Promote Stories, Not Ads: How Iowa State Sold Tickets with a Scratch and Win Contest for Fans
When your marketing team is tasked with selling tickets, it's tempting to do the obvious. You'll craft great creative, find the perfect target and publish a "Buy Tickets Now" ad campaign. Will it sell tickets? Possibly. Will it be the best possible fan experience? Let's be honest -
Together with Tradable Bits, Mary Pink (Associate Athletics Director for Marketing for Iowa State Athletics) and her team developed a new type of Instant Win Engagement Campaign for their fans. Cyclone fans “scratched” the contest on their device to reveal their result. It was a satisfying adaptation of a familiar physical experience, brought into the digital realm. In less than 10 seconds, the fans knew whether they won a free ticket or not.
“The game was not only fun for fans to play, it eliminated the ‘waiting period’ that plagues most contests. As fans wait for their result, they lose interest until they forget completely. It’s all too common for winner notification emails to die in Promotions inboxes - so Instant Win was our solution.”
Fans came in the thousands to see if they'd win. They shared the campaign with friends to increase their odds of winning. The simple contest exposed the Cyclones to over 700,000 qualified leads, ready to target on Facebook. It generated thousands of complete fan profiles for everyone who participated. Armed with this data, the Cyclones can now improve their targeting and fan experience.
Iowa State wanted a better way to boost sales.
The challenge: how do we sell tickets, without promoting ticket sales?
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Case Study