If you’re not familiar with social media influencer Molly-Mae (the second-place winner of Love Island 2019) and her recent giveaway, then you must have been living under a rock. The giveaway which was promoted on her personal Instagram had an astounding total of £8K worth of luxury items, including six different styles of Louis Vuitton bags, a Macbook, an iPad and products from her own fake tan brand.
(Image Source: Instagram @mollymaehague)
The giveaway was designed as a method to 'give back' to her fans for reaching 1 million subscribers on her Youtube channel, which was her dream ‘since the age of 16’. The method of the giveaway’s entry had benefits for the contributor, who would be gaining thousands of followers on both her tanning brand and personal accounts as well as increasing her current milestone subscriber-count on her Youtube. The benefits for the entrees were huge in both price and quality, and her initial announcement post had an authentic audience-fair approach offering them genuine value, which contributes to her giveaways success.
All entrants needed to do for a chance to win was to like the post, tag their friends and share it on to their Instagram story. Molly-Mae’s influence has been analysed nationally and it was no doubt that her giveaway would go viral. Whether this was a pro. or con. for her, the ROI (return-on-investment) was clearly well worth it and this will definitely make a great case study in future influencer-marketing history books.
(Source: Linkedin @Katy Leeson (Managing Director of Social Chain)
However, with big benefactions comes an area for anticipated faults and even with the assistance of her management agency, there were still areas in the giveaway that could have been improved to have prevented less backlash than what she currently is receiving amid announcing the giveaway winner.
The Criticisms
The Execution:
Although the items of the giveaway were purchased by Molly-Mae herself, it would not be right to criticise only her for the ending of the giveaway as she openly admitted on her Instagram story that her management has been assisting her in choosing a method to select a giveaway winner ‘fairly’. Yet with almost two-million comments Molly-Mae openly admitted that her team had only selected 25 names. Whilst we can admire her for her honesty, having only 25 names in a random selection with 2 million entrants is clearly an unfair way to select a true winner.
(Source: Instagram @mollymaehague)
‘Random’ Selection:
Furthermore, having stated that this giveaway was primarily for 'giving back' to her supporters, would it not have made more sense for someone who was a long-time fan of hers to have won? Although I don’t know much about the winner, I as well as thousands of others saw on her Instagram that she had only entered the competition less than 24 hours before the announcement?! Surely Molly-Mae’s ‘true’ supporters would have entered the giveaway as soon as it was announced and would most likely be in top/older end of the comment entries.
Reconsiderations:
Development of large online giveaway software/processors: Moments before selecting a winner, Molly-Mae admitted that in a discussion with her management they were unable to find suitable software which would allow her to enter 2 million Instagram comments without giving them her Instagram password. I can understand, Molly-Mae’s issue with privacy, as an influencer whose brand relies heavily on that account for sponsored posts, connection with fans etc. there would be too much at risk. Especially with unknown foreign tech. having direct access to essentially her business. It could lead to hackers or third-parties gaining access to her account and she could possible lose everything.
The ‘random’ winner: The thing that was amusing for me about this giveaway was the number of black women (like myself) who had entered, knowing fully well that one of the prizes included was Molly-Mae’s own fake tan brand products. It was clear, that although anyone could enter, the prizes were primarily tailored for her own audience: females from 16-23 who enjoy cosmetic product and fashion, that look like her, or wish to. So for the winner, (to look like me), it is a joy as it really does prove that a ‘random winner’ was indeed selected (and she really does deserve those prizes).
Additionally, a further external add-on was that the winner also gained 7k+ followers who were eager to congratulate her for winning, commenting underneath her recent posts. However, I can only imagine Molly-Mae’s long-term fans' confusion who may have felt that they had been robbed at their chance of victory leading the initial entries and tagging hundreds of their friends, alongside their long-standing loyalty to the influencer.
(Source: Instagram @joycenotjoy)
Although it is not a surprise for Molly-Mae to receive negative backlash, something she must, unfortunately, be far too familiar with, her giveaway has definitely set large expectations for future major influencer giveaways and opens up the need for more software that can be used for such activities with an improved version of privacy.
The post was written by Lindelani, PR specialist at BCU School of Media
Twitter: @PR_Lindelani
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lindelani/
Blog: lifewithlinde.co
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