Billings Gazette brings in $70,000 with Car Giveaway

The Idea

Our paper, the Billings Gazette, part of Lee Enterprises, is a 41,500 daily circulation paper in Billings, Montana. The Volkswagen Billings car dealership had just opened and the Volkswagen brand was new to the Billings market. The dealership wanted to capture market share in a huge way by doing something attention-grabbing.

Volkswagen Billings decided to team up with us for a big giveaway sweepstakes to win a brand new 2012 Volkswagen Jetta.

The Execution

In order to provide the most value to Volkswagen, we created a complete marketing package consisting of both print and digital assets to run during the first 90 days of Volkswagen Billings’ grand opening. We also created the Win a Volkswagen contest which was run on Facebook. All marketing for Volkswagen Billings prominently displayed the link to the giveaway contest, which was branded as winavolkswagen.com.

The contest consisted of a random drawing from online submissions of 12 finalists. The finalists would show up to a giveaway party at Volkswagen Billings where they would draw a key to start the car. The key that started the engine was the winner.

The Results

Volkswagen Billings’ grew their Facebook Likes from 54 to 2,100 over the course of the contest. Plus, the dealership exceeded sales expectations and hit the market in a big way. The Win a Volkswagen promotional campaign helped Volkswagen Billings to secure continued business even once the contest was over, as the dealership wanted to continue the relationship and potentially give another Volkswagen vehicle away the following year. Our multimedia advertising package, including the Win a Volkswagen giveaway, was valued at $70,000 and generated new print and digital revenue for the newspaper.