Case Study Highlights
- Contest now in its fifth-year running
- 88% increase in entries since first year
- Generated $7,500 for station
- Collected nearly 2,000 emails
The Idea
KTUU-TV, a part of Schurz Communications, is a DMA 148 television station in Anchorage, Alaska. The station began running online contests in 2011.
In Alaska, there is always a mad scramble to get summer tires swapped out for snow tires before the winter begins. Usually, the first snowfall is the boost the procrastinators need to finally get into the shop and have their tires changed.
KTUU decided to take advantage of this trend with a Guess Anchorage’s First Snowfall contest. The contest seemed to be a perfect fit for their sponsor, Alaska Tire Service – a local tire and service shop.
Now that they’re entering their fifth-year running the contest, they’re always looking for ways to increase engagement and increase the value to Alaska Tire Service who’s signed up to be the exclusive sponsor year after year.
The Execution
To enter the contest, viewers guess the date of the first snowfall of the year and how much snow there would be. To avoid an ambiguous situation with no clear winner, KTUU adopted a 3-tiered approach when judging the guesses.
- The date of the winning guess must correspond with the date of the first snowfall.
- In the event of a tie, the guess closest to the recorded amount of snow wins.
- In the event of a second tie, the earlier guess wins (no entries made within the 72 hours prior to the first snowfall are eligible).
The grand prize winner received a set of snow tires from Alaska Tire Service (an $800 value). The 2nd place winner received a $100 gift certificate to Alaska Tire Service and 4 tickets to see a local production of The Nutcracker. The 3rd place winner received a free changeover from regular to snow tires from Alaska Tire Service and a $100 gift card to The Pepper Mill, a local steakhouse.
The contest sponsorship package included elements from the KTUU mobile site, the website, and on-air mentions. This includes all of the following:
- 50,000 ad impressions on the news app
- 50,000 ad impressions on the weather app
- 100,000 728×90 ROS ad impressions
- Dynamic ads on homepage (bottom of the screen without scroll escape)
- 85 :15 on-air spots
- KTUU Key meteorologist introduces the contest on air
To increase engagement, KTUU promotes heavily on their Facebook. This one post announcing the most recent contest had over 100 shares and more than 160 comments!
Their sponsor also posts about the contest on their Facebook Page as well.
The Results
This annual contest generates an additional $7,500 in revenue for KTUU-TV on top of an existing online branding buy.
And as far as engagement goes, the contest is growing exponentially! Just last year, the contest drove more than 3,200 entries and generated nearly 2,000 email opt-ins for the sponsor and KTUU.
This annual contest has become a great tradition for KTUU and the sponsor – they look forward to many snowy years to come.
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Liz is the Senior Director of Customer Success and has an extensive background in media. She is a huge advocate of the power of promotions for every department within an organization, including sales, marketing, audience development, and editorial.