How CPI Hotels Used a Multi-Channel UGC Contest to Drive Participation and Brand Engagement
CPI Hotels, a hotel group operating across Central Europe, launched a drawing contest that invited children to imagine and draw their dream hotel. Using Easypromos, a digital engagement platform, CPI Hotels combined multiple submission channels, content moderation, a branded gallery, and public voting in one centralized campaign experience. The campaign brought together 114 approved drawings, generated more than 45,800 visits to the contest microsite, and received 2,605 votes.
SUCCESS STORY · ENGAGEMENT & UGC · DRAWING CONTEST & INSTAGRAM DM AUTOMATIONS
How did the campaign work?
The Solution
To reduce drop-off, CPI Hotels combined mobile-friendly participation across several channels with reminder posts linked to Instagram Messaging Automations, helping families return to the contest when they were ready to submit. All approved entries were then centralized in one branded gallery for public voting.
The Result
The contest microsite generated more than 45,800 visits
The gallery received nearly 15,000 visits
Users cast 2,605 votes
75% of participation took place on mobile devices
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114 Drawings 45,800+ microsite visits Nearly 15,000 gallery visits
2,605 votes cast 75% of participation from mobile devices
Request a video call to see how Easypromos can help you create a multi-channel UGC contest with a branded gallery and public voting.
Create and submit
The Challenge
CPI Hotels launched the drawing contest as part of its wider summer campaign, using International Children’s Day as a timely way to engage families and make children’s creativity the central theme.
The main objective was to increase brand awareness and engagement while creating a meaningful interaction between families and the CPI Hotels brand. To support that goal, the contest needed to work across several communication channels, accept submissions from different sources, and bring every approved drawing into one centralized gallery for public voting.
The Risk
A drawing contest requires more commitment than a simple click or form submission. Families may discover the campaign and intend to participate, but time passes before the child creates the drawing and an adult returns to submit it. That gap between initial interest and completed participation increases the risk of drop-off, making it harder to generate enough entries and sustain momentum throughout the campaign.
The Contest Mechanic
Mobile-friendly submissions through the microsite, Instagram DM, or email.
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Review and approval of every drawing before publication.
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All approved drawings centralized in one branded public gallery.
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Individual entry URLs for easy sharing and voting.
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The campaign created a family-oriented brand experience that kept CPI Hotels visible over several weeks and reinforced its family-friendly positioning. The 114 published drawings became individual points of engagement. Families shared their entries, encouraged their networks to visit the gallery, and helped extend the campaign beyond CPI Hotels’ own communication channels. Some drawings received more than 200 votes, showing how each entry could generate its own participation momentum.
Across the campaign:
The results show that the campaign went beyond collecting user-generated content. Every published drawing gave families a reason to share the contest, bring new visitors into the gallery, and encourage participation in the voting stage. The flexible management tools also allowed CPI Hotels to combine direct microsite uploads with drawings received through Instagram and email, without forcing every family to follow the same submission journey.
Promotion across the campaign
CPI Hotels supported the contest with a multi-channel communication strategy designed to reach families both online and during their hotel stay.
Paid and organic social media: Instagram and Facebook posts promoted the contest, explained how to participate, and encouraged users to visit the gallery and vote.
Instagram Messaging Automations: Users who sent the campaign keyword by Direct Message received an immediate reply with a direct link to the contest microsite.
PR, media, and newsletters: The campaign was promoted through Czech PR and media portals, as well as CPI Hotels’ newsletter database.
In-hotel promotion: Printed materials placed in CPI Hotels properties helped introduce the contest directly to guests and families during their stay.
Once the drawings were published, each entry also had its own shareable URL, allowing participating families to promote their drawing and bring additional visitors into the voting gallery.
Key Takeaway
A flexible submission process still needs one central campaign hub.
By bringing every approved entry into the same branded microsite, regardless of how it was submitted, CPI Hotels could present all drawings in one consistent gallery and manage the public voting process from a single place. Direct uploads, entries received through other channels, mobile-friendly participation, and individual sharing URLs all supported the same centralized experience.
Conclusion
CPI Hotels used the drawing contest to connect young creators, their families, and a broader public audience as part of its wider summer campaign. With Easypromos, the hotel group could receive and manage drawings from several channels, review every submission, publish the approved content in a branded gallery, and open the campaign to public voting.
The result was not only a collection of 114 drawings. It was an experience that generated more than 45,800 microsite visits and 2,605 votes by making participation flexible and turning every entry into a reason to visit, share, and engage.
What we valued most about Easypromos was the support. Whenever we needed help, we simply described our requirements, and the team quickly guided us or set everything up for us. This made managing the campaign much easier and more efficient.
CPI Hotels Marketing Team
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24 días de activación 34.758 participantes únicos 11 días de participación media 75 % de usuarios recurrentes 95.161 premios vinculados al club
114 drawings
45,800+ microsite visits
Nearly 15,000 gallery visits
2,605 votes cast
75% of participation from mobile devices
Children drew their dream hotel, and their families submitted the entry through the microsite, Instagram DM, or email.
Review and publish
CPI Hotels reviewed the drawings and published 114 approved entries in the online gallery.
View, vote, and share
The public could browse the gallery, vote for their favorite drawings, and share the individual entry URLs.
Instagram as a supporting participation channel
CPI Hotels used Instagram posts and Messaging Automations to explain the contest and direct users to the microsite. Participants who sent the keyword “Můj hotel” or “Muj hotel” received an automatic bilingual reply with the campaign link.
Paid social promotion reached 398,126 people, generated 758,855 impressions, and drove 4,772 link clicks. The automated flow was activated 113 times, helping make participation easier and support engagement with the campaign.
CPI Hotels hosted the contest on its own subdomain and promoted it across social media, paid campaigns, Czech PR and media, newsletters, and in-hotel materials. Drawings could be submitted through the microsite, Instagram DM, or email, with CPI Hotels reviewing each entry and manually adding approved submissions received outside the platform.
Request a video call to see how Easypromos can help you create a multi-channel UGC contest with a branded gallery and public voting.