Ring’s Extraterrestrial Giveaway

Giving away a million bucks is a pretty good marketing tactic.

The trouble is, you have to have $1 million dollars to give away.

Ring, the home security company best known for its video doorbells, found a way to garner the publicity of a $1,000,000 giveaway on a much smaller budget.

Operation: Ring’s Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials offers a six-figure reward for anyone who captures an extraterrestrial sighting on a Ring device.

Oh, and if you don’t happen to find certifiable proof that we are not in fact alone in the cold vastness of the cosmos, creative submissions using costumes and props could win a $500 Amazon gift card.

An Out of This World Prize

Not surprisingly, nobody won $1 million. But Ring did give out a few Amazon cards, abducting some great social fodder in the process.

Giveaways are a marketing mainstay, especially when you’re directly competing for an audience’s attention and contact info – think tradeshows and social platforms.

It’s on marketing teams to strike the right balance between the ask and what they get in return. A cheeky giveaway is a clever twist on that traditional format.

Ring isn’t the first to use the unattainable giveaway to get extra attention, though the tactic does come with some risks (just ask Pepsi). Ring was smart to make many references to its detailed terms of service and to establish a tongue in cheek tone that continued in the coverage the contest garnered.