Travel Quiz Cruises into Success with Thousands of Leads

The Idea

The USA Today team was working with a national sponsor, Century Cruises. After performing a needs analysis, they discovered that Century Cruises main goal was to promote a new cruise they’d created that traveled down a Chinese river.

Armed with this knowledge, the USA Today team set out to create an engaging and educational promotion to achieve their sponsor’s goals.

The Execution

The USA Today team decided to curate a quiz designed to educate their audience about the amazing offerings of Century Cruise’s new cruise option. They also included a sweepstakes that every quiz participant was entered into. The prize was a 14-day luxury cruise tour for two with international airfare included – intended to entice massive participation.

An opt-in for Century Cruises was included to increase their email list, and the USA Today team also added Facebook and Instagram follow fields as extra chances to help increase their social media following.

Along with awareness and list growth, the USA Today team sought to help their sponsor secure much needed marketing data. Multiple questions were included on the registration form, all intended to provide Century Cruises with information they could use to improve their marketing efforts and their product offerings.

To get the word out, the USA Today team sent out multiple invitation emails to alert their audience of the sweepstakes and the amazing prize include. They also utilized the thank you email to drive passive sales for Century Cruises, including information about a 2 for 1 deal that was running.

The Results

This quiz delivered huge results with over 17,000 new email marketing contacts, which allowed Century Cruises to book several thousand travel consultations.  The USA Today team was also able to secure $40,000 in revenue.

But that’s not where this story ends! The Chinese government was so impressed that they have requested USA Today‘s help in educating US citizens on travel to China.

Since this sweepstakes ran and the incredible results came in – the advertiser is now spending $600,000 and rising – a 1400% increase in spending! Century Cruises actually moved all of their budgets around to put more into promotions because they saw that they WORK.

The takeaway here is that a simple promotion with a relevant and valuable prize, combined with lead generating questions and client opt-ins, is the recipe for success.