Citynetwork blogging competition, a perfect linkbait?

The Webbhotell City Network has a smart blogging competition where they gives away an iPad to the person that has the “best” blog. Their guest bloggers is going to decide who wins the iPad. I Think this is a very smart way for them to get A LOT OF LINKS, because you participate in the competition by writing a post in your blog and link to their website in the post. I think a lot of persons (including me, you see) is willing to share a link on their blog for the opportunity to win an iPad. This, for the price of an iPad, gives the company City Network a lot of relevant inlinks.

A company may think that an 900€ iPad is an expensive gift to give away just for some links, but I think, by making it a competition like this, they get so much relevant links so the 900€ (or whatever it may cost) is very cheap. The links they get will also give them a lot of traffic, and a lot of the traffic is bloggers, and a lot of bloggers need a need a webhotel (web host), City Network provides web hosting, I think you get the point.

What all does City Network get for the price of the iPad in this case:

(by now, they have already 50 participants in the competition)

A lot of links that drives people to their site, people that may need their services.
A lot of new people following the links and reading about the competition, then writing their own blogpost and gives them even more links. Keeping the snowball rolling.
The awareness of their brand is growing a lot! (I did not know about City Network before)
Link power for search engines, a lot of relevant inlinks will give their website a huge boost in the search engines for some keywords. (quick guess, at least the word Webbhotell). A very good word to be found on, I guess the people searching for that really needs a web host.

So now you may see that the iPad was not at all a expensive giveaway for some links. I think that this would definitely work for a lot more niches than the hosting niche. A lot of Companies have a good lesson to learn here!