DesignCrowd Competition Campaign

The Challenge

When U.S. membership and sales stagnated for DesignCrowd, Walker Sands was brought in to drive traffic to the community, boost sales and ultimately alter public perceptions that freelance and small biz design work is somehow second rate.

The Solution 

Walker Sands worked to launch a series of 5 competitions at DesignCrowd. Members were invited to create humorous designs to showcase their creativity. These creations would then be shared with the media, reaching two distinct target audiences: small businesses who would join DesignCrowd as new customers, and freelance graphic designers who would join as new community members.

The project was executed over a three-month period with the winner taking away $2,500 in contest prize money at the conclusion. Successes were to be measured by referral web traffic and new member sign-ups.

Walker Sands launched each contest with a design brief, detailing the premise and submission guidelines. Each contest ran for two weeks, during which time Walker Sands reviewed rolling submissions, answered designers’ questions and provided feedback on the designs. After closing the contest, submissions were gathered, a shortlist was chosen and the winner was announced.

The shortlists were converted into photo galleries and shared with target consumer, design and business media. Stories linked to a special landing page inviting readers to become a member and start designing, or register as a customer and receive a discount on their first request. Walker Sands monitored social media and Google for trending topics throughout the campaign to post impromptu contests accordingly.

The Results

In 90 days, Walker Sands secured an impressive scope of 65 placements in top design and marketing (Adweek), business (HuffPost Business) and consumer (BuzzFeed) press with 54,000 total social shares on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Global referral web traffic increased by a staggering 1,900 percent and new member registrations by more than 700 percent.