The best things in life are FREE.
The stats prove it: 69,000 global monthly searches for “giveaways” on Google in 2024.
Giving potential attendees a chance at a free prize is a great way to build hype around your event.
But the last thing you want is a giveaway with nobody to give the prize away to! Don’t worry — after 15 years of enabling events, at Eventbrite, we know how to get you noticed.
We’ve looked at our top event organizers’ ticket giveaway ideas and how you can use their inspirations to fuel your next event.
Are you ready to get your attendees spreading the word about your event and excited at the chance to attend for free? Let’s look at the different kinds of promotional giveaways you can offer and what you should consider when you run one.
Event ticket giveaway ideas
You’ve probably seen some giveaways in your time, but there are many ways you can run one. Here are some great event ideas to get you started!
1. Early bird draw
An early bird draw encourages people to buy tickets in advance. If they buy the early tickets, they can win additional tickets or exclusive perks. This incentivizes early ticket sales, helping you gauge interest and secure funding sooner.
To execute this successfully, clearly communicate the draw details, including the deadline for entry and the prize. Aim to target past attendees since you already know they have an interest in your events.
2. Local business partnership
Partner with local businesses for a mutually beneficial giveaway opportunity. The partnership could involve giving away tickets through local cafes, bookstores, or other establishments in exchange for promoting the event. Most brands say they’re more confident in the value of live events, so now is the perfect time to partner with them!
This strategy broadens your event’s reach to the business’s regular customers and supports the local economy. Choose businesses that align with your event’s theme or audience, and create a promotional agreement that benefits both parties, such as displaying event posters or distributing flyers at their location.
3. Email newsletter signups
Offer a ticket giveaway as an incentive for registering for your email newsletter. Everyone who signs up during a certain period will enter a random draw where a lucky few will win free tickets or VIP upgrades. This can expand your mailing list, providing a direct line to engage potential attendees with future event updates and offers.
Make sure your newsletters are free from typos and are fun to read to keep people engaged in your brand. You should also ensure you comply with data protection laws by obtaining consent to send communications.
4. Social media giveaway
A social media giveaway or contest commonly uses Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to promote your event. Participants can enter by sharing your social media posts, tagging friends, or using a specific hashtag. It’s one of the most popular ticket giveaway ideas because it can have a wide reach and is not too hard to assemble.
Set a goal before running your giveaway, such as to increase ticket sales, increase online following, spread awareness of an upcoming event, get email subscribers, etc.
This strategy benefits event organizers by significantly increasing event visibility and engaging potential attendees in a fun way. If you’re wondering how to run a social media giveaway, here are some tips:
- Provide clear contest rules
- Set a deadline for entries
- Promote the contest regularly on your platforms
- Use a unique hashtag related to your event to track participation
- Consider different ways participants could enter the contest while promoting it:
- Sharing your post
- Tagging a friend in the post’s comments
- Signing up for your email list
While this might seem like a social media strategy targeting non-corporate accounts, it can also work great for trade shows. That’s because cost is the most important factor people consider when choosing to exhibit at a trade show — a chance at a free ticket could make a huge difference.
5. Scavenger hunt
Organize a scavenger hunt that leads participants through various tasks or locations related to your event theme. For example, you could create a virtual scavenger hunt where players must find the next image or create clues that lead participants to different pages on your website. The reward for both of these?
A virtual scavenger hunt can create excitement and engagement with your event long before it starts. You could even do it with your social media profile. That’ll help you know how to run a social media giveaway that your followers will appreciate.
You can involve your event sponsors by using their products or storefronts as a part of the scavenger hunt. Use social media or a dedicated app to guide participants by giving them hints on your social media profile. Or make using a sponsor’s dedicated app an integral part of the hunt. Then, you just need to offer tickets as a giveaway prize for completing the search.
6. Charity auction
Host a charity auction where attendees can bid on items or experiences with the chance to win tickets to your next event. This approach helps promote your event and supports a good cause, which makes you look considerate!
Choose a charity that resonates with your target audience, and try to include plenty of options in addition to your tickets to bring in an even bigger crowd. You should also choose a charity that’s on theme with your event. For example, if you’re organizing a food and drink event, you could partner with a charity that combats food waste and hunger.
7. Loyalty program
Implement a loyalty program for past attendees, allowing them to win tickets to your next event. This rewards their loyalty and encourages them to spread the word.
To do this effectively, track past attendance and offer points or entries into the giveaway based on their engagement level with your events. Make sure to communicate the program clearly through email and social networks.
8. Art and design contest
Invite your audience to submit art or design work related to your event’s theme, with winners receiving free tickets. This engages your creative community and — bonus — generates unique content that you can use in your promotional materials.
Ensure you set clear submission guidelines, promote the contest to reach artists and designers, and select respected judges in the relevant fields. You could even partner with a local art gallery or school to source talented artists.
9. Game tournament
Host a game tournament online or in a local venue, with free tickets as prizes. Take some inspiration from the Ticket To Ride: Europe – March Board Game Tournament.
Depending on your event theme, this could be video games, board games, or sports. This idea engages competitive spirits and offers a fun way to get involved.
Choose popular games within your target audience, create a structured tournament format, and promote the event to attract participants. You could even invite local professionals to ensure the competition is as exciting as possible.
10. Volunteer event
Encourage participation in a volunteer event related to your cause or theme, offering free tickets as a reward for involvement. This builds a sense of community and shows how much you care.
Partner with local organizations or initiatives to organize a nonprofit event. Then, ensure participants understand how their involvement contributes to earning their ticket: Do they need to be there for a certain amount of time or complete specific tasks? Decide ahead of time and let your participants know.
11. Webinar participation
Offer tickets to attendees participating in a webinar related to your event’s theme. This can be educational or entertaining. If you share yours on social media, it can be another part of how to run a social media giveaway.
Find a way to make the webinar add extra value to your event. For example, if your event centers around a holiday, you can offer free tickets to people who attend a webinar, giving more historical or cultural information about the event. On the other hand, you could partner with a sponsor to make a webinar that shows off the sponsor’s product.
12. Photo contest
In this type of contest, invite your audience to submit photos under a theme related to your event, with the best entries winning free tickets. It’s a fun way to generate user-generated, shareable content that also promotes your event.
To run a successful photo contest, clearly define the submission criteria, promote the contest across your social media platforms, and ensure you have a fair and transparent judging process. Then, you can use early submissions to inspire more entries as the contest continues.
Event ticket giveaway considerations
All those ideas aren’t everything you need to run a great giveaway! Here are some more ticket giveaway ideas about what you should consider when you run your own.
13. Your goal
What are you trying to accomplish with your ticket giveaway ideas? If you’re hoping to collect email addresses, a traditional enter-to-win sweepstakes might be best. Want to expose your event to new potential attendees? Pick a giveaway that incentivizes sharing or requires users to tag a friend to enter. Trying to sell more tickets? Run your giveaway at a time that will be helpful to your sales cycle.
14. What giveaway type works best for you
Do you want to select winners at random (sweepstakes), or do you want to choose a winner based on certain criteria (contest)?
Sweepstakes are generally easier for users to enter (which can lead to more entries) and simpler for organizers to select a winner. If you choose this route, we recommend using a random winner generator.
If you’re asking users to submit a comment or an image to enter, you may want to use a contest model. That way, you can select winners to reward the ‘best’ submissions. On the other hand, sweepstakes are better for early bird draws, newsletter signups, and other sweepstakes ideas that don’t have a competitive element.
15. Entry methods
There are tons of ways to give tickets away, but here are a few of our favorites:
- Basic enter-to-win sweepstakes: Sweepstakes are a quick, easy, and familiar way to collect entries and email addresses. Just be sure to indicate that people are opting to communicate with you if you plan to email them.
- Retweet to win: Ask followers to retweet a specific tweet to enter to win. To help grow your X/Twitter account simultaneously, state in your tweet that users need to follow and retweet your post to enter.
- Hashtag contest: Incentivize some great user-generated content by having your fans post photos to X/Twitter and/or Instagram with a specific branded event hashtag.
- Snapchat drawing: Tap into your Snap followers’ artistic sides by asking them to send a themed Snapchat drawing to your account.
- Tag a friend: Expand your social media account’s reach by asking people to tag the friend they’d bring with them to your event if they won tickets.
- Survey: Gain some insight into your potential event attendees by asking them to fill out a short survey and randomly select a winner from all those participating.
If you need some support in marketing your event and promotional giveaway, sign up to Eventbrite to reach event goers worldwide.
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16. Rules and regulations
Each social platform has different rules regarding contests, and following them is a key part of how to run a social media giveaway well. Facebook, for example, doesn’t allow you to ask followers to share content on their walls to enter. Pinterest discourages requiring entrants to re-pin a specific pin. X/Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms also have guidelines, so read up on the current rules as you craft your giveaway.
It’s also important to know the local legal regulations for giveaways, such as minimum age requirements and CAPTCHA guidelines. Generally, a best practice is to develop rules that indicate the structure of the giveaway, including entry dates, entry requirements, and how/when a winner will be chosen and contacted. Link to these rules anywhere you promote the giveaway.
But most importantly, don’t just take our advice… run it by your legal team before you start the contest.
7. Your timeline
Think through your entire promotional plan from start to finish — and build your timeline accordingly. If you’re mailing tickets to the winner, end your giveaway with plenty of time to communicate with him/her and mail the tickets. Similarly, you might want to give yourself time to design your tickets.
If the winner is picking them up on the day, provide explicit instructions on how and where, or you’ll be stuck fielding frantic questions during your already busy event day. If you’re running a last-minute giveaway, collect a phone number during the entry process to contact the winner and coordinate before your event.
If you don’t plan your timing carefully, your contest could backfire — leaving you with frustrated followers instead of delighted attendees.
18. Your promotional plan
You can create the coolest contest with the best prize, but it won’t be worth your time if people don’t find out about it. Plan ways to promote your giveaway, such as through your newsletter, other social accounts, and other events. Make sure your timeline coincides with those opportunities.
The buzz doesn’t have to end when your giveaway closes. Make the most of the data collected through your contest by adding entrants to your email list and sending them offers like a small discount code for tickets. After your event, share photos of your winner(s) having a great time at the event on your social accounts.
Photos of winners are a great, creative event promotion idea because they make your event look even more fun and accessible. But there are plenty of other ways to promote it, such as:
- Targeting past attendees with emails and ads
- Using event discovery sites like Eventbrite
- Hiring a social media influencer
- Partnering with another event to promote each other’s work
Whichever promotion strategy you choose, just make sure it puts your event in the best light and targets those most likely to come and have a great time.
How to make the most of your ticket giveaway ideas
A ticket giveaway is a great way to spread the word about your upcoming event and increase your turnout. Who doesn’t love a freebie?
These ticket giveaway ideas can make your next giveaway even better. But just having the idea isn’t enough. You need the tools to make those ideas a reality.
Fortunately, Eventbrite has built an all-in-one platform for creating, promoting, and registering for events. It’s even the most popular way for people to find new events they’re looking for.
