Pretzel Crisps Doubled Facebook Fans in 36 Hours

As much as we enjoy opining ad naseum about the intangibles of creativity here on Adrants , we also love good clean facts in the form of campaign results so we're happy share this case study from Pretzel Crisps. The brand worked with Buddy Media (yes, they have advertised on this site in the past) on a fan-building Facebook campaign that hinged on product trial through the use of coupons. The details:

Objective:

Pretzel Crisps wanted to drive fan growth on their Facebook page through earned media. "Our social media strategy is to unite fans of our brand," said Jason Harty, Director of Interactive Marketing for Pretzel Crisps. The brand also wanted to be nimble, cost efficient and have the ability and relevancy to keep up with the conversation in relation to their Facebook presence. "One of our first priorities was to give value to our fans, and use this added value to bring in new fans," said Harty.

Strategy:

Pretzel Crisps gained fans through a product trial (via coupons) and offered fans an enriched experience and rewarding them for being a part of their community.

Results:

Pretzel Crisps launched a $1 off coupon on Facebook during the last week of February, 2011, and saw fans grow from 5,000 to 12,000 as a result.

Then, on March 15th, 2010, Pretzel Crisps switch the $1 off coupon to a "buy one, get one free" coupon. And as an experiment, Pretzel Crisps didn't tell anyone about the promotion. They wanted to see if it would spread with literally no push behind it - no status update, no advertising, no PR.

Within 36 hours, Pretzel Crisps had doubled their fan-base on Facebook. They now have more than 45,000 fans on Facebook and have seen these fans remain engaged on their Facebook page.

The moral of the story? A well written case study always gets published on Adrants. Oh come on! That's not the case. These are decent results. Coupons were distributed which, ideally, will lead to sales through redemption. And the brand gained fans which it can leverage for future promotions. What's not to love?