Corner Store

Purpose

CST Brands partnered with Coca-Cola for a campaign they hoped would increase sales and brand recognition for CST’s more than 1,000 Corner Store market locations.

Plan

Corner Store wanted to combine all the fun and viral benefits of a User Generated Content (UGC) contest and social media hashtags with the simplicity of a Sweepstakes for 100 days.

The idea was for people to enter the contest by celebrating the hero in their life. At the time, Coca-Cola was labeling their cans and bottles with people’s names. This was an ideal match for Corner Store and Coca-Cola. Customers who walked into a Corner Store location would then snap a selfie with a Coke bottle (that had the name of a personal hero) they planned to purchase and post on their Instagram or Twitter accounts with the hashtag #ShareAHero. Each valid post would earn a Sweepstakes entry for the user.

Since the submissions were posted on users’ Instagram or Twitter accounts the potential virality of the campaign was immense as the posts would be on the social media feeds of friends and family. To expand contest entry methods the plan also included a standalone microsite and presence on Corner Store’s Facebook page for people who did not own an Instagram or Twitter account.

To further increase the viral buzz, people were allowed to post/submit an unlimited number of times during the promotion period, thus, increasing their chances of winning. Prizes in the form of $100 Corner Store gift cards would be awarded via daily random drawings for one hundred days.

Solution

Contest Factory built an intelligent, integrated UGC and Sweepstakes system that scanned Instagram and Twitter every few minutes for the #ShareAHero hashtag, converted them into official contest submissions which were then moderated by Contest Factory’s moderation team before being published on the standalone microsite’s gallery page.

Entries from Instagram, Twitter and via the standalone microsite were tracked in sortable reports using Contest Factory’s proprietary Viral DNA analytics software allowing for accurate daily accounting of all eligible entries and winner selections.

Result

The Share a Hero Sweepstakes was a hit, with big submission numbers giving Corner Store a boost in store traffic, brand recognition and likability. Customers found the Sweepstakes easy to enter, and the client was very satisfied with their experience.