KSDK's Olympics Marketing Campaign

With all eyes on the Olympics this week it puts local news station KSDK in the spotlight....and how do they respond to all the viewers? With a brilliant social marketing campaign called "17 iPads in 17 Days."  If you live in the St. Louis area, look at your news feed on Facebook and tell me you don't see a number of your friends liking KSDK's page in the hopes of winning an iPad.  The premise is simple.

• You see the ad on TV during the commercial breaks or click the link in your news feed from one of your friends who has entered.  
• All you have to do is "like" KSDK then fill out a form in order to be eligible for the free iPad.  
• The winner is announced each night after the games for all 17 days of the Olympics.  

This entire campaign probably cost the news station around $7,000 for the iPads, a small fee compared to many advertising campaigns.  It's so smart because everyone is watching the Olympics and hears about the contest, then they become followers of the stations Facebook page.  Once someone likes the page, KSDK's news updates will show up in their feed and this will likely drive viewership up for their news programs.  For KSDK the proof is in the numbers:

In July, KSDK's total number of followers was just around 60,000.

Today KSDK has 113,104 followers.

It is too soon to tell if this simple promotion will boost ratings for the network, but it certainly cannot hurt it.  Any promotion that nearly doubles an organizations followers is something worth looking at.  KSDK saw an opportunity to capitalize on the Olympics and they definitely did not disappoint.