HSN is leveraging its mobile and online arcade to power a holiday sweepstakes that asks consumers to engage with games and videos for entry tickets.

The More the Merrier Sweepstakes is a nine-week, multiplatform sweepstakes sponsored by Toyota that lets consumers enter by redeeming points from an online arcade. Some of the prizes include a 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Getaway, an Ozark Mountains Guided Fishing Trip and HSN Holiday Gift Bundle.

“Were always looking for ways to engage both existing customers as well as new ones,” said Annemarie Frank, senior digital marketing manager at HSN, St. Petersburg, FL.

“It’s a fun way to engage customers,” she said. “We wanted to make sure the sweepstakes was accessible across channels, so we are taking an omnichannel approach.

“Mobile is a key component to everything we do, especially at the holiday time. It’s a big traffic driver and just general engagement driver. It’s critical in everything we do.”

Digital gaming
The sweepstakes is running through HSN’s digital Arcade, which lets consumers earn tickets by playing games on desktop or mobile. The desktop site is already functioning, and the mobile site will launch on Friday.

Consumers can earn points by watching videos or playing online games. Watching a Toyota video ad, for example, gives consumers 700 HSN Arcade tickets.

Additionally, consumers get 500 tickets for becoming a member.

Once consumers sign in and earn tickets, they can apply the tickets to individual sweepstakes. To enter the sweepstakes for the Ozark Mountains Trip, for example, a consumer must use 500 tickets.

Only one winner will win the Ozark trip, Toyota and Nascar getaway, but HSN will be giving out different gift prizes every week. The gifts will include items such as Twiggy handbags, Beats Pill wireless speakers and Dyson Hard DC56 vacuums.

A separate sweepstakes on Instagram will let consumers enter to win gifts for their pets. HSN is partnering with @DogsofInstagram to give 12 pet owners prizes.

From Nov. 11-29, pet owners can share pictures of their pets on Instagram, tag @HSN and use the hashtag #SantaPaws to be entered. Prizes include a $1,000 HSN gift card.

Personalized mobile
HSN has been using mobile to reach consumers on a more personal level.

According to HSN’s chief marketing officer, the company is focusing on how to build a relationship with its consumer. In addition to the holiday sweepstakes, HSN will also be using email and search to reach its consumers during the holiday season (see story).

HSN understands that its consumers are on mobile devices, and that is where they want to interact with the company.

“We’re looking at traffic driving opportunities for mobile because we know that she’s hanging out on her mobile device, so it provides a great traffic driving opportunity as well as when you land we’ve been optimizing that experience,” Ms. Frank said. “We really look at it holistically.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York