grand prize, points unlocked guaranteed rewards:

• 500 points: Topaz photography training.
• 2,000 points: 20% off any purchase.
• 5,000 points: a free Sharpen AI license.

Confirming an email earned 10 points, and ten bonus actions were on offer:

• Try the product: download the Topaz trial (200 pts), the highest-value action.
• Share: comment on and share two campaign posts (50 and 100 pts), share the Facebook post (100 pts), upload an Instagram Story (100 pts) and tweet the campaign tweet (50 pts).
• Follow and watch: follow on Instagram (50 pts), subscribe on YouTube (50 pts), watch a video on YouTube (50 pts) and visit the Facebook page (20 pts).
• Referrals: 100 points for every friend who entered through a participant's link.

Viral Mechanics & Growth Engine

The reward ladder was designed around referrals. Every bonus action combined was worth 770 points, plus 10 for confirming, which cleared the 500-point training but fell well short of the discount. An entrant who completed everything still needed 13 referrals to reach 2,000 points and 43 to reach the 5,000-point Sharpen AI license. The higher rewards could only be earned by bringing in other photographers.

The most-completed action was the Instagram follow (6,433), followed by watching the YouTube video (4,473), downloading the trial (3,973), visiting the Facebook page (3,960) and subscribing on YouTube (3,813). The share actions added up to 11,815 completions: 7,028 on the two comment-and-share posts, 2,666 Facebook shares, 1,092 tweets and 1,029 Instagram Stories.

The trial download is the action to note. By paying the most for it, Topaz Labs turned the giveaway into a product funnel: 3,973 entrants downloaded the software during the campaign, and the reward ladder already offered a 20% discount to anyone who kept going.

Results & Impact

• 44,852 sign-ups, of which 21,010 confirmed their email (47%).
• 230,565 page views over roughly 15 weeks.
• 34,467 completed bonus actions, including 3,973 trial downloads.
• 6,433 Instagram follows and 8,286 YouTube actions (3,813 subscriptions and 4,473 video views).
• 78,407 confirmed entrants across six campaigns on the domain from 2019 to 2024.

Topaz Labs kept the format for the campaigns that followed. A New Year giveaway, January 15 to March 1, 2020, drew 17,983 confirmed entrants, and a Video Enhance AI launch giveaway drew 10,728. The 2023 and 2024 Black Friday giveaways offered two draws, one on Black Friday and one on Cyber Monday, each for a Chrome backpack and a DJI drone, and added a 500-point "Tell us what you love about Topaz Labs" action. The 2024 edition drew 53,754 sign-ups and 833,940 page views, the most of any campaign on the domain, and 17,762 confirmed entrants.

Why This Strategy Works

Software companies have an advantage most giveaway runners do not: their own product can be both the prize and the reward. Topaz Labs used that at every level. The grand prize included its suite, the milestone rewards were its training, a discount and a license, and the highest-value action was downloading its trial. Every point an entrant chased pulled them closer to the product.

The physical prizes did the other job, which was attracting attention. A drone and a camera backpack are easy to want and easy to share, and they signal that the campaign is for photographers. Paired with software rewards, they bring in the right audience and hand it straight to the product. For any software or digital-product company with a clear creative audience, this is the template worth copying.

Key Takeaways

1. Put your own product in the prize. The full Topaz suite made the grand prize relevant to exactly the people Topaz Labs sells to.
2. Pay the most for trying the product. At 200 points, the trial download was the top action, and 3,973 entrants completed it.
3. Set upper rewards beyond what actions alone can reach. With 780 points available from actions and confirmation, the 2,000- and 5,000-point rewards required referrals.
4. Make the guaranteed rewards things you sell. Training, a discount and a Sharpen AI license are valuable to entrants and come from Topaz Labs' own catalog.
5. Rerun the format around the sales calendar. Topaz Labs came back for New Year, a product launch and two Black Friday seasons.