2012 Platinum PR Awards: Facebook Campaign

American Airlines needed a new way to promote its AAdvantage program not only with current members, but with the masses overall, and Facebook proved to be the missing ingredient. Partnering with Weber Shandwick, American Airlines quickly realized that no other domestic airlines had social media representation for their loyalty programs—all that was needed was a creative incentive for AAdvantage members to get involved and spread the word.

To celebrate the launch of social media channels dedicated to earning AAdvantage miles, American launched the “Mystery Miles” promotion. Members were able to “like” the AAdvantage program on Facebook and quickly earn between 100 and 100,000 miles, but the actual number of miles members would earn would remain a mystery. In a month’s time, American gave away 40 million miles and more than 230,000 people had taken the“Mystery Miles Journey.”The net result: 260,804 new Facebook likes, leading to a 65% increase in AAdvantage account registrations. —JH 

Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau – Share Our Sunshine: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the AOCVCB launched a“Share our Sunshine”sweepstakes on Facebook. With cross promotion from local attractions, fans created inspirational captions for Orange County photos. Page likes grew 232%.

Integrated MarketingWorks – Avocados from Mexico “Wake Up a Winner” Promotion: The “Wake Up a Winner” Facebook sweepstakes promoting avocados from Mexico awarded $200 gift cards to the winning participants. The campaign garnered a 182% increase in likes over the projected goal.

Disney Consumer Products – Disney Baby: To support the Disney baby brand, a Facebook page was launched in March 2011, featuring exclusive content and interactive tools. The effort reached 1.1 million fans in 14 months.

Essilor of America with Weber Shandwick – Combatting the Enemies of Clear Vision with Captain Crizal: As part of a campaign for its no-glare lenses, Essilor launched a video game-style Facebook challenge that ran over a four-week period to promote the clear vision capabilities of Crizal lenses, earning nearly 4,000 likes.

Foundation for Eye Health Awareness with Weber Shandwick – Make a Spectacle of Yourself with Think About Your Eyes: To spread the word about the importance of eye health, FEHA created a contest on its Think About Your Eyes Facebook page. The campaign generated 2,366 new likes in four weeks. 

MSLGROUP Americas – Pepto-Bismol Throws a Feast for All: With a goal of increasing engagement during the Thanksgiving holiday, Pepto-Bismol created a click-to-donate social media campaign, with Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet as a spokesman. The result: Pepto-Bismol’s highest Facebook engagement rate in history.

RF|Binder and Talenti Gelato e Sorbetto – Share the Love: With Valentine’s Day approaching, the “Share the Love” Facebook campaign was created with the hopes that current fans would share Talenti’s posts with Facebook friends. Talenti attracted more the 1,200 new fans.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism – Travel Wisconsin’s Summer Fun Report: Looking to increase awareness of the Travel Wisconsin brand among women 25-45, the Department of Tourism linked its Web site to Facebook and shared summer state event information.