Winner: Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board - Montco's Best Pizza Tournament
The strategy of this campaign by the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board was to promote pizzerias in Montgomery County, PA by hosting a tournament-style competition planned to coincide with March Madness.
Valley Forge used all of the arrows in its quiver: website, social posts and videos on YouTube. An accompanying PR plan was hastily assembled to leverage activity under its umbrella brand, and positive feedback from outside stakeholders proved advantageous to its positioning as a destination marketing organization.
Plans were created on the fly with ongoing communications throughout. Print and video were Valley Forge's prime tactics, orchestrated via Facebook and YouTube. The Valley Forge team established 32 brackets of pizzerias, pitting local favorites against each other; the team then turned the selection process over to its social media followers, allowing them to choose their favorites. The highest number of vote-getters advanced.
Four videos updated the status of the competition, bracket-style. The final two duked it out until a winner was determined, and a custom trophy, as well as commemorative T-shirts for all participants, were ordered. Plans to launch a 2017 tournament are already in place, with the goal of bringing in 64 pizza perfectionists.
In 2016, five in-house videos received a total of 430 views and 16 posts reached a total of 417,000 followers. The campaign won nearly 3,000 total likes, close to 2,000 total shares and 873 comments.
Honorable Mentions:
- Brownstein Group - IKEA LED Light Challenge
- Ogilvy Group UK - Pears Timeless Beauty Competition: Reimagining an iconic British brand
- SAP North America- SAP Digital Business Challenge
- St. Jude Medical/SignalWest Public Relations - "Thanks to an LVAD..." National Awareness Campaign