A social media competition is a fantastic way to promote your equestrian business and they usually receive a high level of engagement from your followers. After all, who doesn’t like the chance to win a prize!

We have consolidated our best equine competition ideas as well as the legal side of competitions that you should know if you are considering running one.

What is the purpose of the competition?

Firstly, consider why you want to run a competition in the first place.

  • Are you looking to promote a new product in your saddlery?
  • Do you have a new equestrian business that needs a kickstart on social media?
  • Have you noticed that your social media engagement has reduced?
  • Do you want to give something back to your horse community after going through the COVID-19 crisis?
  • Do you need content for your social media pages?

Whatever your purpose for running the competition, consolidate your ideas and run a contest in line with your goal.

Running a social media competition for Equestrian Businesses

Example competitions

Skill Based

  1. Photo sharing
    • “Share with us your favourite picture of you and your four-legged best friend and our favourite will win free online riding lessons with us for a year”.
    • “Upload a photo of you with your most recent purchase from us using the hashtag #example and the best will win a $1,000 gift card!”
  2. Storytelling
    • “In 25 words or less tell us why you have the best horse, the winner will receive one of our NEW horse grooming kits.”
    • “To celebrate our new riding school in Lancefield Victoria, tell us why you should WIN free riding lessons for a year!”
  3. Caption this photo

Chance Based

  • “Like this post and one lucky fan will win our ENTIRE NEW RUG RANGE!”
  • “Comment on this post, and we will randomly pick one person to fly to Victoria for a one on one lesson with our top rider”.

Before you run any competitions ensure that it meets the sites competition rules and Australia’s competition rules.

Unfortunately running a competition on social media is not as simple as just posting it on your channel. In Australia, there are stringent rules around running competitions. These are broken down into a game of skill and a game of chance.

Game of Skill

A game of skill is any competition that does not randomly pick the winner. This usually means that there is a judge who picks the best entry, or the winner voted for publicly.

Examples include:

  • Explain in 25 words or less
  • Photo submission contest
  • User-submitted contest

Game of Chance

A game of chance requires the winner to be selected at random in a lottery or sweepstake.

Australia Wide Competitions

If you are considering running an online competition in Australia you DO NOT need a permit to run a game of skill providing the total prize value is below $3,000. Your competition must be free to enter and you must clearly state the start and end date of the competition. You must also explain how you will announce/notify the winner.

If you want to run a game of chance you need to check the rules in each state as to whether you require a permit.

Please note this table is subject to change and was current at the time of being published. We recommend checking the rules in each state before running your competition.

These rules are for competitions that are free to enter.

State Game of Skills Game of Chance
ACT

Check the rules here

No permit is needed for a game of skill if the total prize value is under $3,000.

 

No permit is needed for a game of chance if the total prize value is under $3,000.
NSW

Check the rules here

No permit is needed for game of skill.

 

No permit is needed for a game of chance if the total prize value is under $10,000.
VIC

Check the rules here

No permit needed No permit needed
WA

Check the rules here

No permit needed No permit needed
TAS

Check the rules here

No permit needed No permit needed
QLD

Check the rules here

No permit needed No permit needed
NT

Check the rules here

No permit is needed for a game of skill if the total prize value is under $5,000.

 

No permit is needed for a game of chance if the total prize value is under $5,000.
SA

Check the rules here

No permit is needed for a game of skill if the total prize value is under $5,000.

 

No permit is needed for a game of chance if the total prize value is under $5,000.

Social Media Competition Guidelines

Before you run a competition you must also ensure that it meets the social media guidelines. You will find the guidelines below:

Running a social media competition for equestrian businesses