Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are a great way to collect email opt-ins and generate leads for your local media company and/or your advertiser. With Thanksgiving so focused on food and family, any sweepstakes that can connect these ideas is going to be a surefire win with your audience. Prizes such as grocery gift cards, a turkey dinner, or even a set of carving knives are a perfect fit for a Thanksgiving sweepstakes.
The Amarillo Globe-News ran a thanksgiving dinner sweepstakes with a sponsoring local grocery store to give away a $250 gift card to three random entrants! This campaign grew the email databases of both the sponsor and paper by thousands!
Brackets
Everyone has their favorite Thanksgiving foods and traditions which makes voting-brackets a super fun way to celebrate with your audience. The fun head-to-head voting structure encourages users to come back to your site each round, which is a fantastic way to drive site traffic. Check out our pre-made Best Thanksgiving Food Bracket turnkey for a quick and easy promotion.
Photo Contests
Whether you ask for pictures of family traditions or people with someone they want to thank, photo contests are a fun way to celebrate with your audience. Not only that, but these contests also provide a chance for your advertiser to align themselves with the community.
KITV-TV ran this fun Thanksgiving photo contest to celebrate with their island community. The station secured three businesses (vacuum brand, gas station, and a restaurant) to sponsor the campaign. They asked viewers to submit an ‘I’m thankful for…’ photos for a chance to win a prize from the sponsoring businesses.
Quizzes
A great way to engage your audience and drive advertiser revenue is through a personality and trivia quizzes. With creative questions and outcomes, quizzes are a surefire way to get your audience to share via social media. We have several Thanksgiving-themed quizzes like ‘Which Thanksgiving Food Are You?’ and ‘ Test Your Turkey Day Knowledge’ pre-made for you in our turnkey library.
Consider a quiz focusing on local Thanksgiving Day traditions for an excellent chance to partner with local tourist locations, museums, or other community-centered organizations.
Event Sign-Ups
Thanksgiving presents a cornucopia of virtual event opportunities to celebrate with your audience. Virtual events reach a targeted audience which is also great for your local advertisers to identify leads. Consider something like a cooking class, home decor demo, or virtual 5K “turkey trot”.
Polls
Polls are a fantastic way to enhance your holiday content. Ask your audience a Thanksgiving-themed question (or a series of questions). This could be as simple as a question about their plans, their traditions, or favorite foods!
WKYQ-TV used this poll to ask their viewers about their favorite Thanksgiving dish. The station even secured a local grocery store to sponsor the poll and utilized a gift card prize to encourage participation.
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Julie is the Senior Customer Success Manager at Second Street and a former client in local media. Her best advice for driving the most success with your revenue and audience engagement strategy is to include promotions in every business initiative.