Lucky Me! Lid the way

Lucky me's "Lid the way" is a nice contest, promoted aggressively over the radio and out-of-home like billboards. The radio ad sounded hip, and it was the first time I heard a radio commercial bringing so much attention to the URL itself. There was even a short spiel saying "Lid-the-way-dot-com. L-I-D yan a (It's L-I-D)" since "lid" obviously can be mistaken as "lead."

(Although we can argue - why talk about saving the Earth when the plastic containers of Lucky me are non-biodegradable?)

When the site was newly introduced, the same radio ad played when the site first loads, but now the site has been revised, containing the finalists of the competition. There are some pretty nice submissions!

Obviously this contest can be done offline. But making contests such as this online has many advantages to my mind:

- Empower the consumer/creator
Somehow, seeing your work recognized and published serves to boost a person's ego. This will tie in to the viral component below: when a person sees his or her work posted, he or she will tell friends to visit it as well. If it is really good, these friends will also forward to other friends.

- Probability to go Viral
This is always best, because you reach people for free! People in the Philippines would probably link or mention the site in their social networks like Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, or discuss it in forums. However, this is something that can not be greatly influenced. Because bad news can also spread virally (take for example, the Dell "burning laptop" viral image below, taken from this source)

- Increased awareness for people who visit the site
For the people who were reached by the viral, they will also get the message that the product is trying to convey to them.