To celebrate the launch of the new American Professional Series of guitars and basses, Fender wanted to engage its fan base, create buzz and showcase the breadth of the new product line.
Goals included:
•Raise awareness about the launch of the new guitar line and its 92 SKUs
•Highlight features of the products – sparking consumer interest
•Drive trial of the product and traffic into retailers to try out the guitars in stores
•Increase brand loyalty
•Attract new electric guitar players and fans
•Learn about our audience and test multiple modes of entry for future giveaways
Fender launched a 92-day Fender Pro Sweepstakes (to represent the 92 SKUs in the American Professional series). Every day, for 92 days, there was a new way to enter the sweepstakes, a new winner, and a new American Professional-inspired prize.
- Prizes included items large and small, but all were unique to something only a brand like Fender could provide. Prizes were also unique and interesting enough to keep fans engaged throughout the entire sweepstakes. Some prizes included: a trip to Jimmy Kimmel to watch his house band and Jimmy Vivino perform, a private Skype guitar lesson with Kenny Wayne Shephard, a signed Fender guitar by Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco, a signed strap and Joshua Tree album from The Edge (of U2).
- To enter, fans needed to follow Fender on as many social channels as possible (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube) in order to find the daily prompt. All of the prompts either: drove to retail, gave detail about the product or amplified the "Raise Your Voice" messaging/theme.
- At the end of the promotion there was one grand prize winner who was awarded an American Professional Experience – a trip to Los Angeles to visit the Fender Factory, their choice of an American Professional Guitar and a VIP trip to the FYF Festival.
- Due to Fender's global audience, the sweepstakes was international and winners were selected from this list of eligible countries: United States, Canada (excluding Quebec), United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan.
Execution:
- Fender announced the sweepstakes across all Fender social channels and used a modest budget to boost posts and ensure that fans likely to be interested were aware of the campaign.
- In addition, Fender capitalized on the relationship with each of the artists providing prizes and encouraged them to share the sweepstakes (which resulted in artists engaging their fans, as well).
- Throughout the sweepstakes Fender experimented with different types of prompts and various ways to engage fans across channels. As the team gathered data on what worked, we adjusted our prompts based on learnings to increase entries as the sweepstakes went on.
- The team gathered data about our audience by asking questions such as, "How old were you when you got your first guitar?" and "What is your favorite feature on the new telecaster?"
- The team also educated fans about the product line by asking them questions about the series, such as "Comment below with a haiku about the new American Professional Series." This encouraged fans to visit the product description pages for the series and truly learn about the product.
- We tapped into our audience's creativity by encouraging them to draw photos, write poems and make videos that represent their relationship to Fender.
- We also drove consumers into stores by asking them to send back photos and videos of them with various American Professional guitars.
The team successfully engaged the Fender fan base to build excitement for the new product line, increased followers across social channels and built good will with fans. As a bonus, the team gathered valuable data about our audience, their experiences playing guitar and their purchasing behavior – which ultimately optimized ongoing marketing strategy.
There were nearly 105K entries throughout the sweepstakes with more than 1 million engagements on posts, reaching 26 million impressions. This was one of the brand's most engaging and far-reaching campaigns to date. As evidenced by the entrants, the sweepstakes also achieved the goal of reaching a younger, more female and more diverse new audience set.
In addition, the brand's social channels increased by more than 235K followers during the 92 day period, increasing the brand's long-term fan reach.
The sweepstakes drove more than 122K unique visitors to Fender.com where they clicked off of the campaign site and explored the site. The landing page was the most trafficked page on Fender.com in 2017.
We saw more than 1K entrants sending us photos, videos or Snapchats trying out the new guitars or basses in store! We also saw many of our retailer associates commenting that customers came in asking for the product because they heard about it via the sweepstakes.
Overall sentiment was very positive, with fans ending the sweepstakes by thanking the brand for the opportunity to participate and becoming even more brand-loyal.
