Create your own promotions marketing powerhouse leveraging core media, digital assets, social media, and email
The classic line, “If you build it, they will come,” isn’t necessarily true for your engagement campaigns. Building a great promotion or piece of interactive content is only half the battle. You need to put just as much (if not more) effort into marketing your campaign to ensure that it reaches a large audience.
Even if your brand is well-known and has a large following, marketing your promotion still has to be one of your top priorities. Take the 2016 Summer Games for example. This is a huge event (honestly huge may be an understatement!) In 2012, more than 900 million people tuned in to watch the Opening Ceremonies.
Yet, NBCUniversal began its marketing campaign for the 2016 Games over a year in advance. John Miller, Chief Marketing Officer for the NBC Sports Group, explains his strategy, “We never take [marketing] for granted, because you do not get a second chance.”
How do you make sure that you are marketing your campaigns to the fullest extent?
Alyx Sherwood is the Sales Promotions Coordinator for WHAM-TV out of Rochester, NY. Alyx’s team has really been able to leverage all of the marketing best practices for their promotions with a local auto dealer – and they’re seeing some powerful results.
Last Summer WHAM-TV worked with Bob Johnson Chevrolet on a sweepstakes giving away a 2-year lease on a new car. The codeword sweepstakes was a big success, delivering 72 hot leads to the advertiser and bringing in over $12,000 for their station.
The advertiser was thrilled and anxious to sign on for another promotion, and February’s Malibu Madness was born. This was a big win for the station as this was incremental revenue from the auto dealer, and the team set out to surpass their previous results.
Marketing on Core Media
Alyx knew they could really step up their game when it came to the new edition of their sweepstakes. First, Alyx helped develop a 6-step marketing plan leveraging core media:
- They had their on-air talent announce the daily keywords. They also clearly provided the website to go to enter the contest.
- Fifteen second ads were also run during their programming.
- WHAM-TV also create radio spot ads like the one below. These followed the same script as the tv spot ads, but were customized to better fit a radio style.
- They placed print and online ads for the contest with the local penny saver.
- And, one of my favorite parts: They did a live reveal of the winner (how fun!) The WHAM-TV talent loved getting to talk about this on-air.
- They also did a thank-you video prominently featuring the advertiser, the winner, and advertising their next upcoming contest with the auto dealer.
Marketing on Digital Assets
In addition to their core media, WHAM-TV leveraged their digital assets to drive more awareness. This included:
- ROS banner ads
- Video pre-roll ad before web videos
- Interactive video ads
- Sliding billboard ad
- Pencil pushdown ad
- Static 300×100 ad
Marketing on Social Media
Social media also played a strong role. They were sure to tag the advertiser in their Twitter Posts and include a direct link of where to enter the contest.
To maximize their Facebook Posts, they asked their audience a question. This is a great way to help drive engagement with your postings.
Marketing on Email
But their strongest marketing results came from email. And this would not have been as successful had WHAM-TV decided to prioritize growing their email database.
Previously they had not been including email opt-ins for the station, but they started including one on every promotion they ran. This way, when they started the new sweepstakes, they were already sending to a much bigger list.
WHAM-TV sent out an announcement email on the day the contest started. They even included the first codeword to make sure it was easy for people to get involved and start entering.
Additionally, they sent out a thank-you email to all participants. This included details on how to find a bonus codeword and how to watch for the winners. Plus, they also included a call-to-action directing users back to the advertiser’s page.
All of their hard work paid off and was noticed almost immediately. Receiving a total of 2,147 entries, this second contest had a 74% increase in users.
Within the first few hours of the contest, it was clear their results were quickly going to surpass that of the previous contest. During the first week, they received more votes than the entire first contest combined.
Alyx and WHAM-TV were blown away by the results of their sweepstakes and are already preparing for their next installment. While they did an outstanding job, they’re hoping to outdo themselves again with the next one. And they know that prioritizing the best marketing tactics are the way to get them there.
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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.