Mutt Madness
WKML-FM | Fayetteville, NC
*2021 Second Street Award – Best Voting Bracket Winner
Okay, I know we said voting brackets aren’t just for basketball… But, you’d be silly not to include a voting bracket this March! This is the second year for the WKML Mutt Madness bracket, and the results keep getting better. Last year’s sponsor was so pleased, the veterinary hospital signed up to sponsor it this year too. People are passionate about their pets (just ask us about our Second Street employee Bark Bracket!) and they will definitely reach out to friends and family to help their pooch make it to the next round. This bracket brought in over 5,200 votes and delivered $15,000 in revenue for the station.
ROH Bracket of Honor
Ring of Honor | Baltimore, MD
Ring of Honor, a professional wrestling program, wanted a way to generate fan engagement in light of the COVID lockdowns when their touring schedule had to be suspended temporarily. The bracket featured the top current and former ROH stars and fans really enjoyed it. The contest brought in 54,000 votes from over 3,370 unique voters. The bracket was a big success and the ROH team plans to host another in 2021.
Card of the Month Bracket
Creative Scrapbooker | Calgary, AB
From wrestlers to scrapbookers! The team Creative Scrapbooker jumped on the bracket bandwagon right when they launched and have done better and better each month. Their monthly brackets gather entries of homemade, scrapbooked greeting cards from their community on social media. These entrants are put into a monthly bracket where the winners are shared on their site. Their first bracket from April 2020 brought in 13,000 votes and their December 2020 bracket brought in 38,000 votes! Not only that, each month is adding 500+ NEW opt-ins to their email lists.
STL Sports Showdown
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | St. Louis, MO
At the beginning of the lockdown when sports were being canceled and postponed, the paper had an idea for a promotion that would engage fans who were missing their favorite sports teams. They built a bracket where the newsroom pitted local sports legends against each other. In addition, they ran corresponding articles to support the bracket entrants. They were able to secure a local catering company as the title sponsor. The bracket registration form included an email opt-in and lead-gen questions which generated valuable information for the sponsor.
Christmas Movie Bracket
WDIV-TV | Detroit, MI
The Christmas Movie bracket was perfect for the holiday season. Along with the bracket, the team created accompanying articles to promote the head-to-head competition. The campaign generated 47,000 pageviews in total and brought in over 75,000 votes. The team also added over 5,000 newsletter opt-ins – talk about a great Christmas gift!
Voting brackets are great for March, but don’t limit yourself to one month of brackets. Look at your strategy and see where you can add brackets in all year long
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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.