Introduction

In the Summer of 2015, Staples announced a multi-year partnership, building on their strong previous support of teachers, students and education.  Staples made a $10 million pledge to support Think It Up™, a program launched by The Entertainment Industry Foundation. This is a new movement created to inspire students to pursue their passions through student-powered, teacher-led learning projects with support from Staples for Students.

#StaplesForStudents was the hashtag selected to support our PR efforts and the cause marketing arm of our back-to-school campaigns. 

Objective

Program Objectives: Drive awareness of the Staples For Students program through social impressions, engagements, click-throughs and video views

Sweepstakes Objectives: Generate registrations / entries / social engagements; Drive traffic in-store, to Staples.com, and to social platforms; Create product awareness; Fan acquisition; Data Capture

Strategies

  • Focus on Parents of kids 8-17 as our primary audience and Teachers/Students as our secondary audience.
  • Support our primary audience with a Sweepstakes to generate social engagement.
  • Drive engagement through social posts specific to the different platforms.
  • Work cross-functionally to support PR relating to sales events and consumer-driven events. 

Results

  • Hashtag Mentions ~36K + Potential Impressions ~8M
  • Sweepstakes Registrations ~145k (5x more than 2014)
  • ~367,812 Challenge Completions = almost 3x more than 2014
  • ~7,978,855 Entries (101% increase from 2014)
  • Trending Topic: #StaplesForStudents / #110Ready Twitter Party
  • ~600+ Viewers: Live Periscope at Think It Up Telecast on 9/11
  • PSA Video View Rate: Facebook’s ~58% (25x Benchmark) and Twitter ~14% (12x Benchmark).
  • Promoted Tweets supporting the Telecast generated more than ~4.3M Impressions and ~141.3K Engagements - surpassing Q2 and Q3 benchmarks

Role

Planned Social Sweepstakes, Media Plan, Campaign Optimization, Twitter Party Execution, Live Periscope Broadcast, Campaign Reporting

Creative Team

Staples Creative Team: Kristine Houston (PR), Jad Jichi, Brian Wilkins, Scott Hamilton

Sweepstakes Vendor: Don Jagoda Associates

The #StaplesForStudents Sweepstakes was a major piece of the overall campaign. It connected us to our fans during a key season, generated awareness for the Staples For Students program, and integrated efforts for site/store traffic. I worked very closely with internal partners (PR, Seasonal Marketing, Agency) and external partners (DJA) to plan and execute this experience.

#StaplesForStudents Social Posts
#StaplesForStudents Sweepstakes Promotion
#StaplesForStudents Sweepstakes Promotion

The strategy to drive Sweepstakes entries varied across the 6-week promotion period. In this case, we showcased one of the weekly prize pack contents to encourage registration. 

Sweepstakes Launch Post
Sweepstakes Launch Post

This post launched the Sweepstakes and focused on the major piece of the grand prize - a $50,000 Scholarship. 

Live Periscope Broadcast
Live Periscope Broadcast

In partnering with Think It Up and being one of the first sponsors, Staples had presence at the live Telecast on 9/11. I interviewed Executives and Celebrities on the #ThinkItUp Red Carpet. 

Live / Event Tweets
Live / Event Tweets

During the Think It Up telecast, I was able to take photos and live tweet during the event. Throughout the #StaplesForStudents campaign, I also amplified blogger and influencer content on Twitter to increase engagement.