The chances that a user will participate in a content challenge are much higher if the user can act on the challenge instantly after being exposed to it, compared to having to remember the challenge for when an actionable moment arises.
For example, an instantly actionable challenge could challenge users to submit a silly selfie. Because a user only needs their their body and a phone to submit a selfie — which are presumably both present when the user reads about the challenge — the user will be able to instantly act on the challenge. (Although, of course, being able to act on the challenge and actually acting are different.)
A challenge that is not instantly actionable could challenge users to submit a selfie of themselves hiking. This challenge would only be instantly actionable to users who are already hiking when they read about the challenge — the remaining sizeable audience would have to wait until they go hiking to act on the challenge, which of course also depends on the users remembering the challenge until a point when they’re hiking.
Although remembering a content challenge is easy for the marketing team that concocted it, it’s risky to assume that the majority of users will remember the challenge, given how many other things will be competing for their attention between the initial challenge communication and the actionable moment.
Instant-actionability may be fostered by only targeting the ad to users who are most likely to be able to act, including by using geographic and time-of-day targeting. For example, the hiking selfie contest challenge could only target users currently located in state park territories during daylight hours, and who are thus more likely than other users to be able to act on the submit-a-hiking-selfie challenge.
The memorability of a content challenge may be fostered by offering a really big prize (e.g. The Doritos million-dollar commercial prize) or by maintaining the same user content challenge on a regular basis, such as Perrier’s weekly featured fan challenge. Because Perrier posts a fan photo every week, Perrier fans are less likely to forget about the challenge. Memorability may also be fostered by maintaining ample frequency with challenge communications, with ideally a minimum of 3 per target user.
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