A new social media campaign by Walgreens allows the brand’s social ‘fans’ to help provide more than $6 million in flu shot vouchers (about 200,000 vouchers total). The campaign will run on both Facebook and Foursquare, where fans can help donate free flu shot vouchers to their choice out of five national charities, including the American Diabetes Association, AmeriCares, Feeding America, League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Urban League.
Walgreens has over 1.1 million fans on Facebook, and a following of nearly 72,000 on Foursquare (the largest following of any chain drugstore retailer on this platform, according to the Walgreens blog).
How can the brand’s social media fans participate in this campaign?
One flu shot voucher is donated to the general ‘pool’ of vouchers every time someone checks in to a Walgreens location on Foursquare or Facebook Places, from September 9th until October 8th.
Any fans visiting the Walgreens Facebook page can then vote for the organization they would like to receive the most flu shot vouchers, out of the five listed above. Each of the five organizations will receive vouchers, but they will be allocated incrementally based on the votes received for each organization via Facebook. The charity receiving the most votes will get 30% of the vouchers, 2nd place will get 25%, third gets 20%, and so on.
“This program gives people a unique opportunity to have a voice as part of our mission to help everyone in America stay well throughout the [flu] season,” says Kim Feil, Walgreens chief marketing officer. The vouchers will be distributed to those who are uninsured, underinsured, or unable to afford a flu shot.
Will Walgreens social media fans step up on Facebook and Foursquare to donate the maximum amount of flu shot vouchers? The company has carefully chosen the social media platforms where it has the largest presence, and is promoting this campaign for good as being strongly aligned with their brand values – Walgreens already “offers the greatest access to flu shots” nationwide, according to the company blog.
The Walgreens blog also reports that the company has provided an additional 20,000 vouchers for $10 flu shots as a base donation to each participating organization (for distribution to qualified individuals).
