Over the years, I’ve praised OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) for a purposefully-hard quiz they did. The idea was that if you got any answers wrong—which was very likely—their webinar would provide the correct, “vital” information. The quiz email registered the most sign-ups for the webinar. Here are more successful uses of quizzes by media groups.
I’ve seen media entities celebrate their anniversaries and milestones in different ways, but the American Society of Mechanical Engineers came up with a new and fun way this month to strut their stuff: an ASME Milestones Quiz. So if I did not know who the first president of ASME was, or the first woman to head ASME (an impressive first for any major engineering society, I learned), I happily do now.
Think quizzes aren’t popular? Guess again. There has been quite the emphasis on games and quizzes in the last couple years, driven even more by our extended time at home. Media entities such as The Financial Times, New York Times, New Yorker, Morning Consult and Slate all now feature some gamification. Our Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) Speaker Quiz that I posted a few weeks ago garnered one of our best open rates.
Here are five ways quizzes are working:
To educate and offer a sponsorship. Education Week posts a “Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Literacy?” They get a weekly sponsor—this time it’s Lexia Learning, but then adds that “Education Week has full editorial control of content.” After answering the seven questions, you get this: “Please complete the form below to see answers, explanations, and additional readings on this topic.” In the past, Education Week would regularly achieve nearly 90% quiz completions and around 60% of people who completed the quiz filling out the registration form.
To facilitate your advertisers and audience. “What hotel brand is the ideal recommendation for your client’s next trip?” begins a quiz on Questex’s Luxury Travel Advisor. “People WILL TRAVEL again, so now is the time to start thinking about the right hotel fit for your valued clients. Answer the questions to create the perfect customized ALG Vacations™ package.” After 7 questions—“What would your client download to watch while on vacation?” Sleepless in Seattle and Chef’s Table are choices—you get the answer. (Mine was Secrets Resorts and Spas.) In a previous quiz on this site, “Mexican Caribbean: What is Your Celebrity Travel Style?” they ask, “Did you ever wonder about your celebrity travel style? Take this quick quiz to find out…”
To bundle and feed competitive juices. Slate puts you against a Slate Plus member—complete with his or her photo—in their trivia quiz. “Want to be the featured contestant in the future? Join Slate Plus, then complete this form, and you could be selected to play a quiz on the record.” And after: “The Slatester and Slate Plus member leaderboards are only for Slate Plus subscribers. Join today to access and compare scores. You’ll also get unlimited reading on Slate and ad-free listening on all of our podcasts.”
To sell a webinar. A post by marketing expert Jeanne Jennings on LinkedIn led to this page: OI (Only Influencers) Masters of Email Metrics Quiz 2022 – 10 Questions, 10 Chances to Prove That You’re an OI Master of Email Metrics! “Join us [next] Tuesday when we present the correct answers with supporting information and the winners, on our OI Metrics Quiz Webinar (you can register for the webinar at the end of the quiz).” Jennings added to this recipe by integrating her Case Study: Why Click-through Rate Isn’t a Good Key Performance Indicator into one of the questions in a link.
To educate readers about your topic. In another quiz, ASME asks “Who are these Five Influential Women Engineers?” “Many influential women engineers are role models and mentors for the next generation of female engineers. How many of these women do you recognize?” Then after I got just 2 out of 5 questions right, I got this: “Interested in finding out more about these influential women engineers?” Hit the Learn More button. Another outcome would be to market a webinar on that topic, a la OPIS.
