Better Homes and Gardens, Allrecipes.com and Campbell’s Soups have all turned to Pinterest for their “Best Thanksgiving Ever” promotion. Meredith – the company behind Better Homes and Gardens and Allrecipes.com – created the reader-driven Pinterest sweepstakes to “interact with readers, support partners and boost traffic and engagement metrics,” reports Folio, along with advertising partner Campbell’s Soups.
The sweepstakes invites those who are excited about Thanksgiving to “share their favorite things about the holiday,” including food, decor, guests, traditions and more. The incentive? A prize of up to $5,000 for readers who create a “Best Thanksgiving Ever” Pinterest board, pin the official badge of the campaign, and pin at least four other Thanksgiving photos inspired by Better Homes and Gardens or Allrecipes.com.
Meredith chose Pinterest as the sweepstakes platform for several reasons, according to Folio:
- rising popularity of the platform among female users
- the popularity of food, crafts and home decor on the site
- referral traffic from social networks is very high; its the largest source of referral traffic for Allrecipes.com, up 900% year-over-year
- “Better Homes and Gardens and Allrecipes are the two top lifestyle brands on Pinterest,” according to Esmee Williams, vice president of Brand Marketing for Allrecipes.com
“Thanksgiving is really the Super Bowl of food” says Williams, and the sweepstakes on Pinterest provides “an ideal and very visual environment” where fans can share with one another. While Instagram is “solely about consumption,” on Pinterest fans can also “take action.”
How will Meredith and Campbell’s Soups measure whether fans do take action as a result of the sweepstakes? Meredith is measuring both engagement and referral traffic from Pinterest, and “total Pinterest reach with the campaign.” Allrecipes.com has features like a grocery list builder that consumers can take “on the go” – which can include recipes and ingredients (like Campbell’s products). Williams told Folio, “It’s that action piece—you can look to mobile devices to take these Pinterest ideas with them in stores and purchase the items they need to successfully pull off this holiday, that’s really important.”
The sweepstakes has also been promoted through the brand websites (with banner ads and editorial integration), Pinterest accounts, newsletters and in online branded videos.
