Leading up to the third season of "My Big Redneck Vacation," Country Music Television approached Carrot Creative looking for a way to drive viewers to watch the season premiere. To amass interest, Carrot wanted to offer the ultimate viewing experience for the show's fans. Our idea: My Big Redneck Recliner. We imagined and created a chair that fans of the show would want to watch the whole season in - complete with redneck characteristics such as mudflaps, antlers, a cooler, a blaring truck horn, a 6mph top speed and more. We then created a Facebook-based contest that invited fans to name this one of a kind chair and, in turn, made our custom branded content our prize. The My Big Redneck Recliner Facebook application lived on the show’s fan page where people could explore the chair's features and name the throne. By inviting fans to name the chair, we allowed them to become a part of "Redneck" history in a tangible, experiential way while promoting CMT’s series. The naming contest attracted contenders such as Freedom Farter, Chair Force One, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, The Papa Bear Lazy Chair, Cruisin' for a Brew Son and Louisiana Lounger. After a short 11 days, we collected over 9000 name submissions from over 5000 unique users. CMT and Carrot then decided on the top five submissions and invited Facebook users to vote on their favorite. To drive participants and fans to tune into the premiere, the winner of My Big Redneck Recliner’s naming contest was announced on air during the show’s first episode on Saturday, January 26th at 9PM CT. After over 2000 votes were cast, the winning name for the recliner, and our custom content, officially became: "The R.A.T. (Redneck All Terrain) Vehicle." The campaign was a success; it drove pre-show engagement, attracted viewing numbers for the premiere that exceeded the station’s goal, and provided a vehicle for the brand to utilize when promoting the show on Facebook, TV and across the web. See more about the campaign here.
