A Days Inn Contest Will Pair Two People With The Goal of Capturing Solar Eclipse Content
Days Inn by Wyndham is aiming to get two people to capture the upcoming Solar Eclipse with its contest, which is scheduled to conclude on Tuesday.
To announce this unique experience, the brand used Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram on February 21st to publish videos about the contest. The two winners will receive an all-expense-paid trip to San Antonio, TX, where they will witness the solar eclipse between April 7th and 9th, capture content from a private helicopter, and share it with their social media networks. For their participation, Days Inn will provide a photography course, $10,000 in total ($5,000 per individual), and more perks.
According to Nicole LaSpina, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts conducted the contest because solar eclipses are rare. Social media apps like TikTok, Threads, and others did not exist when the last solar eclipse occurred in 2017. As the next solar eclipse won’t occur until 2044, Days Inn is taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity now, when sharing content across multiple apps is more common than ever.
“We always love it when people share memories. Days Inn is all about helping people create memories through vacations and unique experiences so we’re going to be taking a look at all of that and really choosing the pair that we feel is most deserving of this once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said.
A total of one to four million Americans are expected to travel to see the eclipse, and Wyndham generally has just over 1200 properties including Days Inn in the region where it will happen, according to LaSpina. The Days Inn brand envisions this contest as a unique opportunity to significantly boost brand awareness and visibility. Days Inn anticipates that its solar eclipse contest will play a pivotal role in ongoing initiatives to enhance brand recognition.
“This is where our innovative marketing really steps in to do things that are going to capture the attention of that younger demographic,” said LaSpina. “We want to give our guests and our online community a front row seat to the action and do it in a very timely and relevant way.”
Not only has Days Inn launched an experimental initiative to bolster brand interest, but also Olipop is hiring a creative duo for its tour to create content for the brand at different locations throughout the United States. The duo will receive $40,000 for creating the content.
The Days Inn brand will select contest winners by ensuring their eligibility based on location and age criteria. Participants are required to submit photos showcasing their work and provide a narrative explaining why they should be chosen, along with detailing the relationship between the two individuals involved.
There is no definitive number of entries, but Days Inn has observed a variety of participants. They include families who are highly engaged with the brand, major influencers, micro influencers, couples, and friends. LaSpina cites the diversity of applicants as a positive characteristic of the contest and is looking for the winners to be authentic and relative to its brand values.
Who Will Own The Content?
Regarding ownership of the content, LaSpina clarified that Days Inn will retain ownership but intends to showcase the winners on its official social media platforms. In addition to featuring their content on Days Inn’s channels, the company is actively encouraging winners to share their experiences across their own social channels with their followers to amplify the reach of the promotion.
“While we’ll have the ownership, we also like to think about it as a nice shared partnership because we want [everybody] sharing the content,” she said, adding that Days Inn is exploring the use of TikTok this year to share some of the content after receiving it from the winners. As for X, it is not currently a priority channel for Days Inn, but is consistently evaluating its potential for future use.
