Increase Fan Participation & Raise Awareness of the Southwest Gift Card
The main objectives of the #12DaysofLUV social campaign and contest were to tap into the love of Southwest fans to increase UGC submissions and create positive conversation in the social space. Secondarily, we were also asked to raise awareness of the Southwest gift card to ultimately increase sales.
Concept: #12DaysofLUV Social Contest Campaign
In 2015, Southwest asked Razorfish to help raise awareness of its Gift Card by re-igniting their popular 12 Days of LUV social contest in partnership with Dr Pepper during the season of giving.
Each of the first twelve days of December, fans were given unique, holiday-themed challenges to show their love for Southwest and Dr Pepper on Instagram and Facebook — all for the chance to win a one-thousand dollar gift card! The passion for the brand was overwhelming as almost a million fans showed their unabashed love for Southwest. From spirited pug pics to silly Santa snaps, this season of giving was truly full of love for the one airline with heart, Southwest.
Key Message
Share your love for Southwest and (you just might) get a whole lotta love back.
Strategy & Implementation
The creative had to work very hard and be very smart in the social space, given the short duration of the contest window and the limited media budget (only 5 of the 12 daily posts were promoted).
Smart Challenge Content
From a strategic content/messaging perspective, we kept the top performing challenge posts that had the most entries from the past which dictated that the challenges should be low effort and easy to participate. We also looked at existing, social-sharing behaviors, both broad and specific (ex: pets and #TBT), and matching level of challenge effort to day of week (ex: wear holiday pajamas on a Saturday).
Differentiating Campaign Imagery
The visual style had to stand out in fans' social feeds crowded with full-frame photography, so we created an iconic visual style that was on brand, fit the holiday theme, and was differentiating. Lastly, we made the most of our promoted posts by using motion design to create animated gifs to make the most of our media budget.
Focused Social Ecosystem
From a strategic media perspective, the contest ran on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We aggregated participation and commentary under #12DaysofLUV to extend the reach of the contest and fuel more conversation.
Branded Re-Engagement
Winning post images were tagged with an icon in the visual campaign style and reposted immediately to lend credibility to the contest and to increase conversation and engagement.
Fans Brought a Whole Lotta Love
So, did fans show their seasonal love for Southwest and Dr Pepper? You bet yer stockings they did! The results clearly exceeded objectives of increasing social engagement well as well as increasing awareness of the Southwest Gift Card.
Results in a nutshell:
• 1.5 million+ impressions to 918K unique people
• 218K social interactions with a 15% engagement rate
• By Day 3, #12DaysofLUV was trending on Instagram
• 187% increase in fan participation compared to previous years
• Strong increase in December gift card sales on Southwest.com
Beyond the successful numbers, #12DaysofLUV also showed that when you share the love with friends, you just might get a whole lotta love back.
