Contests on Facebook, or any social media platform, can be tricky. You want to inspire people to become fans, you want to inspire your fans to encourage others to become fans, and you want to do it with a reward…or at least the possibility of one. The problem? The more fans a current fan refers, the less chance he/she has of winning. Demotivator.

I love what Killington is doing right now. Sure the odds aren’t all that great (1 in 190ish will win) but they’re better than 1 out of 10,000. For the next 7 days (this is already day three), Killington is giving away 100 prizes, 10 each morning, to people that enter through their Facebook tab. The occasion? The countdown: just 100 days until skiing and riding start up again. Yesterday, the winners walked away with:

• Rossignol Temptation skis
• Killington Latte Mug w/ Spoon (2)
• Killington Black & White Coffee Mug
• Killington 8 oz. Maple Syrup
• Killington Vintage Logo Ski Socks
• Killington Vertigo Trail Signs
• Killington Women’s T-Shirt (2)
• Killington Logo Travel Mug

Even without giving away a pair of skis or a Giro helmet (Monday’s major award), it’s fun to see so many people winning. True a pair of vintage socks lacks the glamour of new sticks, but I’d tell my friends about it if I won.

The Triple Whammy
The great part about the giveaway is that two things are required in order to enter.

1. First, you must be their Facebook fan. If you aren’t, the entry form will not be visible.
2. Second, you have to give them your email address and zip code to register. In true anti-spam form they make signing up for the newsletter optional. Nice work, though I’d like to see the newsletter sold a little more. Maybe a sentence like, “Stay up to date on all the deals and dumps this winter by signing up for the Drift Newsletter.” Just to make keeping that boxed checked a little more enticing.
3. The third aspect of the whammy is the fact that this is one of the most compliant Facebook contest put on by a resort I’ve ever seen. When you’ve got 19,000+ fans like The Beast, it’s not worth risking the whole lot to snag a few more.

Combine a ridiculous amount of prizes, requiring fan-ship to participate and an email address to enter, and you’ve got yourself a fine looking promotion. Well done, Killington.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.