Objective: GrubHub was one of the earliest brand adopters of Snapchat and joined the platform in August 2013 with the objective of reaching and engaging Snapchat's core audience – a demographic that has been steadily moving away from traditional social media platforms.
Strategy: One of the primary tactics in reaching this audience is engaging them with innovative contests, which ultimately drove word-of-mouth and new follower growth. In 2014, GrubHub launched #SnapHunt, a week-long scavenger hunt contest. Each day for one week, GrubHub posted a new challenge in a Snapchat story for followers to complete for a shot at $50 in free takeout. Challenges included tasks such as spotting a GrubHub employee in a brownie costume in a "Where's Waldo" style image, snapping their food persona and sharing a talented food doodle. The contest was so successful after the debut that it was brought back for the second time later on in 2014, much to the excitement of the GrubHub followers.
Outcome: In both contests, more than 30 percent of the GrubHub Snapchat followers participated and there was a 20 percent increase in followers during the two contests.
At the time of the first #SnapHunt launch in March 2014, GrubHub was the first and only brand to host an integrated Snapchat contest and still remains as the only brand to host a week-long contest on the platform.
What is #SnapHunt?
Each day for one week, GrubHub posted a new story with a challenge for followers to take on for a chance at $50 in free takeout. GrubHub posted a new challenge each morning with the winner submissions from the previous challenge. Winners were selected for each challenge, every day throughout the week. Daily challenges included various calls to action including:
- Spotting a GrubHub food suit in a crowded city scene snap
- Snapping a photo of yourself and doodling to share your food persona
- Doodling on top of the GrubHub Food Suit dance action scene snap
- Sending the best "Hangry Face" snap
- Bringing food to life from photos to doodled snaps
Why is #SnapHunt Unique?
Many of the challenges posted made use of features that brands had not yet taken advantage of and ranged from very simple – show your best food doodle – to testing how fast GrubHub followers could screenshot an image. Throughout the contest, GrubHub placed an emphasis on taking advantage of all features the platform had to offer - screenshots, chats, filters, text overlays, doodles – in order to deliver the most innovative, integrated and entertaining contest experience any brand ever had on the Snapchat.
The Results
Though stories only last 24 hours, there was still time allowed for each challenge to spread organically through word-of-mouth. The result was a network effect of followers participating, talking about the contest and inviting friends to participate the following day. GrubHub organically grew their Snapchat user base by 20 percent and had a third of their total Snapchat audience participate throughout the contest. Most importantly, GrubHub successfully reached a college-age target that is often times difficult, or near impossible to reach through traditional social media. As a result, #SnapHunt drew strong positive word of mouth and industry praise from Digiday, Mobile Marketer and Mashable as a brand first on Snapchat, as well as earning more than 1.5 million organic social impressions.
