It’s one thing to build your Facebook fan base with a killer promotion. It’s quite another to maintain the buzz outside Facebook months after the promo wraps. One Bulbstorm client – Ruiz Foods’ Tornados snack brand – is closing the marketing loop between the virtual and physical worlds.
A promotion that began with over 600,000 interactions on Facebook ends this week with a family’s Tornados-branded van driving 1,500 miles to park prominently in the infield at Daytona International Speedway. That’s right. A family van covered in Tornados branding will be parked front and center at Daytona during a race that drew 115,000 ticket holders and 5.3 million television viewers last year.
As we write this post, Tornados fans Chris and Susan Edman of Minnesota are packing their three kids into the family van and heading for NASCAR’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. The van will be skinned like the No. 39 Tornados racecar driven by Ryan Newman. The Edmans earned the opportunity – and $1,000 spending money – by winning the Tornados Skin It to Win It Challenge on Facebook. Chris managed to keep the victory a secret for nearly two months. He finally revealed the news – and the skinned minivan – over the weekend. Here’s video of the skinning process and the surprise unveiling.
The Edmans were the grand prize winners of the Tornados Skin It to Win It Challenge, which asked Facebook fans to nominate their vehicle to be wrapped/skinned like the No. 39 Tornados racecar. The promotion was hosted on the Tornados fan page on Facebook using Bulbstorm’s Idea Challenges application for Facebook promotions. On Facebook alone, the promotion generated the following metrics:
- 182,092,217 brand impressions
- 632,102 active interactions
- 221,512 votes and comments
- 20,076 new fans
- 2,471 user submissions
Those numbers are only the beginning. A PR-friendly road trip and a prime position in the center of the NASCAR universe await. Now, thanks to integration with offline elements, the promotion will only get bigger.
Author: Matt Simpson
