Whitecaps + Sweepstakes

CHALLENGE

The Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team has a loyal subscriber base of season tickets holders, but wanted to increase its exposure and broaden sales beyond its existing audience.

For its 2014 season tickets renewal campaign, the Whitecaps’ goal was to expand its reach to friends of existing fans, and, ultimately, increase the uptake on new sales.

SOLUTION + STRATEGY

Whitecaps Strength in Numbers sweepstakes

The Whitecaps’ Strength in Numbers campaign promoted a 12% discount on season tickets for a period of 12 days. Its accompanying sweepstakes, designed to amplify the promotion, involved a draw for a Whitecaps suite for one lucky winner plus 12 friends.

The catch? Social sharing was at the heart of this campaign. By working together, fans could unlock additional prizes the more they shared the promotion in their social media channels—strength in numbers indeed. While a minimum of 1,000 social media shares would unlock the main prize, every additional 200 shares added new prizes to the suite, including a photo taken at centre pitch, snacks, branded and autographed merchandise, a catered meal, a locker room tour and a visit from a Whitecaps player. To win the full bounty, participant shares on social media had to reach 3,400. At the end of the promotion, a winner was randomly drawn from among all entrants.

Whitecaps Strength in Numbers sweepstakes promoted social sharing

The Whitecaps used Strutta’s social media sweepstakes functionality to:

  • set up a fully branded sweepstakes,
  • customize sharing messages for targeted social media channels,
  • track the number of shares with our advanced analytics tools,
  • monitor the highest performing tweets to be used as paid “promoted tweets” for the campaign.

Strutta also created a custom share counter to track the total number of social shares as the campaign progressed. Making the total shares visible on the homepage of the promotion motivated participants to continue sharing the contest with their social media channels to move up the prizing ladder.

RESULTS

In just two weeks’ time the promotion garnered:

  • 2,544 entries
  • 2,818 shares
  • 11,470 click-throughs from shares
  • an additional 62.5% visits due to social sharing
  • an average of 4.5 clicks for every shared link

The Whitecaps Strength in Numbers winner bought season tickets

And the kicker? The winner of the Whitecaps prize suite was not a season ticket holder, but ended up purchasing several season tickets as a result of his win.