Wyndham Vacation Rentals is rolling out a new sweepstakes that asks consumers to unlock daily social media challenges for a chance to win prizes such as car rentals, a DSLR camera and vouchers to one of the hotel conglomerate’s rental properties.

The sweepstakes is being held in honor of National Vacation Rental Month and runs through July 31. Social media users will likely appreciate the challenges, which are new each day, for the opportunity to receive travel-themed rewards and vouchers for their summer getaways.

“Wyndham running a contest at the peak summer vacation travel times for deals, with consumers hopefully winning a road trip, is a perfect way for it to ramp up its consumer base,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis, Atlanta. “This type of contest is where social media excels.

“Utilizing the top social media companies to launch the campaign is brilliant, and if monitored properly, could boost its consumer base by a significant percentage. Consumers to a large extent are looking for a deal package that will save them money, and this is a perfect way for them to do so.”

Keeping users engaged
The daily aspect of the campaign is a smart way of ensuring that customer engagement stays steady, as users will no doubt be interested to find out what the prize of the day is.

It also ensures that they view Wyndham’s branded content every day, making it likely for them to remember the hotel marketer when searching for vacation rental options in the future.

The sweepstakes also aims to remind consumers of the different features vacation rentals offer from hotels, such as more privacy, space and in-home amenities.

The grand prize offers a voucher for a Wyndham Vacation Rental, a mountable camera, gas card, car rental from Avis, and a cooler for snacks. It is valued at more than $6,000.

Daily prizes include travel-themed rewards such as a DSLR camera, Budget car rental, Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, sunglasses and Wyndham Vacation Rentals vouchers.

Interested participants may visit the mobile-optimized RoadtoHappySweeps.com to enter to receive the grand prize in one step by signing in via Facebook or email address. However, the daily social media challenges provide a way for consumers to win one of the daily prizes.

Yesterday’s challenge asked visitors to “say cheese” by uploading their favorite photo from a road trip onto Twitter or Instagram using the #road2happy and #sweepstakes hashtags. Users are also prompted to follow the hospitality brand’s social media accounts and press a button to share the challenge with friends.

Uploaded images are aggregated onto the microsite for others to view and enjoy. The next day’s prize is also foreshadowed so that consumers will feel compelled to partake in upcoming tasks.

Mobile focus
Wyndham is likely trying to attract a younger demographic to become familiar with its multitude of offerings by marketing more heavily on social media and mobile channels. Loyalty has been a major focus for the marketer, and is displayed in the continued user engagement model of the month-long daily challenges.

This past April, Wyndham Hotels celebrated the revamping of its mobile loyalty program by offering members a flat redemption rate for free hotel stays alongside an updated version of its mobile application, suggesting that hotel brands must offer more readily accessible rewards to drive commerce (see story).

Wyndham, alongside Choice Hotels, was also one of the major hospitality marketers gearing up to drive sales this summer via loyalty program-based promotions on mobile, positing that consumers are seeking instant gratification when offering a hotel brand continued business (see story).

“The type of campaign that Wyndham is launching should indeed retain consumers for this month considering the daily interaction that is promoted,” Ms. Troutman said. “This campaign strategy would result in a carryover of steady loyal engagement that would ramp up its base, most likely by a significant percentage.

“Amazing customer service, and deals/contests are the way to win loyalty, but then, they have to be retained, meaning there needs to be consistent interaction once the consumers are engaged without being too forceful.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York