During the holiday season, the Zappos team lost their beloved Gingerbread Man who escaped from Las Vegas and ended up in Austin, TX. The only way they could find him was to enlist the help of one of America’s most social cities – Austin, TX. Local Austinites, armed with their mobile devices, were encouraged to join our social chase. Those consumers who spotted our Gingerbread Man around the city were asked to snap a picture and share his whereabouts on the hashtag #ZapposGingerbreadMan. These social actions equated to the capture of the Gingerbread man and participants were handsomely reward with Zappos gift cards. Zappos engaged one of America’s most social cities, with a call to action that enabled customers to do something they are already used to doing – being social! Zappos delivered holiday cheer, fun and a little weirdness with a Gingerbread Man hunt that was all routed via Twitter. 350 local consumers were rewarded for capturing the Gingerbread Man and sharing on the hashtag #ZapposGingerbreadMan. The social chatter and surround sound around this two-day event yielded 9.3 million impressions.
