Gourmet gifts retailer Harry & David is driving product sales ahead of Easter by hosting a social media giveaway that encourages fans to locate hidden eggs on the brand’s social media accounts and mobile site, with each egg counting as one sweepstakes entry.

The brand, which is best known for its gift baskets, is giving consumers a chance to win a $500 gift card grand prize leading up to one of its most lucrative holidays, Easter. Harry & David is also giving all contest entrants a unique promotional code than can be redeemed for 10 percent off their next purchase, suggesting that all retailers should sweeten up their sweepstakes strategies with participatory incentives.

“We are using the egg hunt to build both brand awareness and serve as an orientation into our sales funnel,” said Lisa Bankston, director of digital marketing at Harry & David. “Through the use of a promo code, we are also encouraging new consumers to give us a try. In previous contests, we have seen this strategy work for us and decided to repeat it in all future contests where possible.

“The contest has a valuable email lead generation aspect to it and is also being advertised within our promotional email communications, which is often a key revenue driving channel for us,” she said.

“In addition, we are hoping as consumers search for clues, they will discover Harry & David is not just for holiday gifting but also an all occasion and self-consumption retailer where they can find gourmet food, wine, and a wide array of products in addition to our traditional gift baskets, clubs and fruit-related items.”

Egg-hunting on social
Consumers in the mood for Easter treats can partake in Harry & David’s giveaway for a chance to win a $500 gift card. Participants must visit harryanddavid.com/eggcitinghunt on their smartphones or desktops, and input their names, emails and shipping addresses.

They will then be tasked with searching for clues on Harry & David’s Twitter and Facebook pages. The brand is hiding seven Easter eggs on its mobile-optimized site, as well as its sister brand’s site, wolfermans.com.

Consumers who find one of the hidden eggs on these sites must click on it to receive a sweepstakes entry. Entrants will also earn additional entries in exchange for sharing the giveaway via social media and email.

Harry & David promotes interactivity among fans on mobile

Harry & David is posting various clues on its social media accounts to stir up users’ imaginations. Last Thursday’s clue included the phrase “You can eat me rare, although some prefer medium.”

The brand will award three grand prize winners with a $500 gift card, which they may spend on classic Harry & David products, such as chocolate-covered strawberries, gift baskets or monthly gift clubs. Winners will be notified over email.

The contest is running through April 15.

Bringing the traditional Easter activity of egg-hunting to a mobile-first format is a smart move that could result in the company garnering new fans. Consumers with children may be inspired to take part in the sweepstakes and look for the digital eggs each day.

“Who doesn’t love a good mystery, especially when it is solved you can reap the rewards of your effort?” said Michael Becker, managing partner at mCordis. “There are so many things that I like about this program. It is timely, relevant, personalized.

“As an upper funnel tool, it will drive awareness and brand recognition,” he said. “As a mid-funnel tool, it drives engagement, in a cool way. To win, people need to crawl [Harry & David’s] Web site to find the Easter eggs.

“In the process of doing this, they’ll learn about the brand and its offerings. The core of the program is a sales tool. While people learn, they may buy the product and if they win, they’ll certainly buy and probably buy more. As a lower funnel tool, it will help drive advocacy.”

Unwrapping enticing incentives
Harry & David is ensuring it rewards all contest participants by giving each entrant a unique promotional code that can be used to receive 10 percent off a purchase through July 20. Participatory incentives have the potential to lock in loyalty from a slew of new customers, and should be used by more retailers rolling out gamification-heavy tactics.

“When running a contest or promotion, it is incredibly important that everyone who participates gets rewarded for their efforts; this is an important best practice,” Mr. Becker said. “Marketers should remember, if people are taking the time to engage your brand, reward them.

“The reward does not have to be money or a coupon. The reward could be a thank you, an image, a song, a recipe.”

This is not Harry & David’s first social-enabled giveaway.

During the holiday season, Harry & David drove sales for festive occasions by rolling out a new social media contest, asking Instagram and Twitter followers to share their favorite holiday flavors and traditions for a chance to win a prize (see story).

Several weeks prior to that, the retailer hoped to streamline the customer journey by focusing on boosting store locator and location pages on mobile search for easier consumer access (see story).

Ultimately, Harry & David is well-poised to fulfill consumers’ sweet tooth by introducing a social contest with a new spin.

“A large number of consumers have transitioned to mobile and tablets to research products and to transact with us and we expect that number to continue to increase,” Harry & David’s Ms. Bankston said.

“Given this trend, we now design our social programs for the environments where those consumers are most comfortable so when launching contests and other social efforts, we ask ourselves questions about our mobile consumer’s journey and work with our design partners to insure our audience is provided with an optimal viewing and usability experience.”