Valvoline’s path to collecting 38,000+ entries: A smart partnership [Customer Success Story]

Partnership marketing is everywhere. If you haven’t had your head in the sand, you know that social media influencers are constantly pitching products and services they “can’t live without.” However, marketers have been partnering with other businesses to promote their products and services long before influencers were a thing. Still, partnership marketing can be tricky.The main issue is choosing the right partner to work with. It’s essential to choose a partnership that benefits everyone. In other words, consider partnering with companies or individuals that are aligned with your goals, are not direct competitors, and have customers or audiences that cross over with your own.Valvoline’s “Ultimate Dream Garage” giveaway is the perfect example of a smart collaboration. Read on to discover more about Valvoline’s success, including their contest objectives and the results.

Valvoline's Dream Garage Giveaway

Campaign Objectives

Valvoline is a manufacturer of motor oil, fuel additives and lubricants. Their Team Valvoline initiative is designed to help DIY mechanics with their projects. Team Valvoline provides DIYers with helpful automotive content and instructions for the right way to perform auto maintenance tasks.

We wanted to inspire DIYers to be active in their garages, and then give them a chance to win a dream garage of their own.”

Jess Brown is a representative from Big Communications who worked with Valvoline on this project. When asked about the objectives for the campaign, Brown explained that it “was established to drive awareness and affinity with automotive DIYers.” She said, “We wanted to inspire DIYers to be active in their garages, and then give them a chance to win a dream garage of their own.”

The Solution

For their sweepstakes, Valvoline partnered with an auto parts retailer and used several of their influencers to drive awareness around the campaign. According to Brown, the sweepstakes received a lot of attention because they were “pair[ing] engaging content with a large prize.”Valvoline needed to create a contest where people could easily submit entries. To do this, they built a sweepstakes contest with ShortStack.When setting up their form, Valvoline chose to require name, email address and phone number for entry. The phone number field would only be used to notify the winner. As for optional fields, entrants could choose to sign up for further communication from Team Valvoline and the auto parts retailer. Making sign up to these lists optional confirms that people on the list are interested in the products.

Valvoline only required the most important details on their formEntrants could only submit one time. To close the contest at the right time, time-based settings were implemented. This ensured that nobody could enter after the date and time outlined in the contest rules. After the contest was closed, a random winner was chosen.

Contest Details

The “Ultimate Dream Garage” sweepstakes ran from March 10 to April 6, 2020. Folks could enter to win a $25,000 check to use toward setting up their dream garage (a prize my DIY husband would have LOVED).Brown mentioned that communicating with new leads will help Valvoline “keep DIYers engaged through informative DIY, car culture and motorsports content, and provide relevant product offerings to help our audience with their routine car maintenance needs.”The sweepstakes was promoted on Valvoline’s website and social media profiles, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Valvoline influencers also shared the contest as part of a Dream Garage video series.

Valvoline promoted their giveaway across social media channels

The Results

Valvoline collected 38,407 entries to their sweepstakes. “We expected a large number of entries due to the prize, but we didn't expect to see those results so soon. We were very pleased to see so much interest right off the bat,” said Brown. Brown also mentioned that Valvoline is experiencing increased engagement with customers on their social media channels as a result of the sweepstakes.

Turbocharge your next contest with partnership

Contests hosted with a partner are extremely effective. Brown mentioned that the Valvoline team felt that “having multiple channels driving interest into the campaign was what led to heightened interest at launch.” She said, “Partnered campaigns are definitely the way to go.” As Vavoline witnessed, creating a smart partnership allows you to advertise to a new set of customers loyal to your partner who also fall into your target marketing. This can lead to mega results for both your business and your partner.

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