Everyone thinks that the key to a successful enter-to-win contest is a great prize, right? Give the fans something they want to win and they'll sign up. Well, we had a great prize: a trip to Sweden to see our NHL Global Series games live! Generating leads for KeyBank would be easy.
But only generating leads was not the goal. Only generating leads was not enough.
We wanted to create a contest that was more than just a contest. We wanted to create something that would create buzz, spur excitement and engage with Avalanche fans. We wanted something that had never been done.
There are three things you should know:
1. Everyone loves our Swedish Captain, Gabe Landeskog.
2. Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson are incredibly competitive.
3. Gabe, Tyson and Erik are always hilarious in front of the camera.
And that's exactly why we chose them for this campaign.
We launched our campaign in two parts: (1) enter-to-win promotion, and (2) game show performance.
First, we promoted the contest. Enter to win a trip to Sweden to see our NHL Global Series games live, Avs fans! Just fill out this simple form… But there's a catch: you have to choose if you are #TeamBarrie or #TeamJohnson. Fans had two days to sign up and decide before the game show launched.
We used graphics that promoted the contest as a whole and graphics that promoted Team Johnson and Team Barrie individually. We used teaser videos to show fans what the game show would be like. We used goofy GIFs from the competition to showcase Gabe, Tyson and Erik's personalities.
We wanted to make fans choose a side – with urgency – because we wanted them to be invested in the contest. Fans couldn't just enter their email address and wait to see if they got an email back telling them they won. Fans had to choose a side and then wait for the game show to unfold.
Second, we launched the game show in five parts over five days. Each day featured a different competition between the players: Sweden trivia, speaking Swedish, Swedish music, Swedish landmarks, and catching Swedish fish in their mouths.
The idea behind each round was to highlight the competitive nature of Tyson and Erik while also showing off Gabe's goofy personality. By demonstrating their knowledge – or lack of knowledge – about all things Swedish, Tyson and Erik proved to be hilarious, while Gabe could not stop laughing. These traits are what Avs fans love about the players, so the goal was to capitalize on the goofiness.
We posted each round differently on each social media platform: short clips on Twitter, a long video on Facebook, and through photos on Instagram. The short clips on Twitter were easy to watch, retweet and comment on. The long video on Facebook felt like a fun TV show. The photos on Instagram captured the hilarity.
During each round we kept score, using the #TeamBarrie and #TeamJohnson hashtags. Fans used these hashtags, too, which made it easier to engage with them. We even started a #TeamGabe hashtag for when his hosting ability was second-to-none (which was quite often).
We created a buzz around the KeyBank Sweden Fly Away for a week on our social and digital platforms. The winner, after #TeamBarrie won the competition, was announced on social media. We followed up with photos of the winners and Tyson in Sweden during a meet-and-greet.
This was our most successful campaign ever, in terms of reach and leads generated.
We posted 62 times about the KeyBank Sweden Fly Away It reached 2.3 million people and garnered 18,200 engagements on social media.
We generated over 7,000 leads for KeyBank.
But most importantly, we had the hockey community abuzz about the Avs in the middle of September, when the hockey world is normally relatively quiet. Fans from across the league were talking about the NHL Global Series games. They were marveling at the goofy personalities of Gabe, Tyson and Erik.
At the end of the season, this was nominated as Best Team Video in the NHL Social Awards.
We far surpassed our goals and this campaign is now the benchmark for our other contests and sponsored campaigns.
