Hitchcock, Instagram and the creepy you

Instagram based contests are becoming trendy. After posting about Dunkin’ Donuts a few days ago, now it’s time to talk Hitchcock, the movie, launching Hitchshots, where users are invited to shot, tag and submit their photos inspired to the master of mystery.

The idea is definitely more fun (at least for me) than dressing up a branded cup, still, it requires quite some effort from consumers and I don’t feel the prizes will trigger too much excitement (10 movie posters autographed by the actors).

The contest has been launched about a week ago, and it has generated around 230 submissions, not exactly an impressive number. But how would you measure success for such kind of initiative? 1,000 submissions? 10,000? More? From Youtube videos a few years ago, to Instagram photos nowadays, brand activations based on user generated content sound great on paper, but most of the times prove extremely difficult to execute successfully. Relying only on word of mouth doesn’t bring results, unless you are targeting a super passionate niche community attracting them with a super cool prize. And if you start investing money in media, your expectations in terms of ROI will grow accordingly.

I have more questions than answers here. I definitely like the Instashots idea, but also based on my personal experience I really wonder if it’s worth bringing back these kind of activations. Even if you start with a good, creative idea, and even if taking a photo requires less effort than filming a video (lack of) awareness in an overcrowded social media world will probably kill your aspirations.
And yes, I did want to start the week with a positive post full of hope