Making a name for yourself and your insurance agency isn’t exactly easy in the Twitterverse, but
Allstate-affiliated carrier Esurance provided a good clue on how to get the job done following Sunday night’s Super Bowl.
In an advertisement airing just before kickoff, company spokesman John Krasinski told viewers that by passing on the company’s name they could win more than $1 million. The message stressed that Esurance saves money, so it can pass those savings onto viewers.
To get a crack at the winnings, participants had to retweet an Esurance tweet with the hashtag #EsuranceSweepstakes. No purchase was necessary to win.
“The Esurance Pass It On Sweepstakes allows us to engage with people before and throughout the game, while also sharing information about who we are in a fun, memorable way,” said Nancy Abraham, vice president of integrated marketing communications at Esurance. “We want people to become more aware of and familiar with Esurance, so with every retweet they’ll learn something different.”
The company certainly met that goal. The hashtag was seen an average of 9,000 times a minute during the game, and continued to trend late into Sunday evening. It is the second such success for the carrier, which hosted similar social media contests during the last two Super Bowls.
Of course, the majority of independent agencies don’t have the funds to advertise during one of the most-watched television events of the year, or $1 million in the bank to give away to a lucky winner. However, the principle of using sweepstakes to spread the company name via social media remains a powerful one.
While many state insurance laws restrict how carriers and producers can reward customers for their business, there are no laws restricting sweepstakes that cater to all members of the public—not just clients or policyholders. That makes a contest modeled after the Esurance Twitter giveaway completely plausible.
Esurance’s chief marketing officer Alan Gellman touted social media as the best route for reaching out to existing and potential clients.
“With the rise of multi-screen viewing, especially around large-scale events, we wanted to connect with fans where they are already engaging with content – online and on social media,” Gellman said. “Our fully integrated program around the big game is a great example of how Esurance operates – fast, efficient and innovative in everything it does.”
Winners of the sweepstakes will be revealed Tuesday, February 9.
