Six years ago, on Christmas Eve eve, I was sitting in traffic on the way home from work when an idea popped into my head. I wanted to make a contest. But not just any contest. I wanted to make the entry process simple and I wanted to make the reward huge. So I opened the Facebook mobile app and I wrote a post on the Orange page. It read:

“Wish Granted: Just tell us which Orange product you want and on Christmas day we’ll announce the winners.”

By the time I got home the post had 2,000 like and nearly as many comments. I knew I was onto something.

We had thousands of entries in year one. We had tens of thousands by year two. Each year we kept giving away more and more products. Those first few years I would personally sit at the computer on Christmas Day scrolling through the entries and hand-picking winners. It was tedious and it was time-consuming. But the joy it created made it worth the trouble. (Luckily our very tech-savvy marketing director has made the selection process much easier)

Around year three it was clear that Wish Granted had become part of our annual marketing repertoire. That’s when we began involving Cliff Cooper to help push the promotion via his heartwarming Christmas videos. That’s also when Cliff decided it was time to really expand Wish Granted to even more countries and even bigger prize packages. Now we find ourselves in the sixth year of Wish Granted and we just finished giving away more than $40,000 in Orange products to more than 15 countries after receiving upwards of 95,000 unique entries! See the full recap here.

What really warms my heart about Wish Granted is the feedback we receive from our fans. Here’s a smattering of extremely positive reviews from some of this year’s winners:

“I am 42 years old, last time I won a lottery was when I was about 10 y.o. – it was a small prize, less than a dollar. I am new to the Orange fans army but I do appreciate what this company does for the music-addicted society, I have never seen this before from other brands. It is so impressive that even if I would not win, my respect to Orange would have increased significantly just because of this unbelievable initiative.”

“I’ve always been a fan of Orange Amplifiers but being on disability have unfortunately never had the funds to purchase one. I’ve entered the giveaway every year you’ve run it on the off chance of being one of the luckiest individuals to walk the face of this Earth, never dreaming in a million years I’d win. That said, I cant thank you enough for the opportunity or the ear buds. You’ve definitely made my holiday season that much more enjoyable and with a bit of citrus.”

“Unbelievable! I have several Orange products and now they have my loyalty for life! I have had a really bad few weeks this is definitely the light at the end of the tunnel, cannot wait to play it! From my old trusty Crush Bass 25 now to a Terror Bass Amp!!! Thank you for making my Christmas!!!”

“3 years ago, my band was robbed and a lot of our equipment got lost, including my trustworthy Terror Bass. So winning one this time makes me feel double as happy as anyone else! Feels like the universe is returning something that always belonged to you. Thank you, Orange! You are and always will be the best amps in the world!”

“I am passionate about music and guitars in particular, I play it for more than 40 years. My son shares this passion and has been taking guitar lessons for 2 years. For Christmas I will offer him an electro-acoustic guitar. Your gift could not be better for this Christmas and will perfectly complement its equipment. I sincerely want to thank you and I wish you a very happy holiday season and a merry Christmas!”

It’s knowing that we helped make the holidays better for thankful guitarists that makes all of this effort worth it. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for supporting Orange and may 2020 be your best year yet!

Alex Auxier, Artist Relations Manager and USA Marketing Manager