Dive Ahead of the Competition With a New Year Giveaway (Updated for 2024)

A New Year Giveaway is the perfect campaign to end the year with. It pushes your brand to stand out among competitors, lets you end the year on a positive note, and begins the new year with massive exposure to your fans. 

Smart online stores use New Year giveaways as a means to engage with a larger audience and reflect on the year that passed. This strategy allows brands to showcase their year’s work with the new leads they acquired from the giveaway. 

While the concept behind a New Year giveaway might sound simple, there are a few key factors that you should consider before hosting one. 

This guide goes into detail about those key factors that will allow you to host a successful New Year giveaway. We have case studies and giveaway examples of brands that totally nailed their New Year giveaway.

Let’s get started.

Marketing for New Year’s Day 2024 Update

The new year is a great opportunity for brands to start fresh and use new year’s day as an opportunity to market themselves. This is the perfect time for businesses to create new and exciting content, launch new campaigns, and engage with customers in new ways. 

Here are a few ideas: 

• Publish social media posts wishing followers a Happy New Year while promoting products or services.
• Host a virtual party complete with games and giveaways, or send out special New Year’s e-gifts. 
• Focus on conveying positive values such as unity, strength, prosperity, and celebration to amplify the message to your audience. 
• It’s important that brands tailor their campaigns according to different audiences and media outlets.

Most of all, be consistent. Start the new year with a good strategy and stick to it. You may only find success later in the year. So don’t be discouraged after a few months with little to no progress.

New Year’s Day Sales Trends

The new year is an opportunity for retailers to start fresh and capture new customers. This year, New Year’s Day sales trends are expected to be extremely strong as shoppers search for the best deals to kick-start 2025. 

Here are a few trends we think you should keep an eye out for:

• The most popular items that are predicted to sell big in this new year are electronics, home decor, apparel, and sports gear. 
• Retailers should consider investing in marketing techniques such as email campaigns to entice new customers who may not have purchased from them before. 
• Stores should strive to create engaging social media posts highlighting New Year’s Day offers and deals to remain competitive. 
• Mobile is huge – Optimize your store for mobile and make the sales process on your site simple and easy for mobile users. 
• Social media and online shopping have grown drastically in the last few years. Use marketing campaigns like giveaways to boost social media engagement and presence. 

With smart marketing strategies, retailers can look forward to ringing in the new year with positive sales figures.

Why Host a New Year Giveaway?

For most people, the end of the year signifies the closing of one chapter and the start of another. It is also the time of year when people are distracted by holidays or spending time with their loved ones. 

December is also a busy time for consumers looking to get their Christmas and holiday shopping done. This makes December a competitive season for brands.

So, during a highly competitive month, when consumers have a short attention span, your marketing has to be on point. You will need to try something a bit more drastic to retain consumer attention. 

You can host a New Year Giveaway.

What is a New Year Giveaway?

A quick definition: A giveaway that is hosted over New Year’s Day. 

New Year giveaways are campaigns that allow brands to publicly mark the end of their year while giving something back to their audience. These campaigns are also great for bringing attention to any new plans your brand might have for the new year.

Some brands tend to host New Year giveaways during the last few weeks of the year. These brands end the giveaway (and announce winners) in the first week of the new year (January).

However, there are brands that also host New Year giveaways during the first two weeks of the year. These brands announce the giveaway on January 1st. This is a great strategy to start the year off on a solid note by increasing your audience’s perception of your brand.

More Reasons To Host a New Year Giveaway

Here are a few more reasons to host a New Year giveaway:

• Bring awareness to the work your brand produced in the year. These can also be the milestones the brand has achieved in the year.
• Bringing awareness to any new changes that the brand plans to make in the new year.
• To stand out among competitors during a highly competitive time of the year. 
• Get your brand noticed by consumers who might be distracted by the festive season (going on holidays or preparing for family gatherings).
• Give something back to your audience at the start of the year. This is a grand gesture to most consumers who have spent most of their paycheck and bonus over the holidays.

New Year Giveaway Examples

Here are 3 excellent New Year Giveaway examples that will give you a better understanding of how you should host your campaign. We analyzed these examples to find key takeaways that you could also implement in your next giveaway. 

We hope that these examples will help inspire your next campaign.

The Concourse Project New Year Giveaway – Instagram

• Entry Method: Follow, like, and save the giveaway post. Tag friends in the comments
• Prize: Ticket to New Year’s Day and other events
• Ideal for: Night clubs, restaurants, and event-hosting brands

The Concourse Project is a nightclub and entertainment venue based in Austin, TX. They regularly host some of the largest music acts and DJs worldwide.

With more than 2k posts, its safe to say that The Concourse Project uses Instagram extensively to promote each of their upcoming events. It is a wise choice for them to host a New Year giveaway to promote possibly the largest event of the year.

Three massive events take place during the weekend before New Year’s Day. This giveaway will award three lucky people three tickets for each event.

Key Takeaways:

• One giveaway to promote three events!
• The prize is simply admission into the event which is rather cost effective.
• Hosting a simple giveaway like this regularly (monthly or whenever there is a new event) is an excellent way to grow their audience consistently.

Zoughaib & Co. New Year’s Giveaway – Instagram

• Entry Method: Follow Zoughaib & Co. Like Post. Tag friends in the comments
• Prize: Butterfly diamond pendants
• Ideal for: Online or physical stores

Zoughaib & Co. is a jewelry designer and manufacturer. Its e-commerce website ships custom jewelry globally, and its substantial Instagram audience—over 110k followers—is impressive. 

To end the year (and start the new year) on a good note, Zoughaib & Co. held a social media giveaway from 20 Dec to 02 Jan. Users were required to follow the brand and engage with the giveaway post to enter. 

Hosting a social media giveaway over New Year’s is an excellent strategy for increasing engagement and followers during the holiday season.

Key Takeaways:

• The giveaway is hosted over New Year and ends on 02 January.
• Winners are announced on the Facebook page while the giveaway is hosted on Instagram. This strategy allows you to cross-promote your brand over multiple platforms. 
• The entry method will ensure that the host builds more followers and increases engagement.

Through the Looking Glass Studio Giveaway – Facebook 

• Entry Method: Like the Facebook Page and Engage with the Giveaway Post
• Prize: Mini Photoshoot Sessions
• Ideal for: Physical Businesses or Services

Through the Looking Glass Studio is a photography studio that specializes in child, adult, and maternity photoshoots. They built a small community on Facebook, which is why hosting a giveaway on their page is an excellent idea. 

The goal of this giveaway was to promote the brand’s Facebook post. The post was a reflection of the year that passed and included the best images of the year. 

Expenses are kept reasonably low for this giveaway with the prize simply being a free photoshoot session. This meant that the low-cost giveaway was an ideal strategy for increasing exposure to the brand and its portfolio. 

A similar strategy can be used for other brands, such as:

• Video filming businesses
• Wedding businesses (filming, DJing, Singing, etc)
• Florists

Basically, any business that can offer a portfolio can host a giveaway to promote their portfolio. Hosting the giveaway at the end of the year is the perfect opportunity to showcase your work for the year while starting off the new year on a positive note.

Key Takeaways:

• New Year giveaways are great for creating hype towards your portfolio (work completed throughout the year).
• A small low-cost giveaway with the prize being a couple of your sessions is an efficient way of drumming up engagement and excitement on socials. This can also work reularly (the evergreen contest funnel).

Tech of Tomorrow New Year Giveaway – YouTube

• Entry Method: Subscribe to Channel and Follow on Socials
• Prize: Branded prize bundles, motherboards, SSDs, Game Codes, and more
• Ideal for: YouTubers, Brands (computer/tech)

Tech of Tomorrow (Elric Phares) is a YouTube channel dedicated to reviewing computer hardware, software, and accessories. 

The giveaway was announced on the 1st of January as a way of saying thank you to the channel subscribers. This was an excellent opportunity to encourage loyalty among his fans early on in the year. 

Elric also stated that he plans on making a few drastic changes to his studio and video format. So a giveaway on the 1st of January is a great way to show your audience how serious you are about your promises.

Key Takeaways:

• Giveaway was announced on the 1st of January as a token of appreciation to fans. 
• The giveaway was announced alongside other announcements (changes to channel). Announcing a giveaway is an excellent way of adding impact to general announcements.

New Years Giveaway Ideas With VYPER

VYPER allows you to manage giveaways and contests. You can also use our giveaway page builder to build expert landing pages for your campaign. 

We created two concepts New Year giveaways to give you ideas and inspiration for your next campaign. Please feel free to use any of the ideas below in your campaigns.

Colourpop New Year Giveaway (Online Store – Makeup Brand)

• Entry Method: Complete a specified action to enter (Vote)
• Prize: Makeup bundle
• Goal: Boost website traffic, sales, and social media engagement

Colourpop is a popular online makeup brand. Their exceptional e-commerce store ships worldwide and has a massive catalog of makeup collections.

A New Year giveaway is an excellent way of getting Colourpop’s audience to vote for the product of the year. This will push fans to browse through Colourpop’s catalog in search of their favorite product (or collection).

This giveaway can be a good way for the brand to reflect on the year that has passed. They can focus on the most popular styles and innovations of the year.

Benefits of this Campaign:

• This campaign will encourage people to browse the Colorpop store to find their favorite product of the year. 
• To increase social media engagement, voting can be done on socials. To increase traffic, voting can be done on the website.

Gymshark New Year Giveaway (Online Store – Fitness Apparel Brand)

• Entry Method: Engage with the brand on social media 
• Prize: Gift card. Redeemable at Gymshark online store
• Goal: Boost social media engagement, followers, and brand exposure

Gymshark is a global e-commerce brand that is focused on fitness apparel. The brand is huge with a massive amount of followers on Instagram (over 5 million).

Gymshark can certainly take advantage of that common New Year’s resolution – “I will get into shape this year!” They can do so with a New Year giveaway. 

To make things exciting (while keeping it simple), users can simply share their New Year’s resolutions on Gymshark’s socials. 

This is the perfect strategy to increase engagement on socials. Especially if it’s done at the start of the year when people are most likely to invest in their fitness.

Benefits of this Campaign:

• An excellent way to stand out among other fitness brands. Especially during a period when people tend to invest heavily in fitness (at the start of the year).
• Expenses are minimal with a gift card giveaway.

More New Year Giveaway Ideas

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

Linus Pauling

You can never have enough ideas. So, here are more New Year giveaway ideas that are free to use as your own.

1. New Year, New You Bundle

• The Prize: A large bundle of multiple products. This can be productivity-themed products like fitness gear, planners, organizers, etc.
• Entry Method: Follow, tag, and share to enter. Users can share New Year’s resolutions to enter.
• The Giveaway: Daily planners and organizers are inexpensive items. Bundle them up together to create a massive productivity prize to attract a larger audience. Create a bundle made of workout equipment (dumbells, gloves, resistance bands) to attract a fitness-focused audience.
• Goals: Grow your audience, increase engagement and leads, or grow your email list.

2. Goodbye 2024, Hello 2025 Giveaway

• The Prize: Best-selling products from 2024
• Entry Method: “Follow us or subscribe to our email list to enter and for updates on 2025 product launches.”
• The Giveaway: A “Thank You” campaign meant for loyal customers and fans. Give away the most popular or best-selling product of the year. Or offer a product that has yet to be launched in 2025 as the prize.
• Goals: A sneak peek giveaway to bring awareness to future product launches. Show your appreciation to loyal customers with a giveaway.

3. Countdown to Midnight Contest

• The Prize: A gift card
• Entry Method: Scan our website for the entry form.
• The Giveaway: A gift card giveaway hosted on an online store can drive traffic and create brand/product exposure. Giving away gift cards are inexpensive, yet effective in generating leads from a giveaway.
• Goals: Increase web traffic to your site. Creates brand and product awareness as users hoping to win the gift voucher will scan the site for products they can redeem if they win.

4. New Year, New Gear” Giveaway

• The Prize: A complete set of products. Fashion, fitness, or tech.
• Entry Method: Visit our store to enter
• The Giveaway: Figure out how your brand can provide the winner with a complete overhaul of gear. This can be a complete outfit for work or the gym, ideal for fashion brands. Supply the winner with a complete stationery set for their office desk job.
• Goals: Drive traffic and sales during the holidays. Promote the brand, its products, and offers early in the new year.  

5. #2025Goals Challenge

• The Prize: A prize to help achieve New Year Goals.
• Entry Method: Post your New Year goals with a branded hashtag.
• The Giveaway: Help your audience achieve their best in 2025 by giving them the tools to reach their goal. This can be a gym membership or an online course. You could also give away SaaS Tools like a Canva or Adobe subscription.
• Goals: Grow a targeted audience. Increase social media engagement.

6. Refresh & Reset Giveaway

• The Prize: A prize that promotes wellness, rest, and relaxation.
• Entry Method: “Post your word of the year in the comments below.” The word can be simple, like “balance,” “growth,” or “love.”
• The Giveaway: Host a giveaway that speaks to workaholics who finally got to go on vacation over the New Year. Request that users share their favorite way to relax and unwind. Get entrants to share pictures of themselves chilling out (if you are looking for user-generated content – UGC).
• Goals: Increase social media engagement. User-generated content opportunities.

7. Year in Review Contest

• The Prize: A prize for creatives (camera, video editing software, or a drone).
• Entry Method: Submit a short creative video of every highlight or important event of 2024.
• The Giveaway: Get aspiring filmmakers or photographers to create a short video of their best work of the year. Or ask entrants to put together a video review of all the big events that have happened globally. You could also get entrants to stitch together their Top 10 Memes of 2024 and let your audience vote for the winner.
• Goals: UGC contest. Social media engagement boost.

Looking to host your campaign a little earlier? Then perhaps you could try hosting a Christmas Giveaway early in December or at the end of November.

Click here for our guide on Christmas Giveaways.

New Year Giveaway Tips

We dug a bit deeper into our New Year giveaway research and discovered a few advanced tips for hosting a giveaway.

Read on to find more strategies for hosting a New Year giveaway:

Incorporate Current Trends

Like the headline suggests. Add trendy elements to your giveaway to make the campaign seem fresh and exciting.

Any form of marketing is a reflection of the brand. Hosting a giveaway with outdated prizes and designs will make your brand seem out of touch.

Including trending elements in your giveaway will show your audience that the brand is:

• Aware of new trends and is willing to keep up with them.
• Alert and listening. Customers are confident in a brand that is paying attention.
• Speaking in their customers’ unique language to better appeal to that specific audience.

Here are a few ways you can incorporate current trends to your New Year giveaway:

• Use trending hashtags like #NewYearNewMe #GlowUp2025
• Include colors in your New Year giveaway that are in line with current color trends. Colors like Cream and Olive. Pastel colors are also big right now.
• Choose a prize that is relevant to both your audience and the times. Retro gaming is huge at the moment and can attract a considerable amount of leads.

Multi-Platform Promotion

Giveaways are viral campaigns that can quickly generate leads and traffic. However, you must still promote your giveaway effectively on other platforms to improve your results.

Simply publishing your giveaway on your site or a social network isn’t enough. Try promoting your giveaway on these platforms:

• Email – send out emails to your current email list announcing the giveaway. Ask your recipients to enter and refer more people to your giveaway.
• Social media – share the details of your giveaway with all your followers. Create a post on Instagram or upload a video to YouTube. (See our Ridge Wallet case study. Link below).
• Influencers – partner up with social media users who are well-established and have plenty of followers. These influencers can share your giveaway with their followers to quickly find a large audience for your campaign.

Ridge Wallets hosted a fantastic giveaway recently. Their approach to promoting the giveaway was truly excellent. We absolutely love the video they created just for the giveaway.

Click here for our Ridge Wallet giveaway case study and for the awesome giveaway video they created just for YouTube.

A Few Creative New Year Giveaway Ideas

Are you looking for a unique theme for your New Year giveaway? Here are some creative giveaway ideas to create your own unique spin on your New Year giveaway:

• Resolution Challenge Giveaway – users must submit their New Year’s resolutions. Winners can be selected at random or based on the creativity of their resolution.
• New Year Selfie Contest – encourage users to submit a selfie of them preparing for 2025. Ask them to pose with your product to the contest into a UGC contest.
• Photo Contest – Vacation photos do not get the same love they once used to. Let users submit their best holiday pictures to enter your New Year photo contest.
• Countdown Giveaway – Host a daily giveaway each day leading up to New Year’s Day. Offer a small prize each day, with a grand prize on New Year’s Day. You could start the campaign right after Christmas Day.

Encourage User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a powerful marketing strategy to create exposure and social proof for your brand and its products.

Generating a ton of UGC early in the year is an excellent idea. You can schedule this newly acquired content for your socials throughout the year.

There are different types of UGC. Host a UGC contest and ask users to submit the type of content you are looking for. Some examples of UGC include:

• Blog posts – ask users or aspiring writers to submit written content to enter your contest. The top five writers will have their content published on your blog in exchange for a prize.
• Reviews – get your customers to submit the reviews of your product. Go a step further by asking them to submit creative video reviews.
• Music – Host a music production contest. Users must submit their song or remix to enter. You can then select the top three productions to feature on your label. Similarly, host a podcast intro contest and allow users to submit music intros for your podcast.
• Video – We already mentioned video reviews. Try different video formats. Ask customers to submit a funny video or a viral video like a bike or skateboard stunt.

New Years Giveaway Q&A

TL;DR

New Year giveaways are great campaigns to host at the end of the year. These campaigns generate the much-needed hype your brand needs during the busy holiday season. 

New Year giveaways are also perfect for setting the pace for the year. Your brand can build exposure early on, then maintain the momentum for the rest of the year. 

From our examples, we noticed that brands host New Year giveaways to showcase their efforts and milestones in the past year. Brands also host these campaigns as a means to bring attention to announcements of crucial events and plans for the new year. 

We hope you enjoyed this guide. Please let us know your thoughts on New Year giveaways. Is this something that your brand will host?