Best List-Builder Campaigns of 2018

Sauk Valley Athlete of the Week – Sauk Valley Media

*2018 Second Street Award – Best List-Builder Campaign Winner

Sauk Valley Media proved you don’t have to giveaway a large prize to get results with this great engagement campaign. Their new Athlete of the Week ballot utilized community recognition as a driver of participation and list growth. With more than 1,000 votes each week, Sauk Valley Media saw a 2,900% increase to their newsletter audience in just over eight weeks and was able to convert these results into subscriber revenue. Read more here.

Publix Holiday Sweepstakes – WSB-TV

To grow their email list, a local grocery store chain hosted a sweepstakes giving away a $1,250 gift card to one lucky entrant. They also offered  $150 gift cards to an additional 25 participants. The mass appeal of the prize provided the opportunity for big audience growth and resulted in 27,000+ entries and over 11,000 opt-ins for the station.

Good Day Snow Day Giveaway Powered By Toro – WLUK-TV

WLUK, local station 11, gave away a Toro snowblower each day for 11 days on their morning show, Good Day Wisconsin. The sweepstakes collected valuable info and newsletter opt-ins for the station and drove watch time as the contest required viewers to watch the morning show each day and call-in if their name was announced as the winner on-air. The contest received over 71,000 total contest entries (a WLUK record,) nearly 13,000 opt-ins for the station’s two newsletters, and almost $7,000 in revenue for the station.

Chicago’s Merry Own – WGN

WGN invested in a large-scale holiday-themed sweepstakes with BIG prizes (tickets to Blue Man Group, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Harlem Globetrotters, and more) to grow their existing database and their new birthday club list. This range of extremely valuable prizes allowed WGN to attract a large and diverse group of users. They received 33,000+ entries from over 14,000 people and added over 20,000 opt-ins to their new birthday list.

List-building should be high on your priorities as a local media company. Make sure you’re leveraging contests and interactive content to engage your audience, build your database, and enhance your email strategy.