People trust family and friends, and Vancouver-based Coast Capital Savings counted on that with its first Facebook contest.
“You’re the Boss of this Contest,” developed by Rethink Vancouver with social outreach by Peak Communicators, allowed Canadians to pick their prize and explain why they deserved the chosen items, ranging from a sofa to a childproof kitchen. The 10 best weekly entries were chosen by judges while the overall winner was decided by Coast Capital’s Facebook fans.
“There’s a great conversation that could happen online around simple financial help and we’re looking at social media as a strategy to enable that,” says Lawrie Ferguson, chief marketing and PR officer, Coast Capital Savings.
The goal was to grow the brand’s Facebook fan base to 2,000, and it hit 6,000 during the contest, with 781 entries, 4,453 votes, and 43,927 page views tallied.
The major challenge, says Dale Tournemille, Coast Capital e-marketing manager, was Facebook disallowing the use of the “Like” button during contests, forcing Coast Capital to modify theirs. Coast also learned to be ready for negativity, particularly from sore contest losers, but overall is now a social media fan, with more ad spend earmarked for similar endeavours.