What’s in a name? The challenge of social media competitions

Mark Frary

January 28, 2015

If you have ever run a competition for your brand on social media, you will be only too familiar with the slight shiver you experience as you post it.

On one hand, you can be fairly sure that the competition will get people clicking - people love competitions and social media just makes the whole thing easy for people to do. In many cases, all they have to do is click the like or retweet button. On the other hand, there is the that hard-to-pin-down dread that things might just go a little crazy.

I wonder if the person who posted Thomson Airways’ competition to name the airline’s newest 787 Dreamliner felt the tiniest bit of apprehension.

The idea was a reasonable one: take a picture of one of the airline’s existing 787s, post it to Instagram and tag either the @thomsonholidays or @firstchoiceholidays account. “Photos can be captured in or around a 787, and can be anything from dramatic views out of the large windows, arty frames of life inside the cabin, or exterior shots of our super-plane. The more creative you are, the better,” they said.

The prize was pretty damn good too - seven nights for two in Mauritius.

So what about naming the plane? Ah yes. That’s the other part of the prize. Thomson breathlessly announced “Our newest Dreamliner will have your first name emblazoned on it and, quite frankly, you’ll have bragging rights forever.”

So, it’s now January and the winner has been announced and, in the words of Thomson, “Be sure to look out for ‘Neil’ which will be taking to the skies soon.”

Neil.

Of course it’s not Neil’s fault he’s called Neil and it’s a good enough name. The etymology is a bit vague but it could mean champion or even cloud (which is reasonable enough for a plane I suppose). There are some great Neils around too - Neil Armstrong , musicians Young, Sedaka and Tennant and, and…er, that’s it.

Yet Neil does not have that aspirational feel to it that planes normally have. Even the other 787s in the Thomson fleet are called things like Dream Maker, Living the Dream and Angel of the Sky. Proper plane names that make you want to grow a pair of wings yourself and take to the sky.

Then again, perhaps this was the idea all along. Call it Neil and watch it go viral. Award-winning social media campaign. Blah blah blah.

Next time you start planning a social media campaign, just think about that.