Objectives

Concept:

With algorithms constantly changing on social platforms, Amazon Prime Student was looking for a way to engage organically with college students. The solution was to create a unique sweepstakes-style giveaway to excite fans on Instagram and encourage engagement. Winsday provided fans with a weekly opportunity to engage with the content in order to win highly-desirable, relevant prizes. Each prize was chosen to correspond with key moments and milestones that appealed directly to the college students throughout each season.

Goals:

Grow Brand Awareness:

By posting the giveaway consistently each week with an exciting new product, Prime Student fans were both encouraged to come back to visit the channel on a regular basis as well as consistently reminded of the depth and breadth of products available on Amazon.

Increase Brand Loyalty:

Offering prizes that specifically appeal to college students increased the chance for fans to engage with the post in order to win.

Increase Engagement:

In order to be entered for a chance to win the product, fans were required to comment on the post, leading to more opportunities for deeper engagement.

Strategy and Execution

Winsday was launched at the start of Back to School season, August, a key timeframe for the brand. Amazon Prime Student originally planned to run the contest for eight weeks, but due to the success of the promotion the initiative was extended to an ongoing program. Each week, Amazon products were chosen for the promotion and integrated into the overall weekly content produced for Amazon Prime Student. Products were chosen based on a variety of factors including seasonality, key college moments, campaign themes and trending items. Prizes include a hanging hammock chair during the beginning of September when students need to a cozy spot to study but want a stylish and on-trend solution. Another prize example was an Amazon Fire Stick around Halloween tied to favorite scary movies. The Fire Stick showcased not only an Amazon device, but also acted as a reminder of the Prime Video streaming benefit enjoyed by members. Showcasing a mix of products within Winsday allowed Prime Student to continually reinforce their brand message of Prime benefits and product selection without alienating their Gen Z audience. Creative was designed to stand out from other organic content posted to the channel. Product shots were added to the graphic template to ensure the prize was the primary focus of the image. The creative design was updated quarterly to correspond with the season and/or broader campaign design elements.

Results

Results:

A total of 35 Winsday giveaways were conducted resulting in:

• 1.1 million total organic reach on Instagram and Facebook
• 57K social engagements with a 5.7% engagement rate, which is 2.5 times the average brand engagement rate
• 2.6% follower increase

All results are organic, as no paid support or boosting was put behind the promotion.

The most engaging Winsday prize was a variety pack of water bottles from Hydro Flask which gardnered a 16% engagement rate. Some of our favorite comments from fans for this post included:

• "These would be so useful for long days with multiple classes 😱"
• "Dear @primestudent and @hydroflask, my sister is a struggling first yr college student…Pls give her a hydroflask so she doesn't dehydrate, pass out & miss her classes ;/ we don't want that, do we????!! Pls & thx."
• "OMG I've hear these are AMAZING! I didn't know there were this many sizes!!"

Rounding out the top-three most engaging posts was the Polaroid Cube – a mini lifestyle action camera with live streaming capabilities with an engagement rate of 8.4% and Cards Against Humanity with a 7% engagement rate.

Additional fun fan comments included below:

"This is the chair I never knew I needed…"

"OMG we need to win for Friday!! Tag the Squad!"

"I've been telling everyone how much I want one of these 🤞🏼"

Media