From College Guide to Scholarship Success: How One Sweepstakes Drove 25% Sponsor Growth

The Idea

The Michigan College Guide has been a long-standing sponsor of the Detroit Free Press, but until this campaign, contesting had not been part of their advertising strategy. To elevate their annual college guide, they decided to introduce a scholarship sweepstakes as a value-add within their advertising package.

The goal was to pair a trusted, high-interest incentive—a $500 scholarship—with a multi-tactical sponsorship strategy that would boost engagement, collect lead data, and deliver measurable value beyond traditional advertising.

The Execution

The Detroit Free Press team launched a sweepstakes promoting the $500 Michigan College Guide Scholarship, featuring both the Michigan College Guide along its participating sponsors.

The sweepstakes was designed with strong brand alignment in mind, incorporating graphics that highlighted the Michigan College Guide, its benefits, and clear calls to action. Multiple click-through opportunities encouraged users to explore the guide and learn more about sponsor offerings.

Because the promotion ran for two months, the team implemented a robust email strategy to keep the sweepstakes top of mind. A total of ten invite emails were sent throughout the entry period, ensuring repeated exposure and giving audiences multiple opportunities to enter and share with friends.

The registration form itself played a critical role in driving advertiser value. In addition to standard demographic fields, the form included:

• A sponsor opt-in
• Social media follows
• Lead-generating, data-collection questions tailored to the sponsors’ marketing needs

This approach delivered actionable first-party data—insights that traditional advertising alone could not provide.

The Results

By adding the sweepstakes to its advertising package, the Detroit Free Press helped foster meaningful, measurable engagement between the Michigan College Guide and its target audience. The campaign unlocked a rich source of first-party data, enabling smarter audience segmentation and future marketing efforts.

Following the promotion, the Michigan College Guide reported a 25% increase in revenue year-over-year, attributing that growth directly to the addition of a sweepstakes promotion to their advertising package.

Overall, the Detroit Free Press generated $50,000 in revenue from the package and reaffirmed the power of promotions, noting that “when you add a promotion, campaign results are automatically—and tangibly—better.”