On April 18th, 2011, Kirkland’s appeared at the top of Media Logic’s top 10 list of fastest growing brands on Facebook for the week of April 10th.
On April 7th, Kirkland’s launched its Cha—-ching! promotion. This promo included a $25,000 cash prize and a chance to win Kirkand’s merchandise in a swap game where people force other players to trade merchandise they have in their virtual possession. Players become eligible to win whatever merchandise they are holding at the end of the day. The more you play, the more chances you have to win. And, every time a new player enters, the cash register makes a delightful sounding “Cha-ching!” sound and adds a dime to the ever-growing cash prize, driving ever closer to $25,000.
Everyone who plays the game gets a coupon for a future purchase at Kirkland’s. (Kirkland’s customers LOVE their coupons.) Coupons come in the form of “badges.” Players who play more often earn more badges good for discounts on in-store purchases. The more they play, the more they can save. The number of fans nearly doubled from 73,000 fans at launch to over 140,000 four days in. 40,154 people were entered to win. 36,709 people were playing the swap game.
The Holy Grail of any social media effort is to engage the audience versus simply getting them to click a “like” button. Much to our delight, new fans showed their enthusiasm and passion for the brand through telling posts on the Kirkland’s Facebook wall:
“Kirkland’s gives me heart flutters as soon as I see the store.”
“Kirkland’s and I are BFFs.”
“If I had a million dollars, I could spend every penny at Kirkland’s.”
“Fridays are reserved for Kirkland’s—I call it date night.”
This group of consumers is predominantly comprised of 25-55 year old Females.
Not only are they the fastest growing segment on Facebook, games like Farmville & Cityville are the kinds of online social activities they engage in the most. And, what’s more, this consumer group is identical in make-up to the average Kirkland’s customer.
When players engage in the promo, a wall post appears on their profile and in their friends’ news feed. This post announces their participation in the game and invites other players to do the same.
11 days into the promotion, 54,875 people have entered the sweepstakes, 50,021 are playing the swap game and the number of total Facebook Fans has grown to 165,229, and is on-track to hit the 200K goal.
And, while a million Facebook “likes” is certainly noteworthy, we believe that 200K impassioned brand advocates is a much truer measure of social media success.
