Objectives

The Girl Scout Cookie Program is about much more than purchasing a box of treats. It's creating a lifetime of confidence in each Girl Scout as she learns the five skills – goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics – that are essential to leadership, success, and life. Through a national Girl Scout recipe contest (the first ever!), Girl Scouts of the USA set out to engage consumers in the Girl Scout Cookie sale, leverage the incredible power of user-generated content (UGC), while benefitting the Girl Scout mission of building more girls of courage, confidence, and character. To drive this integrated campaign, we utilized social media, web, email marketing, and PR/earned media – ultimately increasing brand awareness and driving national cookie sales.

Strategy and Execution

Consumers were asked to get creative and whip up fun, delicious dessert recipes using Girl Scout Cookies in the ingredient mix. The recipes (UGC entries) were submitted through a microsite. The finalists were then narrowed down by Taste of Home (our contest partner) chefs who tested and selected the top 16 recipes. Each final recipe were cross-promoted via our social channels with Taste of Home using CTAs asking the public to vote to determine the winners for best recipes. Four winners [one for each category: (1) cakes, pies, cupcakes, (2) cookies, brownies, bars, (3) pudding, ice cream, gelatin desserts, and (4) candies] won prizes ranging from $250 to $500 in addition to a spotlight feature in the Taste of Home magazine (increasing visibility of the contest).

The following tactics were implemented to promote this contest :

• Developed cobranded marketing materials for contest promotions.
• Created a contest microsite to collect UGC (recipes) and drive traffic to our Cookie Finder app and webpage.
• Worked with our legal team to ensure ownership of the 16 final recipes to develop our very first online recipe hub – driving a new audience to the Girl Scout website and Pinterest page. *This tactic allowed GSUSA to source delicious Girl Scout Cookie recipes with the potential to publish them in a Girl Scout Cookie Cookbook, supporting a broader merchandising strategy.
• Managed a strong social media campaign that hit all of our platforms – Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest – receiving over 3M impressions.
• Released a blog series to announce the contest, call for entries, and encourage consumers to vote for their favorite recipes.
• Filmed a behind-the-scenes video of Girl Scouts joining top chefs in the Taste of Home test kitchen and was used to promote the voting phase of the contest.
• Launched PR strategy that received over 385M impressions, including a spot on The Today Show. Plus additional placements in both national and local print, digital, and on-air outlets.
• Drafted Turn-key campaign toolkits that included branded graphics, sample tweets, Facebook messaging, pitch letters, and fliers to empower our 112 council affiliates to amplify campaign promotions at the local level.

Results

Entries: More than 550

Finalists: 16

Votes: 12,264 votes

Social Impressions: 3,910,291

PR Impressions: 385,711,250

Media Value: $1,018,532

Helping Girls Make the World a Better Place: Priceless

Media