Sweepstakes Drives $75K for Paper + 35K Emails for Advertiser

by Jamie Kinnaird BH Media Group

Case Study Highlights

  • Newspaper generated $75,000 in revenue
  • Outlet mall received over 35,000 email addresses
  • Due to success, outlet mall continued to run promotions with newspaper

The Idea

The Omaha World Herald, part of BH Media Group, is a 157,000 (Sunday) circulation daily newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska. We have been running online contests for over three years.

NEX Outlets was opening in Omaha and wanted to quickly build up a database of email address and mobile phone numbers, as well as generate a large amount of exposure for their brands before their grand opening. Originally NEX Outlets planned to accomplish this by running a contest on their own. They then realized partnering with a trusted source like the Omaha World-Herald would increase their reach and overall effectiveness of their promotion.

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The Execution

We ran a sweepstakes on Omaha.com that gave away a $1,000 shopping spree each week to NEX Outlets for the ten weeks leading up to their grand opening. To enter, readers submitted their email address and a mobile phone number. Each Friday, a winner was selected.

The contest was heavily promoted using an integrated print and online campaign. Half page ads and section fronts as well as run-of-site online ad impressions and e-mail blasts were included in the campaign.

The collaboration between the newsroom and promotions team helped make this promotion a success. When any article covering the outlet mall’s opening was published online, it included a link to the contest’s submission form. The newsroom also helped promote the sweepstakes by posting links to the contest on Facebook.

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The Results

The giveaway generated $75,000 in revenue and cash giveaways for the Omaha World-Herald. Over 80,000 total submissions were received over 10 weeks, with about 35,000 coming from new and unique e-mail addresses that NEX Outlets received.

Due to the success of this promotion, NEX Outlets has continued to run promotions with the World-Herald. For example, they were the exclusive sponsor of the following year’s March Fever bracket challenge.

Why it Worked

  • NEX Outlets offered a prize that generated enough excitement that readers were willing to give up their contact information.
  • The promotion was heavily promoted through an integrated print and online campaign.
  • The newsroom and promotions team worked together to make this campaign a success.

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The Omaha World-Herald‘s Win $1,000 from NEX Outlets contest won the 2013 Second Street Award for Best Sweepstakes.

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