What Brands Can Learn From This Botched Swimsuit Giveaway

Experts from Huge and Ketchum weigh in on Sunny Co's fiasco.

Inspiration meets innovation at Brandweek, the ultimate marketing experience. Join industry luminaries, rising talent and strategic experts in Phoenix, Arizona this September 23–26 to assess challenges, develop solutions and create new pathways for growth. Register early to save.

If you’re going to run a social media giveaway for your company, don’t do what Sunny Co did.

The apparel company launched an Instagram contest sponsored by the Twazer app promising to give away a red Pamela swimsuit, which normally costs $64.99, for just the price of shipping and handling to each person who reposted a photo of a model wearing the swimsuit and tagged the company. 

Twenty hours later, due to the “viral volume of participants”—as in many more thousands of people trying to get in on the deal than expected—Sunny Co updated the conditions of the deal to include the caveat that the company “[reserved] the right to cap the promotion if they deem necessary.”

(UPDATE: By the morning of Friday, May 5, it appeared the brand had

AW+

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Spring Special

Save 30% Off an ADWEEK Subscription Today!

View Your Options

Already a member? Sign in